Ethics Considerations of Using AI in Personal Injury Law

Michael McCready | Personal injury lawyers have eagerly embraced generative AI to improve client outcomes.
The post Ethics Considerations of Using AI in Personal Injury Law appeared first on Articles, Tips and Tech for Law Firms and Lawyers.

Personal injury lawyers have eagerly embraced generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to improve efficiency and client outcomes. While AI can supercharge your law firm’s capabilities, it is important to follow ethics guidelines and set up safeguards when using these tools. Among the most significant ethical considerations of using AI in personal injury law are data privacy, algorithmic bias and client confidentiality.

Using Artificial Intelligence in PI Cases

First, it’s important to set expectations for what GenAI can and can’t do and establish how your firm will use it. Here are examples of how personal injury law firms are leveraging generative AI:

1. Medical analysis. AI tools can quickly analyze and summarize medical records.
2. Case evaluation: AI algorithms can assess case value by analyzing medical records, accident reports, depositions, photographs and other case-related documents.
3. Predictive analytics: AI can analyze historical case data to identify patterns and trends, informing strategic decision-making and resource allocation.
4. Automated document drafting: AI-powered tools can generate demand letters and other documents, incorporating relevant case data and legal precedents.
5. Legal research: Generative AI can assist in performing legal research, helping attorneys find relevant cases and precedents more efficiently.
6. Document processing: AI platforms can automate bulk data collection and aggregation, helping legal teams organize case-related documents.
7. Client communication: AI chatbots and virtual assistants can provide immediate responses to clients and prospects.

With GenAI, legal teams can boost efficiency and expand capacity, often without having to replace or add anyone new to the team. Because it is well suited to handle repetitive tasks, legal teams generally welcome using it. However, AI tools require careful attention, including safeguards to ensure data privacy and client confidentiality, and avoid bias.

Avoiding Algorithm Bias in AI

AI bias, also called machine learning bias or algorithm bias, refers to the appearance of biased results caused by human biases that skew the original training data or AI algorithm. This leads to distorted outputs from general AI tools and potentially harmful results.

To guard against algorithm bias, law firms should prioritize diverse data collection, ensure thorough testing across different demographics, monitor the algorithm, use diverse development teams, and actively identify potential biases in the data and algorithms used to train the AI system. Law firm leaders must also promote a culture of ethics and responsibility related to AI as they prepare to use it.

In practice, personal injury law firms need to watch for AI bias being employed by insurance companies. For example, AI bias in a personal injury case could occur when an insurance company evaluates settlement offers. The algorithm may consistently undervalue claims filed by individuals from certain demographic groups due to biased data used in its training. This could then lead to lower settlement amounts for those individuals, even if their injuries are comparable to others.

Protecting Client Data

AI data privacy is also a significant concern. Data collection often involves huge amounts of data, and data breaches can have severe consequences for clients and organizations. It’s important to remember that AI systems are only as secure as the data they handle, and vulnerabilities could result in hackers and malicious actors accessing personal information. Whether uploading a brief to a GenAI editing tool or your entire client database to an analytics program, carefully consider what client data should and should not be shared with AI systems.

Robust security measures must be in place to protect client data from unauthorized access:

• Carefully vet all AI vendors. (How are they using and storing your data?)
• Ensure only necessary client data is used.
• Implement strong data encryption measures.
• Use dedicated private servers for sensitive information instead of shared servers.
• Educate lawyers and staff on the benefits and risks of using AI, including what data can be shared with AI systems).

In addition, ethics guidelines say lawyers must clearly describe their use of client data in client agreements or engagement letters.

Assuring Client Confidentiality

In 2024, the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics & Professional Responsibility published Formal Opinion 512, which explores the impact of AI on compliance with several duties, including:

• Providing competent representation
• Keeping client information confidential
• Communicating with clients
• Supervising subordinates and assistants in the ethical and practical uses of AI
• Charging reasonable fees

These guidelines mirror much of what lawyers have done for decades, of course. Introducing AI to the mix, however, has heightened concern for client confidentiality and increased the number of protective steps firms should take. When an attorney inputs information related to a representation into an AI tool, for example, they should carefully consider the risk that unauthorized people, both within the firm and externally, may gain access to the information. To mitigate his risk, the firm can take steps to segregate data and the attorney can limit access to certain tools or files.

Also, According to the ABA, sometimes, but not always, a lawyer may need to disclose the use of AI to a client and obtain the client’s informed consent. (The opinion include a template for disclosures.) This is one more reason for having policies for the appropriate use of AI tools and for ensuring that everyone, lawyers as well as staff, understands the implications of using them.

AI Policies for Personal Injury Law Firms

To protect client data and client confidentiality, law firms need policies that govern how AI technology can be used. AI policies should cover data privacy, including what client information should or should not be entered into AI systems, for example, and guidelines for protecting client confidentiality, such as segregating data and restricting access.

AI is a Powerful Aide, Not a Replacement

Instances of AI hallucinating, making up nonexistent cases and providing misleading statements are well documented. AI policies should cover expectations for verifying all content provided by AI systems. AI is a powerful tool, but a personal injury lawyer’s ethical duty is to ensure the information derived is accurate. Manually fact-checking information generated by AI before presenting it to clients or the court makes sense.

AI is excellent at handling tasks it is programmed for, but it does not replace a lawyer’s judgment and creativity. As AI becomes more integrated into daily practice, law firms must ensure that AI tools are used responsibly. AI policies should also include training requirements. To fully leverage AI’s opportunities, law firms need to commit to continuous learning — the technology is evolving quickly and more and more legal AI tools will become available.

Benefits and Challenges of Using AI

While AI can supercharge your abilities in personal injury law, the challenges are evident. Without safeguards, the AI process can fail, making the results unusable and, in the case of a data breach, causing significant damage to your clients and firm.

Study AI technologies closely before integrating them into your firm and establish AI policies that will set your firm up for success.

Image © iStockPhoto.com.