Can AI Chatbots Replace Lawyers and Legal Aid? Master of the Rolls Shares Personal Experience with ChatGPT

Earlier this month, Sir Geoffrey Vos, Master of the Rolls and Head of Civil Justice, provided evidence to the House of Lords Constitution Committee during their inquiry into the rule of law.

He discussed several notable topics and shared a personal experience about obtaining legal advice:

“…What I envision and what I've suggested and what I'm hoping will be picked up by government in a discernible period of time is the provision of legal advice online so that you will, first of all, probably use a legal advice chatbot, an AI-driven tool, which by the way works incredibly well. I've tried them myself, and I had a legal problem myself, and I went to a solicitor and I got the answer. Then I thought, ‘Gosh, I'm talking all the time about AI, I think I should just see whether the same answer comes off my ChatGPT.’ And I went into ChatGPT, I asked the question, I got the same answer, but for rather less money…”

The Master of the Rolls also explored other significant questions, including:

What are the consequences of cuts to Legal Aid?

Why are there fewer lawyers in the County Court?

What impact has this had?

Can AI provide viable solutions?

Could AI address the shortage in legal aid?

What role might AI play in judicial decision-making?

Housing lawyers might find his observations particularly interesting:

“…. Now, we can use AI as lawyers to get an answer to the problem, “Can I defend the possession claim brought by my landlord because the house has got mould?” We can put that in into ChatGPT and it’ll give you a generic answer then you can give it more facts and probably if it’s trained on legal materials, it will give you quite a good answer….”

His evidence included insightful commentary on AI and ChatGPT's roles within civil justice, as well as on the evolving responsibilities of lawyers in advisory capacities. Read my full article here.