Benjamin Young is an Atlanta-based litigation attorney at Williams Teusink who helps landlords and businesses in complex real estate disputes. Opinions are the author’s own.
For multifamily owners and operators, a tenant representing themself in court has historically been a relatively manageable proposition. No opposing attorney often meant arguments that were easier to defeat, fewer procedural complications and, potentially, a faster resolution with a favorable outcome. But artificial intelligence is quickly pushing those days into the rearview mirror.
I can tell you this: a pro se tenant no longer needs legal training to create a complicated and costly case. AI doesn't transform someone into a skilled attorney, but it can make it easier for them to generate enough legal activity to create delay, increase costs and consume resources.
That's increasingly what I'm seeing in my own practice. To be clear, AI-assisted pro se cases still represent a relatively small share of the landlord-tenant disputes I encounter, and most tenants facing eviction still want to resolve the underlying issue rather than wage a prolonged legal battle. But these cases are becoming more common, and broader data on pro se litigation suggests the overall landscape is shifting, as well.
According to an April 2026 research report written by Anand V. Shah and Joshua Y. Levy, self-represented litigants filed more than 41,000 new federal lawsuits in 2025, up from an annual average of approximately 23,000 between 2005 and 2022. In just a few years, federal cases have nearly doubled, and those cases are much more procedurally complicated than the state courts where landlord-tenant actions typically reside. Readily available access to AI-assisted legal drafting does not, however, appear to be producing better legal arguments or outcomes for pro se litigants.
This distinction matters for multifamily operators. A motion or pleading does not have to succeed on its merits to consume time and money. As the tools available to self-represented litigants become easier to use, landlords need to understand what that can mean not only in the courtroom, but for the performance of their properties.
‘No lawyer’ no longer means a simple or inexpensive case
One assumption owners should reconsider is that a self-represented tenant will not know how to challenge procedural issues or file a substantive response.
In years gone by, a tenant without legal counsel might overlook a notice issue or fail to identify a procedural mistake. Today, AI tools can help users identify potential arguments and produce legal-looking responses in minutes. Those arguments may ultimately fail, but that's not necessarily the most important consideration for an operator.
The better questions are: How much will it cost to resolve? How much management time will it consume? And how long will the unit remain tied up in the process?
For an organization managing hundreds or thousands of units, litigation needs to be evaluated as a business process as well as a legal one. A case that looks straightforward on the merits can become expensive and time consuming if the process surrounding it grows increasingly complicated, and AI use can help pro se tenants complicate things.
AI has changed the economics of procedural volume
The most significant change introduced by AI may simply be how easy it is to generate legal material quickly.
In one matter I handled, a self-represented tenant filed 22 separate pleadings between Friday and Sunday. Many were duplicative, almost all were legally and factually baseless, and ultimately they all went nowhere. But every filing doesn't have to succeed to create extra work and a little bit of chaos.
When a motion is filed, opposing counsel must evaluate it and may need to respond, even if only to notify the Court that the motion is erroneous or seeks unavailable relief. Some motions require hearings or action from the court. Even a baseless filing can still consume weeks or even months before it is disposed of, potentially slowing the underlying case in the process.
And the cost isn't confined to outside counsel. Property managers and onsite personnel may have to locate records, reconstruct communications or respond to new allegations, which costs valuable time that could be spent managing the property. Regional or corporate personnel can get pulled in. Owners receive additional legal bills. What started as a tenant dispute can begin consuming resources from people whose primary responsibility is operating properties.
That's the shift multifamily operators need to recognize: procedural volume isn't merely a legal nuisance — it can become an operating expense.
Delays can turn a legal win into a bad business outcome
What does winning really look like? Is it ultimately obtaining a favorable ruling in court? From a strictly legal standpoint, perhaps. But that's not necessarily how an owner or asset manager should measure the outcome.
While a dispute drags on, rent is likely not coming in. Meanwhile, legal expenses continue accumulating. Employees spend time dealing with the case instead of their normal responsibilities. Tenants involved in litigation often increase maintenance requests to bolster the illusion of property issues, utilities may also go unpaid and the condition of the unit may deteriorate. Then, once the owner finally recovers possession, they may face additional expenses to get the unit back into rentable condition.
Even a monetary judgment may not make the owner whole. Obtaining a judgment and actually collecting it are two very different things, particularly in residential disputes where the tenant has little to no assets. A $5 million judgment isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on if the defendant has no money and owns no assets because there is no way to collect. That changes the business calculation.
If it becomes clear that delay itself is the strategy, owners should evaluate the available options based on their total economic impact. In some circumstances, a cash-for-keys agreement involving a few thousand dollars upon vacating may ultimately be less expensive than allowing a dispute to continue for months while rent goes unpaid and legal costs climb.
Nobody likes paying money to regain possession of their own property. And cash for keys certainly isn't appropriate in every situation. But sophisticated operators should understand winning the legal battle and achieving the best business outcome aren't always the same thing.
Sometimes the better question isn't “Can we win?” but rather, “What will it cost us to get there?”
Build an escalation plan before a routine case goes sideways
None of this means every pro se dispute requires an immediate full-court legal response. Most don't. The key is helping onsite and regional teams recognize when a matter is departing from the ordinary path.
An unusually sophisticated answer or a sudden stream of legal arguments can be an early warning sign. So can a tenant repeatedly raising issues unrelated to the underlying dispute. An eviction based on non-monetary lease violations can warrant particular attention because they may create more complicated factual and legal questions than a straightforward nonpayment case.
Operators can also reduce headaches by tightening their internal practices before a dispute arises and preserve written communications. They can avoid allowing important tenant correspondence to live exclusively on an individual employee's phone and keep written notes of important in-person conversations. Additionally, they should make sure onsite teams know when an unusual matter needs to move up the chain.
Most importantly, don't wait until months of procedural disorder have accumulated before deciding a case needs experienced legal attention.
The new reality for multifamily operators
The biggest thing multifamily operators may underestimate about AI-assisted pro se litigation is simply how easy it has become. A legal argument doesn't have to be sharp to require attention. A filing doesn't have to prevail to consume time. And a tenant doesn't have to hire a lawyer to create a case that becomes expensive. AI is shifting the dynamics of these disputes and operators should adjust accordingly.
Train frontline teams to recognize when a routine case is becoming something different. Preserve the records you'll need if the dispute escalates. And when a matter starts going sideways, bring in experienced counsel before procedural noise becomes an operational problem.
In the AI era, the cost of litigation isn't measured only by what happens in the courtroom. It's also measured by how long a unit sits unproductive, how much staff time gets consumed and how much it ultimately costs to get the property back to business.
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