Interim relief applications in UK employment tribunals increased a hundredfold, driven by workers using artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and Grok to draft complaints for free instead of hiring lawyers, according to a memorandum from court presidents Barry Clarke and Susan Walker.
The memorandum notes that complaints rose 39% in the year through March 2026 and that the backlog of pending cases increased 55%, reaching 64,000 cases. Many AI-generated documents are hundreds of pages long, with invented laws and unrealistic demands.
The situation is likely to worsen with the Labour Party's new Employment Rights Bill, which adds about 25 new grounds for complaints and removes caps on compensation.
The Economist magazine described the situation as a 'tragedy of the commons, AI edition.' According to the publication, workers with legitimate grievances wait longer for justice, while employers bear higher costs to respond to claims, whether well-founded or not.
The United States faces a similar crisis. A federal judge described AI-generated lawsuits as an 'existential threat to federal courts.'
A study from Pakistan, on the other hand, shows that technology can help: judges who used AI tools and underwent training processed more cases in less time.
