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.
Virginia employment attorneys say they have observed both a rise in pro se plaintiffs and the use of AI by those plaintiffs, as well as by litigants at large. 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% of federal employment lawsuits in 2025, up from less than 10% 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 comparable to the previous five-year period and a slight improvement from the ratio between 2009 and 2015, according to Adam Masarek, Lex Machina’s legal marketing manager. But that’s hardly good news, given the greater frequency with which unrepresented plaintiffs are showing up at federal courthouses.
Unsurprisingly, what frequently doomed pro se plaintiffs were procedural defenses, such as a failure to exhaust administrative remedies or the expiration of a statute of limitations, Lex Machina further found.
Settlements are also significantly less common in pro se cases than in represented matters, according to Lex Machina’s data.
Employment attorneys who spoke with...
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