Interim relief applications at Britain’s employment courts have surged a hundredfold as workers use ChatGPT or Grok to draft legal claims for free. A memo from tribunal presidents Barry Clarke and Susan Walker notes that claims rose 39 percent in the year through March 2026, while the backlog jumped 55 percent to 64,000 unresolved cases. Many AI-generated filings run hundreds of pages and contain fabricated laws alongside unrealistic demands. The flood could worsen because Labour’s new Employment Rights Act adds about 25 new grounds for claims and removes compensation caps. The Economist describes this situation as a tragedy of the commons where workers with genuine grievances wait longer for justice while employers pay more to respond to both legitimate and made-up claims.
Similar crises appear in the United States where one federal judge called AI-generated lawsuits an existential threat to the federal courts. A study from Pakistan shows the opposite outcome is possible when judges use AI tools and training to process more cases faster. The core issue remains the mismatch between automated volume and human judicial capacity.
