Introduction
Find out what you must do when using generative AI (GenAI) to prepare your case. Use our practical resources, guidance and prompts to help you use GenAI responsibly and effectively.
On this page:
Content
Using GenAI in Fair Work Commission cases
If you use generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to prepare an application, submission, witness statement or any other document in your case, you must follow specific requirements.
ChatGPT, Claude, CoPilot and Gemini are examples of GenAI.
GenAI should not be used as a substitute for legal advice.
-
Using GenAI in your case
This video explains:
- how GenAI tools can help you prepare your case
- the risks involved, and
- your responsibilities when using GenAI.
What you must do
These requirements apply to all Commission matters from 20 October 2026.
If you use GenAI to create, write, edit or otherwise prepare a document you must:
- tell us that you used GenAI and explain how you used it
- check the document yourself to make sure all information is accurate, relevant and is supported by real evidence and legal authorities, and
- state in the document that you have completed these checks.
For witness statements and declarations, the witness or declarant must also make sure the document:
- is based on their own knowledge
- reflects their own words, and
- is true to the best of their knowledge.
Legal practitioners and other professional representatives also must include hyperlinks to any case law referred to in documents prepared using GenAI.
Why these requirements matter
GenAI can help people prepare documents more efficiently, but it can also make mistakes. GenAI-generated content may contain incorrect facts, fake legal cases, misleading information or outdated law. You are still responsible for making sure that all information you give us is true and correct.
If you don't follow these requirements, it could result in:
- documents being given less weight or being disregarded
- us ordering you to pay other parties' costs as well as your own, or
- your application or case being dismissed.
How to tell us you've used GenAI
From 20 October 2026, some of our forms will have a question about using GenAI. If the question is in your form, and you used GenAI to help you prepare your form, you should select “Yes” and tell us briefly how you used it (see examples below).
For any forms that don’t have the question, or for other documents, you should add a note at the beginning of the document. You can copy and paste the text below and add your own details:
“GenAI was used in preparing this document. I used it by asking GenAI to … [insert details here].”
For example, you might have asked GenAI to:
- do research and give advice
- organise facts and evidence
- transcribe a person’s voice into written words
- translate another language into English
- write content
- edit content.
Protect privacy and confidential information
Do not enter personal information about yourself or other people, or confidential case information, into public GenAI tools. Information you provide may not remain private or secure.
Guidance note
Content
This Guidance note applies in all Commission matters from 20 October 2026.
Read our detailed Guidance note, which sets out our requirements for disclosing and using GenAI in Fair Work Commission cases.
Prompts to help GenAI get it right
Before you ask a GenAI tool about your workplace issue or case, copy and paste our set-up prompts into the chat.
Our prompts are designed to help GenAI find the right information for you, and to help it give you balanced and relevant answers.
Copy everything inside the box below and paste it into your GenAI chat before you start asking it about your case.
Tip: GenAI tools may forget instructions in a long conversation. If responses become less reliable, start a new chat or paste the set-up prompts in again.
Set-up prompts to copy and paste into GenAI chats
Content
"Apply the following rules to every response:
- Base responses on the Fair Work Act 2009, information published by the Fair Work Commission (fwc.gov.au), the Fair Work Ombudsman (fairwork.gov.au), and relevant Australian court and tribunal decisions.
- Prioritise accuracy and objectivity over telling me what you think I want to hear.
- Do not invent laws, cases, authorities, facts or events. If authorities conflict, explain the conflict. If available authorities do not support my position, say so clearly.
- Treat my statements as unverified information, not established facts. You may draw reasonable inferences but clearly identify them as inferences.
- Do not assume my case is strong or weak based on how I describe it.
- Where relevant facts are missing, explain:
- what is known
- what is unknown
- what additional information is needed
- why it matters.
- Ask questions where further information is required instead of making assumptions.
- Clearly distinguish between:
- facts provided
- legal information
- procedural information, and
- analysis or assessment.
- Explain any uncertainty in the law, the evidence or the available information, and explain how it affects the answer.
- For each legal source cited, provide its name and explain how it can be verified. Where possible, include links to official sources such as AUSTLII or court and tribunal websites.
- Use plain language and be concise. Avoid emotional validation, adversarial framing and unnecessary legal jargon.
- If I ask about making an application or claim, first explain which body, if any, has authority to deal with the case. Then establish eligibility to apply before assessing the merits.
- If my position is not supported by the facts or available legal authorities, tell me that clearly and explain why.
- Do not predict case outcomes with certainty. Where relevant, explain factors that may strengthen or weaken the case and any limitations in the available information."
Disclaimer
GenAI is not a substitute for legal advice or legal research. We provide this information as general guidance. Even if you follow our suggestions for set-up prompts, GenAI-generated content may be incomplete or wrong.
Including relevant laws (called legislation) and legal decisions from past cases (called case law) can help make your case stronger. But they need to be real and relevant to your situation.
GenAI sometimes makes up fake laws and decisions, so you need to check them carefully to make sure they're real and will help your case.
Remember, giving false or misleading information to the Commission is a serious offence.
Legislation (laws)
Fair Work Commission legislation is listed on our Legislation and regulations webpage.
All Australian federal legislation can be found on this website: Federal Register of Legislation.
If GenAI tells you the name or section of an Act or law, search for it to make sure it's real. If you can't find it on the Federal Register of Legislation it might be a state or territory Act or law, or it might not be real. Laws from outside Australia are unlikely to be relevant to your case.
Once you find it, you need to read the right section of it to make sure it relates to your case.
If you want to include it in your document (this is called citing legislation) you can copy the full name of the Act from the Federal Register of Legislation website. We usually write the name of an Act in italics, like this:
Fair Work Act 2009.
You might need to refer to a particular section of the Act that is relevant to your case. You can do this by adding it after the name of the Act, like this:
Fair Work Act 2009, section 35.
You can also include a link to the Act to make it easier for the other people in your case, and for us, to find it. You can copy the link from the Federal Register of Legislation and include it in your document like this (see below on how to insert a hyperlink):
Find out more about how to refer to Legal material | Style Manual.
Case law (relevant cases)
If GenAI tells you the name of a decision or case, you will need to search for it to make sure it's real.
You need to read the decision to see if it supports your case. Look for cases with similar circumstances and the same outcome as you want in your case.
You can find Fair Work Commission decisions and Orders in our Document search.
There are other free websites you can search to make sure that cases GenAI tells you about are real:
Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII)
If you want to include it in your document (this is called citing a case) you can copy the full name of the case and its reference number from the website you're using. We usually write the name of a case in italics and the reference number in normal text, like this:
Byrne v Australian Airlines Ltd [1995] HCA 24
You should also include a link to the decision to make it easier for the other people in your case, and for us, to find it. You can copy the link from the website where you found it, and include it in your document like this (see below on how to insert a hyperlink):
Byrne v Australian Airlines Ltd [1995] HCA 24.
Find out more about how to refer to Cases and legal authorities | Style Manual.
How to link to legislation and cases
When you cite cases and legislation, it is important to provide a link to them so that the reader can find, identify and follow up the arguments in the case.
This Microsoft page will show you how to insert a hyperlink:
Where to find legal help
Content
If you’re not sure about what GenAI has told you, think about getting legal help.
You may qualify for free legal help through the Workplace Advice Service.
Find out Where to find legal help.
Other resources
If you want to check if you're eligible to apply or want to understand our processes, our online resources will give you the most current and accurate information.
Take our quizzes to see if you're eligible to apply:
User our Templates to prepare your documents, including:
- submissions
- witness statements
- documents list
You can also find out Where to find legal help for free.