Unleashing the power of artificial intelligence in wrongful death and personal injury litigation

Personal injury and wrongful death attorneys face many challenges as part of our profession, from financial pressures to emotional and ethical challenges to the stress of trial and ongoing litigation. These hurdles can stem from the complex nature of the cases we handle, the legal processes involved, and our work's emotional and ethical dimensions.
These challenges require legal expertise, strategic thinking, emotional intelligence, and practical skills.
AI offers unique advantages and practical applications that, when leveraged, can enhance our practice's effectiveness and efficiency, empower us to provide better service and achieve more favorable outcomes for our clients.
While it's not a replacement for legal professionals, AI is a powerful tool with strengths and weaknesses. Its remarkable speed and efficiency have the potential to transform tasks such as document review. Tasks that once took weeks to complete can now take minutes to complete.

As consumer safety advocates, it's critical to understand artificial intelligence's limitations and recognize that it may fail to capture all necessary information, generate inaccurate data, or oversimplify complex concepts. Therefore, it's vital to employ AI software that includes citations to the underlying records, allowing for verification of the accuracy of the information provided.
Here are some examples of how AI can significantly assist trial lawyers:
Document Review and Analysis:In the discovery phase, AI can quickly review vast documents, emails, deposition transcripts, and medical records to identify relevant information, providing succinct summaries and chronological timelines. AI algorithms can also help prioritize documents by relevance, making it easier for lawyers to focus on the most important pieces of evidence.
Legal Research: An AI-powered legal research platform can quickly identify relevant case law, statutes, and precedents, allowing attorneys to build stronger legal arguments and stay updated on pertinent legal developments. It's also capable of compiling factual narratives from source materials, complete with citations and alternative viewpoints. This aids in building robust arguments and crafting compelling narratives in litigation.
Automating Routine Tasks: By using AI-generated templates, routine tasks like drafting legal documents are simplified with help filling in details that reduce the time spent and increase efficiency.
Statement of Facts Generation: AI is capable of compiling factual narratives from source materials, complete with citations and alternative viewpoints. This aids in building robust arguments and crafting compelling narratives in litigation. By providing comprehensive overviews of document productions, AI enables attorneys to gain deeper insights and understanding right from the outset of their review process. This contextual understanding enhances decision-making and strategy development.
Witness Impeachment: AI facilitates the detection of inconsistencies within testimonies or documents, a task that would typically require extensive manual review. This capability is invaluable for strengthening cross-examination strategies and uncovering discrepancies in evidence.
Visual Content Creation: AI simplifies the creation of visual content, such as images and videos, from textual inputs. This opens up new avenues for presenting evidence and arguments in a visually engaging and impactful manner. For example, the illustration for this article was generated using AI.
I've witnessed first-hand the transformative power of AI within our PI legal practice. While acknowledging the importance of understanding its capabilities and limitations, I see AI not as a threat but as a potent ally. By harnessing its capabilities, we can revolutionize our approach to legal proceedings, enhancing our efficiency and effectiveness in advocating for our clients' rights. This newfound efficiency enables us to dedicate more time and resources to crafting robust legal arguments and strategies to secure the justice our clients deserve. By embracing AI as a tool for empowerment rather than as an enemy to be feared, we can elevate our practice to new heights, ultimately advancing the cause of accountability and justice for those who have been wronged.
Robert D. Jarchi is a partner at Greene, Broillet & Wheeler, LLP. His practice includes exposure to toxic chemicals such as Round-up, wildfire litigation, brain injuries, and wrongful death matters. He can be reached at RJarchi@gbw.law.