ChatGPT by OpenAI: The End of Litigation Lawyers?

Abstract

ChatGPT, a revolutionary AI language model developed by OpenAI, can understand instructions with unprecedented efficiency. This study aims to evaluate the extent to which ChatGPT can potentially serve as a replacement for litigation lawyers through an examination of its drafting and research capabilities. The results indicate that ChatGPT has advanced legal drafting skills for various types of documents, including demand letters, without-prejudice letters, and pleadings. ChatGPT was able to elaborate and enhance the contents based on the simple facts inputted into the system and demonstrated the ability to understand simple facts and articulate the legal basis of the claim. Additionally, ChatGPT can identify legal strategies, draft a summary judgment, generate a skeleton argument, conduct cross-examination, and provide simple legal advice. The results also reveal that ChatGPT performed excellently in analysing a more complicated case. However, there were limitations in the data sources used in ChatGPT, which resulted in a weakness in identifying recent case law. At this stage, the paper suggests that ChatGPT should be viewed as a supplement, rather than a replacement, to litigation lawyers.

Keywords: OpenAI, ChatGPT, Legal Technology, Law and Technology, Legal Education, Litigation, Common Law