Large language models and community legal centres: Could chatbots help reduce Australia’s justice gap?

Abstract

This article considers the extent to which chatbots based on large language models could reduce unmet demand for services offered by Australian community legal centres. It argues that while chatbots developed to streamline intake processes and assist lawyers with research and document preparation are unlikely to significantly reduce Australia’s justice gap, client-facing legal information chatbots have the potential to do so. However, realising this potential involves solving numerous problems, including uncertainty about how Australia’s Legal Profession Uniform Law applies to autonomous software systems and the risk that hallucinations of large language models will mislead clients.