What AI Can and Can't Do for a Personal Injury Firm

Most of the hours on a personal injury file go into reading. Staff pull treatment dates out of provider notes, match bills to visits, and find the one line where a doctor tied the symptoms to the crash. Attorneys then use that work to decide what the case is worth and what to put in the demand.

AI tools can take a large share of the reading and first-draft work. The judgment stays with the attorney, and the rules of professional conduct require that. This post covers where AI fits on a PI file, where it doesn't, and what review a firm still owes the client.

Where AI helps on a PI file

Finding facts in a large file

A file with a few thousand pages of records is hard to search by hand. An AI tool that has read the whole file can answer questions like "which provider first recommended an MRI?" or "where does the record mention prior back pain?" and point to the pages. In LawUnleashed, answers cite the document and page they came from, and the source opens next to the draft with the cited text highlighted.

Chronologies and record summaries

A medical chronology lists each visit by date, provider, complaints, findings and treatment. Building one by hand means reading every page in order. A tool can produce a first-pass chronology from the uploaded records, with a citation on each entry, so the paralegal's job becomes checking and correcting entries instead of typing them.

First drafts of demand letters and summaries

Demand letters, liability summaries and treatment summaries follow patterns most firms already have in templates. A tool can fill a firm's template from the file and leave the facts cited. The attorney still decides the theory, the damages argument and the number.

Keeping the firm's format

Firms that already have a demand structure or a chronology format get more out of AI when the tool uses that format every time. LawUnleashed lets a firm save its own templates and prompts and share them across the team.

What AI doesn't do

• It doesn't decide liability, causation or case value.
• It doesn't replace the attorney's review of the records or the draft.
• It can misread a record. Handwritten notes, poor scans and records that contradict each other all cause errors, which is why every fact needs a citation someone can check.

What the ethics rules expect

ABA Formal Opinion 512 (July 29, 2024) is the ABA's first formal opinion on lawyers using generative AI. It says the existing Model Rules apply, including competence (Rule 1.1), confidentiality (Rule 1.6), communication with the client (Rule 1.4), supervision of staff and vendors, and reasonable fees (Rule 1.5). In practice that means a firm using AI should:

• understand what the tool can and can't do before relying on it;
• check AI output for accuracy and completeness before using it in work product, and where source documents are used, always verify AI output against those documents;
• know how the vendor handles client information;
• train and supervise staff who use the tool;
• bill for time actually spent, including review time.

State bars have issued their own guidance too, so check your state's opinions as well.

Remember, you are responsible for your work product. AI is not a substitute for lawyer competency.

How LawUnleashed handles review

LawUnleashed was built by Chad Nuce, a personal injury trial lawyer and co-founder of Pasley, Nuce & Mallory, for the record review and drafting work his own firm does. The workflow is built around review:

• Upload the file and pick a template; review the extracted matter details before the project is created.
• Read the generated draft with the source document open beside it, citations visible and the cited text highlighted.
• Edit, export to Word, or send the report through a secure portal that includes the underlying documents and citations.

Output is a first draft for the legal team to review and edit. Nothing goes out of the firm until someone there sends it.

Trying it on a real file

The free trial covers one user and projects of up to 1,000 pages, with no credit card. Premium is $199 per user per month and adds shared team workspaces and secure report portals. If you want a walkthrough first, use the contact page.

Start a free trial

Sources

• ABA Formal Opinion 512, Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools (July 29, 2024): https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/professional_responsibility/ethics-opinions/aba-formal-opinion-512.pdf
• ABA News, "ABA issues first ethics guidance on a lawyer's use of AI tools" (July 29, 2024): https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2024/07/aba-issues-first-ethics-guidance-ai-tools/
• LawUnleashed product, workflow and pricing: https://www.lawunleashed.ai/
• LawUnleashed team: https://www.lawunleashed.ai/about-us

Related: Medical record review for PI firms and AI prompts and templates for PI teams.