WHEN BRITAIN’S tax authorities(税务机关) accused Omar Rafique of deliberately(故意地) underpaying his restaurant’s taxes, he challenged them in court. Alas for Mr Rafique, not only did he fail to submit the correct documents, but his filings(提交的文件（法律）) were full of fake case law generated by an AI chatbot. Though the judge noted sympathetically that AI “might create a more level playing field(公平竞争环境)” for litigants(诉讼当事人) representing themselves, she threw the case out on May 6th.
当英国税务当局指控Omar Rafique故意少缴其餐馆的税款时，他在法庭上对当局提出了质疑。可惜的是，Rafique先生不仅未能提交正确的文件，他的诉状中还充斥着由AI聊天机器人生成的虚假判例法。尽管法官同情地指出，AI“可能会为自我代理的诉讼当事人创造一个更公平的竞争环境”，但她还是在5月6日驳回了此案。
Mr Rafique is far from alone(远非唯一) in turning to(求助于) AI rather than to costly lawyers—a trend professionals call “vibe lawyering”. In England and Wales the share of civil cases in county courts(郡法院（英）) with lawyers on both sides fell from 51% in 2022, the year ChatGPT was launched, to 42% last year. In American federal civil courts 17% of people represented themselves in 2025, up from a steady 11% for many years before, according to research by Anand Shah of MIT and Joshua Levy of the University of Southern California. They also find that this year 18% of complaints(起诉状/投诉) have probably contained AI-generated text. Courtready, a legal-tech platform, reports that Canadian courts have flagged(标记/指出) non-existent cases in 79 rulings so far this year, against seven in all of 2024. Most false citations(虚假引用) have been made by people representing themselves.
Rafique先生并非唯一一个求助于AI而非昂贵律师的人——专业人士将这一趋势称为“氛围律师”。在英格兰和威尔士，郡法院中双方均有律师的民事案件比例，从2022年（ChatGPT推出之年）的51%下降至去年的42%。根据麻省理工学院的Anand Shah和南加州大学的Joshua Levy的研究，在美国联邦民事法院中，2025年有17%的人自我代理，而此前多年一直稳定在11%。他们还发现，今年18%的起诉状可能包含了AI生成的文本。法律科技平台Courtready报告称，加拿大法院今年迄今已在79项裁决中标记出不存在案例，而2024年全年仅有7项。大多数虚假引用是由自我代理的人造成的。
As well as(除了…（还）) inventing cases, AI chatbots often encourage people to litigate(提起诉讼/打官司), urge them not to settle and overstate(夸大) their chances of winning. Antony Sendall, a British employment barrister(出庭律师（英式）), says chatbots embolden(使有胆量) litigants to bring discrimination claims. “A grievance(申诉/不满) that would have been a few sentences is now more like ten to 12 pages,” he complains. Messrs Shah and Levy found that in cases with self-representing(自我代理的) litigants in America, the number of documents filed in the first 180 days is 158% higher than in the pre-AI era. Robert Freund, a commercial lawyer in Los Angeles, says his clients receive correspondence and documents written by AI from opposing parties acting without lawyers.
除了编造案例，AI聊天机器人还常常鼓励人们提起诉讼，敦促他们不要和解，并夸大胜算。英国就业出庭律师Antony Sendall表示，聊天机器人使诉讼当事人更有胆量提出歧视索赔。“本来只有几句话的申诉，现在变成了十到十二页，”他抱怨道。Shah和Levy先生发现，在美国有自我代理诉讼人的案件中，前180天内提交的文件数量比前AI时代增加了158%。洛杉矶商法律师Robert Freund表示，他的客户会收到来自没有律师的对方当事人用AI撰写的信函和文件。