Garfield.Law Ltd is a purely AI-based firm which offers businesses the use of an AI-powered litigation assistant to help them recover debts, guiding them through the small claims court process. It is a claimant-only firm, charges £2 per letter, and can draft claim forms, settlement letters and responses to documents received.
Paul Philip, SRA Chief Executive, said: ‘Any new law firm comes with potential risks, but the risks around an AI-driven law firm are novel.
‘So we have worked closely with this firm to make sure it can meet our rules, and all the appropriate protections are in place. As this is likely to be the first of many AI-driven law firms, we will be monitoring progress of this new model closely.’
The SRA checked there were safeguards on client confidentiality, conflict of interest and the risk of AI ‘hallucinations’, where the tech plugs gaps by inventing information such as caselaw.