Chatbots recommend firms fined or shut down by SRA

Members of the public asking AI chatbots to recommend a solicitor risk being directed to firms that have been fined or even shut down, according to access to justice charity Blind Justice UK.

Edward Romain, the charity’s founder, asked AI assistants ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini for the best conveyancing solicitors in Doncaster. All three put a firm fined by the Solicitors Regulation Authority at the top of the list. Asked for the best conveyancing solicitor in Maidenhead, Claude named a firm the SRA shut down seven months previously. Asked if a particular firm in Norwich was a good solicitor, none of the assistants mentioned that the firm had been fined for failing to replace client money.

These are some of the findings in Romain’s report, AI’s Blind Spot, published today. 

For ‘ordinary’ questions, the report says the AI assistants turn to Google listings and review sites that show the SRA’s badge on profiles – but do not check routinely regulatory decisions. 

The report says disciplinary information is cited when the AI assistants are asked specific questions, such as ‘has this firm been fined or disciplined by the SRA?’ However, the report says: ‘A person choosing a solicitor does not ask the regulator question. They ask who is best, or whether a firm is any good. For that question the assistants go to the review sites, and the review sites carry the regulator’s name and none of its findings.

‘Where the assistants did mention the regulator, it was mostly to repeat the badge: “SRA-regulated”, “authorised and regulated”, “a legitimate, SRA-regulated firm”. The review site shows the SRA’s name as a mark of standing, and the assistants pass it on as reassurance, for firms the SRA has fined.’

On why these findings matter, Blind Justice UK highlights separate research from legal thinktank Justice that suggests the public is increasingly turning to AI for legal help. 

Blind Justice UK urges the SRA to publish every sanction as open, machine-readable data and end its policy of unpublishing regulatory decisions after three years. Review sites should show SRA decisions on profiles. AI developers should check the regulator’s register before recommending a solicitor and state if a firm has been fined, sanctioned or closed.

Kindly shared by The Law Society Gazette image courtesy of Adobe