AI-Generated Filings Overwhelm UK Employment Courts: 64,000-Case Backlog

Britain's employment tribunals are overwhelmed: in the year to March 2026, claim volumes rose 39%, applications for interim relief surged a hundredfold, and the pending caseload swelled 55% to 64,000 unresolved cases. Workers are filing hundreds of pages drafted with ChatGPT and Grok in place of lawyers — except the documents are riddled with laws that don't exist. Tribunal presidents Barry Clarke and Susan Walker separately warned colleagues about the scale of the chaos.

This is the first major example of free AI access overloading a legal system built around professional barriers. The cheaper it becomes to file a claim, the more claims get filed — and people with genuine grievances end up at the back of the line behind those nudged into action by a chatbot.