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40 Legal Research using Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI)

The application of AI technologies in the legal sector is increasing and evolving rapidly as AI capabilities improve. With AI functionality now incorporated into all the main legal research databases, this chapter will focus specifically on the responsible use of generative AI tools for legal research.

Please note – This chapter is based on information and AI tools current as at December 2024.

On 6 December 2024, the Law Society of NSW, the Legal Practice Board of Western Australia, and the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner issued a joint statement on the use of artificial intelligence in Australian legal practice. Ethical professional practice is the core guiding principle, with emphasis on legal practitioners’ obligations to maintain client confidentiality and privacy, provide trustworthy independent advice, and ensure fair and reasonable costs. Transparency is important and lawyers should disclose their use of AI tools, under professional or court rules.

Key considerations

Legal researchers who use generative AI must apply caution and critical evaluative judgement of outputs, to fact check for accuracy and to verify all information sources, case law and legislation cited. Generative AI tools are known to make things up or ‘hallucinate’ if unable to find answers. They should be viewed as a tool to augment routine tasks but not as a replacement for legal interpretation and analysis.

Some ways in which generative AI can be used in legal research include:

  • Summarising complex texts, concepts and legal cases into plain language to aid understanding of topics and facilitate further research
  • Providing broad answers to common legal questions and general information relating to legal topics
  • Helping to identify key research concepts and create basic search strings
  • Conducting broad secondary legal research to guide primary research into case law and legislation
  • Brainstorming and generating ideas for further research.

Generative AI tools for Australian legal research (current as at December 2024):

The following AI tools have been developed for the Australian legal context. Please note: This is not an endorsement of their accuracy or efficacy.

How to use generative AI tools effectively

A prompt must be given to a generative AI tool in order for it to produce content in response. When entering your prompt, provide as much context, detail and boundaries as possible. The prompt can specify:

  • the points you want addressed, be clear
  • the role or perspective from which the text should be written, e.g. a legal practitioner
  • the focus, format, style, intended audience and text length
  • specific requirements, such as not to hallucinate if information is not known, to be accurate and not creative in its response.

Prompting is an iterative process. Responses generally improve when additional questions are asked or rephrased.

Some basic prompt ideas:

For legal research and analysis:

Prompt: Act as a legal practitioner who is advising a client. Conduct legal research on [legal issue or topic]. Summarise the relevant case law, statutes and delegated legislation in [jurisdiction]. Provide analysis and conclusions based on your research. Please be concise and accurate. Do not hallucinate or respond creatively.

To uncover precedents:

Prompt: Act as a legal practitioner who is advising a client. Provide an overview of the legal precedents in [area of law]. List the leading cases that exist in this area of law and the key legal arguments for each case. Provide analysis and conclusions based on your research. Please be concise and accurate. Do not hallucinate or respond creatively.

Define legislation and regulations for [legal issue]:

Prompt: Act as a legal practitioner who is preparing a case. Which are the governing statutes and delegated legislation relating to [legal issue] in [jurisdiction]? How do these statutes and delegated legislation compare to statutes and delegated legislation from other Australian States and Territories. List the leading cases that have cited this legislation and the key legal arguments for each case. Please be concise and accurate. Do not hallucinate or respond creatively.

The University of Arizona has a great resource for more ideas on writing prompts for legal research using generative AI. Their guide discusses the RICE (Role, Instructions, Context, Expectations) elements that can be incorporated into a prompt.

Risks and benefits of using generative AI for legal research

Some of the key risks and benefits of using generative AI for legal research are outlined below:

Potential risks Potential benefits
  • Users need expertise to understand law and specific areas of the law in order to develop good prompts, ask effective questions and evaluate the genAI output for accuracy
  • GenAI tools may suggest relevant case law that was missed during manual legal research
  • Propensity of gen AI tools to hallucinate and produce inaccurate, non-factual information
  • GenAI tools may flag discrepancies between jurisdictions that might initially be missed
  • Hallucinations include citing case law and legislation inaccurately
  • Specific search skills, such as applying Boolean techniques, are not needed in genAI tools
  • Output may be unrelated to the jurisdiction in question and not give enough depth or analysis for the specific legal topic
  • Iterative prompting facilitates deeper diving into legal topic areas
  • Presence of bias or mis-/disinformation in genAI outputs due to the generic, global nature of information it draws from and/or malicious actors
  • GenAI tools can summarise large amounts of information to distil the critical matters faster
  • Negligent use or upload of proprietary, confidential or copyrighted materials to gen AI tools without applying professional judgement or the necessary genAI tool settings to meet professional and client obligations
  • Possible negative impact on human capability to ideate, analyse, interpret and synthesise information
  • Lack of user awareness of how AI and algorithms work leading to over reliance on genAI output

Australian court guidelines on using generative AI tools in litigation

Australian courts have recognised the attractiveness of using generative AI technologies, particularly for self-represented litigants. Just as it is important to be aware of court practice notes and procedural guidelines, it is essential to keep up to date with court guidelines relating to the use of generative AI technologies.

Guidelines have not yet been issued by all Australian courts. Currently, guidelines exist from the following courts:

The predominate directive is that there is a clear duty to the court for litigants to ensure all information provided to a court or tribunal is accurate, including any information generated by AI tools and to fulfill their obligations under the legal profession uniform laws and rules. Guidelines provide information on key risks and issues associated with using AI and some suggestions for minimising them.

The Law Society of New South Wales has a Court protocols on AI webpage which contains links to other court and law society websites. It covers the Common Law jurisdictions of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Some examples of Law Society and Law Reform Commission guidelines include:

Further resources

Australian Law Journal (subscription required): The 2024 September issue of the Australian Law Journal was a special issue on ‘AI and the law’.
See: (2024) 98 Australian Law Journal 631.

License

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Legal Research Skills: An Australian Law Guide Copyright © 2025 by The University of Queensland, James Cook University, the University of Southern Queensland, Charles Darwin University, Southern Cross University, Queensland University of Technology, Deakin University, University of South Australia, Edith Cowan University, University of Tasmania and The Australian National University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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