ABSTRACT
The increasing integration of artificial intelligence (‘AI’) into legal practice introduces a spectrum of automation goals, ranging from systems that merely assist lawyers in decision-making to those that aim to provide fully autonomous legal advice. In particular, the rise of generative conversational artificial intelligence (‘GenAI’), such as ChatGPT, is fundamentally changing the nature of legal practice and expanding the spectrum of potential automation of tasks in legal practice. While the legal profession has been, for some years, considering the disruptive nature of technology and AI, its focus has been directed primarily towards the risks and potential harms of autonomous systems and AI in areas such as personal injury, privacy, discrimination, and the interaction and interference of such technologies with human rights. This paper investigates the shifting sources of liability for economic harm across different points on this spectrum by examining examples of AI currently being used by the legal profession, and considers how the degree of AI involvement in the generation of legal advice influences the allocation of liability between legal practitioners, AI system developers and other stakeholders for economic loss arising from negligent or inaccurate legal advice. We focus on understanding how existing liability frameworks respond to cases where consumers suffer economic loss as a result of AI-generated legal advice. In doing so, we argue that the level of autonomy granted to AI systems has a direct impact on both the legal standard of care and the attribution of liability. The paper highlights the need for a nuanced regulatory approach to account for varying levels of human input and AI autonomy in legal practice, ensuring adequate consumer protection against economic harm.
Catherine Brown et al, The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Duty and Standard of Care in Legal Practice: A ‘Disrupting Moment’ for Laws That Protect Consumers from Economic Harm?, 6 Australian National University, Journal of Law and Technology (ANU JOLT) 85 (2025). Published 25 November 2025.
Leave a Reply