By Elizabeth Vines, Appeals Board staff attorney, Cookeville

On August 3, 2026, the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board issued a standing order requiring litigants before the Board to clearly state on any filing whether an artificial intelligence (“AI”) tool or program was used to create that filing.

Because of the rise in the accessibility of AI programs, litigants, particularly self-represented litigants, are turning to those tools to assist them in pursuing their claims. These programs can provide valuable assistance, but they should be used with caution. AI programs are not 100% accurate, and AI “hallucinations” are phenomena in which an AI tool either makes up or dramatically misconstrues or misrepresents information.

While these hallucinations are not the “fault” of the person using the AI tool, the Appeals Board’s order makes clear that it is the user’s responsibility to confirm the accuracy of the information in what the AI tool has drafted.

Rule 11 of the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure, which applies to both represented and self-represented litigants, specifies that information in parties’ filings must be accurate to the best of the party’s “knowledge, information, and belief, formed after an inquiry reasonable under the circumstances.” Violations of this rule, even if inadvertent violations caused by the use of an AI tool, may subject that party to sanctions.

Given the importance and increasing prevalence of this issue, it is vital to understand the role AI tools can play in workers’ compensation appellate litigation. Thus, this standing order is not intended to discourage the use of AI tools in assisting litigants to better represent themselves on appeal.

Rather, this standing order is intended to do two things: (1) alert the Appeals Board to instances in which an AI tool was used in the drafting of a document and (2) put parties on notice that they are responsible for the content of their filings, even if they use AI to assist in drafting the document.

The order requires that a litigant who has used an AI tool in the drafting of their filing put the following sentence in bold print on the first page of the document: “This document includes content written by an artificial intelligence tool.” This requirement becomes effective August 17, 2026.