Exclusive to Cansford: AI and Family Law - A New Era of Legal Writing

In his latest exclusive blog for Cansford, Family Law Blogger John Bolch examines who AI will usher in a new dawn for family law, the legal sector and beyond...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing various industries, and the legal field is no exception. In England and Wales, AI is emerging as a powerful tool for legal professionals working in family law.

One of the most significant benefits of using AI in family law is its ability to streamline research and writing tasks. AI-powered tools can quickly analyze vast amounts of legal documents, case law, and statutory provisions, saving lawyers valuable time. By identifying relevant information and potential arguments, AI can help legal professionals prepare more comprehensive and persuasive briefs.

Moreover, AI can be used to generate initial drafts of legal documents, such as petitions, affidavits, and court orders. While these drafts may require human review and editing, they can serve as a valuable starting point, accelerating the document creation process. Additionally, AI-powered language tools can help lawyers improve the clarity and conciseness of their writing, ensuring that their arguments are easily understood by judges and clients.

As AI technology continues to advance, its role in family law is likely to expand. By leveraging the power of AI, legal professionals can enhance their efficiency, improve the quality of their work, and ultimately provide better outcomes for their clients.

As I’m sure the perceptive reader will have spotted, the above was all written by AI, including the title. (What follows in this post will be written by me. I think.)

There were a couple of clues.

The American version of ‘analyse’ was one.

And the use of the term ‘petition’ was another. Are petitions still used anywhere in family law in England and Wales? Not as far as I’m aware.

And then there was the general tone of the writing. It’s as if it’s written by an advertising executive, or perhaps by a digital content specialist – I’m not sure I would always recognise it, but I like to think I would.

And when I ran the piece through an AI detector, it gave an AI probability score of 80%, saying that much of the content looked “too robotic”. So the machine can identify AI content, for now at least, even if we can’t.

Generally, however, the piece is, I believe, reasonably decent, and it contains some genuinely useful information (a longer piece I generated earlier contained even more useful points).

And perhaps the most important point it makes is that AI is, at present at least, only a tool. It still requires expert human input, especially of course when it attempts to give legal advice (although even here it can be uncannily accurate).

The AI-generated paragraphs above spoke of using AI to create legal documents, and I can see no wider issue with that, so long as the documents are checked by a lawyer.

But what about using AI to create documents for publication such as, dare I say it, blog posts?

I would be surprised if it isn’t happening already. (Although I can assure those for whom I write that my content is all my own unless stated otherwise, honest!)

My feeling is that it is not, unless it is used just to provide an idea, or a basic framework, for a human-written piece. But even if it isn’t ethical, I doubt that that would do much to stop the flood of AI-created material that is surely coming.

And then there are copyright issues. Can the publisher of AI-generated material claim copyright in it? I am not a copyright lawyer, but my understanding is that they can’t, unless they have had a significant input in the creation of the material.

And another possible issue for those publishing online is whether Google will penalise AI-generated content. Search engine optimisation is often the primary purpose of publishing online content, and if Google is ignoring it then obviously there is little point. Again, I’m no expert but my understanding is that Google won’t penalise AI content automatically. However, Google’s algorithm prioritises high-quality content, and whether AI can currently meet that criteria, I’m not sure.

Whatever, AI is with us now, and is only likely to improve. Anyone interested in the creation of written family law content would do well to at least check it out – it could just make their lives a little easier.

As for me, I suspect that my days as a legal hack may be numbered*…

(*Not by us John, you're safe for now!  - from the Cansford Team)