ARE YOU THINKING OF USING AI TO PRODUCE DOCUMENTS FOR QCAT?
IF SO, YOU SHOULD READ THIS
Introduction
- Litigants, and representatives of litigants, should exercise caution in using artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help prepare court documents.
- Litigants, and representative of litigants, who are thinking about using AI should read the guidelines for using artificial intelligence.
Caution is Needed
- AI is not a substitute for qualified and considered legal advice. In particular:
- The material produced by AI will not necessarily be accurate, or complete, or up-to-date or tailored to your situation;
- AI will generate its texts from various internet sources, such as webpages, online books and social media posts;
- AI will not generally draw from publicly available legal resources such as:
- Australasian Legal Information Institute
- Queensland Judgements
- Queensland Legislation
- The material generated by AI will be what the AI chatbot predicts to be the most likely continuation of the words that responds to the AI’s algorithm – and not the correct or most accurate answer;
- The commonly available AI chatbots have limited ‘training’ on Australian law and Australian court procedure;
- AI chatbots are not necessarily up-to-date;
- Even commercial AI products, for example, those directed to the legal profession, can sometime produce inaccurate material;
- AI chatbots do not distinguish between facts, inferences and opinions, and so content may be presented as fact when it is not.
Some Useful Functions of AI
- However, AI chatbots can sometimes assist with:
- Organising the facts or information into a clearer structure or suggesting suitable headings;
- Formatting and suggestions on grammar, tone, vocabulary and writing style.
Very important caution
- You need to very carefully check any document that you have prepared using AI, or prepared in part, using AI, to make sure it is completely correct. This comment does not just apply to self-represented people, it also applies to lawyers using AI, whether it is a reputable commercial product for the legal profession, or not.
- Lawyers who do not check the accuracy of any product prepared by AI in any way may find themselves referred to the Legal Services Commissioner.
Other Reasons for Caution
- The questions or prompts you enter are not kept confidential. The information that you enter may be repeated in response to queries from others and could become publicly known.
- Be aware that AI chatbots can make up fake cases or citations or quotes or refer to legislation, articles or legal texts that do not exist, and can provide incorrect or misleading information about the law, and they can get facts wrong.
- As stated above, you are responsible for ensuring that all information you rely on or provide to the Tribunal is accurate. You must check the information.
- AI sometimes produces very long documents. It does not have the ability to dissect out what is precisely relevant to your case. You need to make sure that you produce documents that contain material which is relevant to the determination of your case. One problem with the very long documents that AI sometimes produces is that your key message or information for the material can get obscured by the reams of material that AI sometimes produces.
- If you are thinking about AI to produce a witness statement or affidavit, again remember that the words in that document is the evidence of the witness: the witness needs to make sure that all of the contents their statement or affidavit is accurate.
Queensland courts and tribunals have also prepared detailed information about Generative AI to assist judicial officers: The use of Generative AI: Guidelines for judicial officers (PDF, 246.2 KB).
Disclaimer: The contents for this guide are simply that – a guide. This guide is not intended as a substitute for the law or relevant practice directions.