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Our office recently received an email from a claimant attorney
who may wish he had recalled it after hitting the ‘Send’ button. Here is
a what we found in the subject line of the email, redacted but otherwise
verbatim:
“Subject:
ChatGPT said: Here’s a clean, professional email you can send to [Adjuster] at
[Insurance Carrier] with a CC to [Attorney], counsel for the carrier: Subject:
Notice of Termination and Severance – [Claimant] (DWC #_______)”
We assume that the subject line was an unintentional display of candor on the
attorney’s part, as it is the first such message we have received openly
acknowledging that it was composed through the AI program ChatGPT rather than
by the actual attorney. Well, one man’s e-communication faux-pas is another
man’s newsletter fodder, so now we must ask: what is ChatGPT’s hourly billing
rate these days?
The question is only quasi-facetious, though. As the legal profession
grapples with AI-generated communications at an increasing frequency, should
clients pay lawyers for correspondence that was generated by an AI program
rather than by the attorney him or herself? If so, is such work being
billed at the same rate as it would have been if the attorney had drafted
it? ChatGPT is, after all, intended as a time-saving program. Does
it violate the code of professional ethics to produce or charge a client for
communications produced artificially? And how does one respond to an
artificially generated email anyway, and should we even feel compelled to?
The future of AI is uncertain but developing at an exponentially rapid
pace. We may have to answer these questions far sooner than any of us
expected. In the meantime, accept our assurance that this clean,
professional newsletter was drafted by a sentient, carbon-based entity.
Copyright 2025, Stone Loughlin & Swanson, LLP