SRL AI Notice & Explanation Agent for Brisbane Boutique Firms: Plain-English AI-Use Notices for Self-Represented Litigants
A self-represented litigant calls your Brisbane office on Tuesday afternoon. They’ve been told by the other side that an AI tool was used to draft part of a witness statement, and they don’t know what that means for the hearing on Monday. Your firm is six lawyers deep and you do a lot of pro bono and community legal work; you don’t have a precedent for “explain AI use to a layperson in writing”. The Administrative Review Tribunal’s practice directions on expert evidence, together with the broader push for AI-use disclosure in Australian proceedings, mean this conversation is going to keep happening. The SRL AI Notice & Explanation Agent generates the plain-English notice you can hand them.
The problem
Self-represented litigants (SRLs) are increasingly party to matters where AI tools have touched a document — a draft submission, an expert report annexure, a chronology, a translated statement. The Administrative Review Tribunal’s practice directions and other guidance set expectations for how expert evidence and procedural materials are prepared and disclosed. The Federal Court’s GPN-AI imposes parallel obligations on practitioners using generative AI in proceedings. But neither framework was written for the SRL across the table from you — and disclosure that satisfies a judge doesn’t necessarily satisfy a layperson’s right to understand what’s in front of them.
For boutique firms in Brisbane carrying community legal work, conflict-checked matters against larger represented parties, or matters referred from QPILCH or LawRight, the burden falls on you to produce notices that:
- Explain in plain English which parts of a document involved AI assistance
- State what the AI tool did and did not do (drafting vs. verification vs. translation)
- Identify the responsible practitioner
- Sit comfortably alongside ASCR Rule 19 (candour) and Rule 7 (communication with clients)
- Don’t accidentally waive privilege or misstate the firm’s process
Doing this manually, per matter, for every SRL on the other side, is not sustainable.
What the SRL AI Notice & Explanation Agent does
The SRL AI Notice & Explanation Agent generates plain-English AI-use notices intended for self-represented litigants and community legal sector use. The deliverable is a short notice — typically one page — that describes, in language pitched at general-public reading level, how AI was used in preparing a specific document, what was checked by a human practitioner, and where the SRL can ask questions.
The agent is designed for the realities of a small firm: matter-aware (it knows the document type and proceeding type), Australian English by default, and structured to be reviewed and signed off by the responsible solicitor before it leaves the office.
How it works
- Document and matter intake. Upload the document the notice will accompany (a submission, statement, annexure) and tag the proceeding type — ART review, Federal Court matter, Queensland civil proceeding, family law, community legal advice.
- AI-use declaration. Tell the agent which AI tools touched the document and at what stage (drafting, summarisation, translation, citation lookup, formatting).
- Notice generation. The agent drafts a plain-English notice covering the AI use, the human verification step, and the responsible solicitor’s contact point.
- Solicitor review. The responsible solicitor reviews, edits, and signs. Nothing leaves the firm without sign-off.
- Archive. The signed notice is saved to the matter file alongside the document it describes, with an audit entry recording who reviewed it and when.
Why this matters in Brisbane
Brisbane’s boutique firm landscape carries a disproportionate share of community legal work, ART matters, and self-represented opponents — particularly in administrative review, tenancy, debt, and family-adjacent jurisdictions. The Administrative Review Tribunal’s practice directions set the procedural baseline for expert evidence and disclosure, and the Tribunal’s user base includes a high proportion of SRLs who interact directly with practitioner-prepared materials. The Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules apply uniformly in Queensland; Rule 19 (candour to the court) and the broader duty of honesty extend to how AI-touched materials are characterised to other parties — including SRLs.
A boutique firm cannot afford a complaint to the Legal Services Commission arising from a poorly-worded AI disclosure. Nor can it afford to draft each notice from scratch. The SRL AI Notice & Explanation Agent is the middle path: a consistent, reviewable, plain-English notice that you can produce in minutes and stand behind.
Sources
- Administrative Review Tribunal — Practice Directions and Other Guidance: https://www.art.gov.au/help-and-resources/professionals-and-practitioners/practice-directions-and-other-guidance
- Federal Court of Australia — Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence Practice Note (GPN-AI): https://www.fedcourt.gov.au/law-and-practice/practice-documents/practice-notes/gpn-ai
- Law Council of Australia — Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules: https://lawcouncil.au/policy-agenda/regulation-of-the-profession-and-ethics/australian-solicitors-conduct-rules
Join the waitlist
The SRL AI Notice & Explanation Agent is in build. We’re scoping the right access model for boutique firms and community legal sector partners — per-matter, per-user, or firm licence. Join the waitlist and tell us how your firm handles SRL-facing AI disclosure today; what we hear will shape what we ship.