Most Colorado employees are eligible for workers’ compensation benefits if they get hurt at work. The law mandates workers’ compensation coverage to ensure that businesses do not end up subject to direct liability for worker injuries or that workers sustain lasting economic losses caused by on-the-job injuries.
Many people assume that they can manage a workers’ compensation claim on their own behalf, only to end up frustrated with poor outcomes. In the last few years, there has been an alarming uptick in people relying on artificial intelligence (AI) for legal matters, including workers’ compensation claims and appeals. Especially in scenarios where a dispute about benefits requires a civil lawsuit, relying on AI can put an injured worker at risk.
AI errors could leave workers at risk of sanctions
There is an expectation that those managing legal matters adhere to all court rules. When an injured professional has an attorney representing them during a workers’ compensation claim, their lawyer ensures the legal accuracy of any documents submitted to the courts.
Additionally, communications with a workers’ compensation lawyer are subject to attorney-client privilege and are confidential. The same is not true in scenarios where workers represent themselves and rely on public AI programs to generate legal paperwork.
In addition to losing the confidentiality protections derived from legal representation, they also lose out on the accuracy that comes from having appropriate legal representation. AI hallucinations involve the software creating facts that don’t actually exist.
In the legal world, these hallucinations often manifest as legal precedent that is not legitimate. There have been cases already where attorneys have faced sanctions for submitting documents to the courts that included AI-hallucinated legal precedent. There have also been cases where individuals representing themselves pro se have submitted paperwork to the courts that included hallucinated and inaccurate information generated by AI.
While there is not yet legal precedent of the Colorado civil courts imposing sanctions on pro se litigants in workers’ compensation cases, the possibility exists for courts to do so in the future. People seeking benefits and relying on AI to make sense of complicated case law and state statutes could end up subject to penalties imposed by the courts for their violation of court rules. Additionally, they may lose out on benefits that they could otherwise secure with the representation of an attorney.
AI often creates as many problems as it helps solve. In some cases, it puts people at unnecessary legal risk. Retaining an actual workers’ compensation attorney instead of relying on software to address complex legal matters can help people protect themselves from poor case outcomes.