Source: The Conversation

The Fair Work Commission will enforce new rules from October 20 requiring anyone who uses generative AI to help prepare a document in a commission case to disclose if and how AI was used, have a human (not another AI) check all facts and legal evidence, and ensure witness statements are based on the witness’s own knowledge and declared to be true. Failing to comply may lead to documents being given less weight or disregarded, orders to pay others’ legal costs, or dismissal of the case. The commission links a 70% surge in claims over three years to growing AI popularity and cites a survey finding about 40% of unfair dismissal applicants had used AI (mainly ChatGPT).

The commission warns against entering personal information about others or confidential case information into public AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, CoPilot or Gemini. Professional representatives (lawyers, paid agents, HR advisers) face a higher standard: their documents must include hyperlinks to all cited cases and practitioners who fall short may be referred to their professional regulator. The dossier recounts an August decision by Deputy Commissioner Michael Easton ordering a former Aldi employee to pay part of the employer’s legal costs after an AI-prepared, legally hopeless unfair dismissal application proceeded despite warnings, illustrating risks of treating AI as a “quasi-legal advisor.”