Attorneys see good and bad in use of technology

In brief

• A Lex Machina report found over 16% of federal employment lawsuits in 2025 were filed by pro se plaintiffs, up from under 10% in 2021.
• Unrepresented plaintiffs lose employment cases on the merits at a ratio greater than 40-to-1 compared with defendants.
• Employment attorneys say AI tools and chatbots are helping individuals file claims and draft pleadings without lawyers.
• Cases involving pro se plaintiffs settle far less frequently, often due to procedural errors or unrealistic expectations about damages.

The availability of large language models and AI technology is helping fuel a sharp, steady rise in the number of unrepresented plaintiffs in employment cases, a new report shows.

Local employment attorneys say they have observed both a rise in pro se plaintiffs and the use of AI by those plaintiffs. But whether chatbots are improving access to justice is another matter, they say.

The 2026 Employment Litigation Report, released March 11 by the legal analytics company Lex Machina, found that plaintiffs without counsel filed more than 16 percent of federal employment lawsuits in 2025, up from under 10 percent in 2021.

Those unrepresented plaintiffs did not fare well, losing on the merits at a ratio greater than 40 to 1 compared to defendants, Lex Machina reports.

That ratio is like the previous five-year period and a slight improvement from the ratio between 2009 and 2015, according to Adam Masarek, Lex Machina...

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