SRL AI Notice & Explanation Agent for Perth Boutique Firms: Plain-English AI Disclosure for Self-Represented Litigants

You run a six-lawyer firm in West Perth. Half your matters touch the Administrative Review Tribunal — NDIS reviews, Centrelink debt, migration. The applicant on the other side is almost always self-represented. You’ve started using an AI drafting tool to compress preparation time on submissions and chronologies, and the Tribunal’s practice direction on AI use means you owe disclosure. The problem isn’t writing the disclosure for the Tribunal — it’s writing something the SRL on the other side can actually read and understand, so they know what was generated by a model and what wasn’t.

Why it matters now

The Administrative Review Tribunal’s practice directions and related guidance set expectations for the use of generative AI in proceedings, including obligations around the disclosure of AI use in materials filed with the Tribunal. Where one party is represented and the other is self-represented, the asymmetry is sharp: a represented party using AI without a comprehensible notice can leave the SRL unable to assess what they’re reading or how to respond. The Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules (Rule 19, candour to the court; Rule 30, dealings with unrepresented parties) extend to AI-assisted material — solicitors remain responsible for the accuracy and the framing of what they file, and for not taking unfair advantage of an unrepresented opponent’s lack of legal knowledge. For boutique firms doing community legal work or representing the more sophisticated party against an SRL, a generic “AI was used in the preparation of this document” footer is not the same thing as an intelligible notice.

The 5-minute view

• The ART’s practice directions on expert evidence and on AI use set disclosure obligations for parties using generative AI in Tribunal proceedings
• ASCR Rule 19 (candour) and Rule 30 (dealings with unrepresented parties) apply to AI-assisted material as they apply to anything else filed
• An AI disclosure written for a Tribunal member is not automatically intelligible to an SRL with no legal training
• “Boilerplate” AI disclosures risk being treated as non-compliance — disclosure that doesn’t actually inform anyone isn’t disclosure
• The SRL AI Notice & Explanation Agent generates two paired outputs: a formal Tribunal-facing disclosure and a plain-English SRL-facing explanation
• The plain-English output names what the model did (drafted, summarised, translated), what a human reviewed, and what the SRL can ask for
• Designed for boutique firms and community legal centres where pro bono and low-bono work against SRLs is routine

What Exegesis is building

The SRL AI Notice & Explanation Agent is a Tier 3 service shape in the Exegesis Legal stack, catalogued at 03_Agentic_Solutions/SRL_AI_Notice_and_Explanation_Agent.md. The agent takes a description of how AI was used in preparing a filing — which sections were drafted, which were edited, what model class was used, what was human-verified — and produces a paired disclosure pack: a formal notice in the register expected by the ART, and a plain-English explanation written at a reading level appropriate for an SRL. The plain-English output is the unusual part. It names the model’s role in concrete terms (“a computer program suggested the wording of paragraphs 4–9; a lawyer then checked each one against the documents”), states what the SRL can ask the represented party to provide, and points to where the SRL can get free legal help in Western Australia. The agent does not draft the underlying submission — it documents how the submission was made.

The deliverable

• A formal AI-use disclosure suitable for filing with the ART, written in line with the Tribunal’s practice direction expectations
• A paired plain-English explanation for the self-represented party on the other side
• Reading-level-tuned output (target Year 8–9 reading level on the SRL-facing notice)
• Named, specific descriptions of what AI did and what a human did — not generic boilerplate
• A pointer to Legal Aid WA and community legal centre resources for the SRL
• Markdown output that can be saved into the matter file as a record of the disclosure made
• Designed to be reviewed and signed off by the responsible solicitor before sending — the agent drafts, the solicitor remains accountable

How it works

1. You enter a short description of how AI was used in the document — which sections, what tool class, what was human-reviewed
2. The agent produces the Tribunal-facing formal disclosure in the register expected by ART practice directions
3. The agent produces the SRL-facing plain-English explanation, reading-level tuned, naming what the model did in concrete terms
4. You review both outputs, edit as needed, and sign off — the agent is a drafting aid, not a substitute for the solicitor’s judgment
5. The disclosure pack is saved to the matter file as the contemporaneous record of what was disclosed and to whom

Why this matters in Perth

Perth’s boutique firm landscape carries a disproportionate share of administrative review work in Western Australia — NDIS reviews, Centrelink debt review, migration matters, veterans’ entitlements — and a high share of that work runs against self-represented applicants. The Law Society of Western Australia’s guidance on professional conduct, alongside the nationally-adopted Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules, applies to WA solicitors and frames the duty to unrepresented parties. For a boutique with limited overhead, the choice is between hand-writing two versions of every AI disclosure or filing a generic footer that satisfies neither the Tribunal nor the SRL. The agent is built for the firms that don’t have a knowledge-management team to template this work internally.

Sources

1. Administrative Review Tribunal — Practice Directions and Other Guidance: https://www.art.gov.au/help-and-resources/professionals-and-practitioners/practice-directions-and-other-guidance
2. Law Council of Australia — Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules: https://lawcouncil.au/policy-agenda/regulation-of-the-profession-and-ethics/australian-solicitors-conduct-rules

Exegesis capability references:

• SRL AI Notice & Explanation Agent spec
• RuleCheck by Exegesis — live beta

Join the waitlist

Join the waitlist — be the first to know when the SRL AI Notice & Explanation Agent opens for Perth boutique firms and community legal centres

This service shape is in scoping. We’re talking to Perth boutiques and WA community legal centres about how AI disclosure to SRLs actually works in their matter pipelines, and what plain-English output needs to look like to be useful rather than performative. Join the waitlist and we’ll let you know when access opens.