Is it allowed to use AI for email triage in Australia?
Yes, to rank or summarise mail inside the firm’s tenancy, if a person supervises it and the tool does not send replies.
Guide
How to use AI for email triage in Australia
Email triage can rank what a person should read next. It should not send a reply. The ranking runs inside the firm’s tenancy, and someone supervises it.
Steps
Run it inside the firm’s tenancy
The mailbox tool is the one the firm has approved, under the firm’s login. A personal agent that reads client email is not that tool. Queensland Guidance Statement No. 37 is the question about storage and reuse. The policy names the product.
Do not let it send
Drafts can be suggested. Sending stays with a person, after they have read the thread. An auto-reply that gives advice, or that confirms instructions the firm does not accept, is a letter. The client-letter guide is the check for anything that will actually go out.
Supervise the ranking
A partner or the supervising solicitor looks at what was buried and what was marked urgent, on a sample, on a schedule the policy sets. The Law Society of New South Wales guide and the Uniform Law statement do not treat an unread ranking as the firm’s judgement. A missed limitation date is the failure mode to test for.
Record the checks: Confidentiality tasks · Open the court note for the forum
Sources
Law firm AI policy · Client letters and emails · Confidentiality tasks · All guides
Questions
What tools are used for email triage?
The firm’s approved mailbox tenancy. This page does not approve a personal inbox agent.
Can the tool send a holding reply?
Only if a person has approved that reply and it does not advise. The safer rule is that the tool does not send.