Can AI Replace a Family Lawyer? What You Need to Know

Across the globe, AI is revolutionising business processes from industry to industry, and the legal sector is no exception. Even here in Australia, we’re seeing AI being utilised to perform a wide variety of functions and for a range of applications, both from clients as well as their legal teams. In law firms, AI is used daily to distil and summarise key points from complex contracts, making it easier for legal professionals to navigate time-sensitive consultations with their clients and prepare faster for Court proceedings. But the application of AI in legal settings can naturally also come with its fair share of risks – especially in Family Law matters, where an empathy-driven approach is essential for delivering the strongest outcomes for families.

Today, our team at Oxford Partners Lawyers will be drawing from their decades of experience and professional insights to answer a question that has likely been posed to many AI chatbots over the past few years: Can AI replace a family lawyer?

Why are Australians using AI for Family Law Advice?

Before we dive into all the risks and ethical concerns surrounding using AI to replace Family Lawyers, let’s first begin by saying we understand. Access to high-quality Family Law services may not be available for all Melbourne families, whilst asking Family Law questions to an AI chatbot is instant and comes with zero cost (and no need to travel either!). The convenience of using AI for legal advice cannot be matched – but the efficacy and quality of that legal advice is still undeniably in question. As a result, AI chatbots are primarily being used to answer basic legal questions that directly relate to laws and policies.  For instance, you can ask an AI chatbot that’s been trained on the Family Law Act of 1975 to provide specific excerpts for quoting purposes, or to summarise key sections of the Act – but not to provide dynamic solutions to legal cases based on the Act.

Note: if you’re looking to AI chatbots for more than just basic legal research, but are worried about Family Law costs, you can book a free 30-minute preliminary consultation with a representative from our legal team at any time. Don’t suffer in silence, nor try to bear the burden of your Family Law matters independently.

Risks of Using AI for Family Law Advice

We don’t mean to sound all ‘doom and gloom’, but there are very real risks to turning to ChatGPT and other AI tools for Family Law advice – just as there are risks for using AI chatbots for securing medical advice.

Here are just some of the dangers associated with using AI for seeking advice on Family Law matters in particular.

Lengthier & More Costly Court Proceedings

Did you know that some Family Law matters actually come with an application deadline? For instance, eligibility for spousal maintenance applications under the Family Law Act dictates that applicants must apply within 12 months of the Divorce Order taking effect, or for de facto couples, within two years of the relationship breakdown. Similarly, property settlements must be finalised within 12 months following a divorce, or within two years of the relationship breakdown in the context of de facto relationships. In time-sensitive proceedings like this, it may end up being more costly to delay applications, family mediation sessions, and Court proceedings. So if you’re worried about racking up your billable hours through proactive communications with a Family Law team, remember that a proactive approach is always guaranteed to be simpler (i.e. with fewer variables and fewer time constraints) than a reactive approach.

Risks of AI Hallucinations

AI chatbots aren’t perfect by any means and as a result, they’re still delivering what programmers have begun to call ‘AI hallucinations’, or completely fabricated information. AI chatbots have been observed to create citations, quotes, and even whole books, standards, and policies. As a result, AI tools aren’t 100% reliable for legal research purposes, as there are always risks that an excerpt from an Australian law or Federal policy could end up being completely fabricated.

Confidentiality & Privacy Risks

In much the same way that Family Lawyers recommend their clients not share personal details on social media during legal proceedings as per Section 114Q of the Family Law Act of 1975, inputting privileged information surrounding a Family Law case has the potential to devolve into a breach of privacy/confidentiality for all parties involved.  AI chatbots aren’t secure, and user history can be compromised, which may result in real-world impacts to Family Law proceedings. Privacy breaches caused by mismanagement of data in AI systems may also be grounds for litigation against parties found to be at fault.

0 Critical Insights = 0 Feasible Resolutions

Again, AI is still quite rudimentary and is incapable of offering dynamic solutions to complicated legal cases. Instead, AI chatbots are directly limited by the datasets they’ve been trained on, and won’t be able to offer any insights outside of those that have been precisely outlined across those datasets. This means that when you use AI for securing legal advice, you’ll only be receiving exact legal advice that has been provided in the past – not advice that has been driven by critical thinking and tailored expressly to your Family Law matter/s. And if you aren’t receiving tailored legal advice, you simply cannot secure a feasible resolution to your legal matters.

Ethical Concerns of Using AI in Family Law

Alongside providing overly simplified and ineffective legal advice in individual Family Law cases, there are also very real ethical concerns surrounding the integration and sustained use of AI in Family Law.  Here are just some of the key ethical concerns that our legal team have been highlighting in recent years.

AI Biases Resulting in Discriminatory Outcomes

There have been many recorded cases of AI models perpetuating systematic injustices when they’ve been trained on biased historical data. This algorithmic AI bias caused by outdated and insensitive data can hold real-world implications both in Family Law as well as if AI were to be applied to contract generation and policymaking.  With AI programmers failing to fully address the risks of AI biases, the use of AI in Family Law can have detrimental effects on LGBTQIA+ individuals, multicultural communities, and all other minority groups. AI biases may also culminate in sexist outcomes that – in the context of Family Law proceedings for a heterosexual couple – may favour an ex-wife’s needs over an ex-husband’s or vice versa.

Reduced Accountability

With AI being used to generate legal contracts, the lines begin to blur when seeking to establish accountability in the event that mistakes or oversights are made. The need for accountability is especially important in Family Law matters, where missed details can hold drastic consequences for parties in Family Court proceedings.

Lasting Impacts to Policymaking

Zooming out and taking a more macro approach now, using AI for policymaking within Family Law also raises ethical concerns surrounding the quality and equality of Family Law policies. Family Law as a legal discipline often does not deal in absolutes, with Family Law policies like the Family Law Act of 1975 also being established in a way that allows Family Lawyers to exercise subjective reasoning. This capacity and space for subjective reasoning are integral to delivering solutions that accommodate all parties effectively.  As AI tools are more inclined to use binary reasoning, there is reduced room for subjective and critical thinking, which means that AI-generated policy documentation may end up being too rigid and failing to reflect the realities of everyday life for Australian families.

Diminishing Value for Legal Clients

Would you rather work with Family Lawyers who are using AI, or who aren’t using AI? Currently, the answer to this question may still be a matter of personal preference – but if your Family Lawyers are using AI to generate contracts, Court Orders, and other documents for you but are still billing you for the time it would’ve taken to write these documents up manually, your consultation fees and legal fees aren’t working for you as strong as they could be. In these cases, it may ultimately be more cost-effective to work with Family Lawyers who don’t sacrifice on quality of service and attention to detail.

What Family Law Advice Should Be Given by Professionals?

To recap, here are some key examples of family law advice that you should only secure from real Family Lawyers – not from AI:

• Family Law research insights 
• Preparing Court Orders and applications
• Preparing parenting agreements, settlements, etc.
• Securing family mediation and dispute resolution services

Want real-world insights into all aspects of Family Law? Check out our legal advice and news section for Family Law articles that have been written by our team at Oxford Partners Lawyers.

The Future of AI Law in Australia: What Can We Expect?

Ultimately, it’s likely that we’ll see AI continue to be used in the legal sector, namely for rote tasks that you would expect from a legal assistant rather than a fully qualified lawyer. This can include tasks like:

• Summarising legal contracts for clients, 
• Providing executive reviews for financial disclosure documents, 
• Comparing documents to detect any inconsistencies, 
• Preparing chronologies for Family Law matters, and 
• For writing the odd client email here and there.

But when it comes to nuanced matters like preparing child custody arrangements, AI generation tools should instead be swapped out for dedicated Family Lawyers at all times. In these instances, human insights and critical thinking capabilities can never be substituted or outsourced to AI.

Swap out AI & Family Law Chatbots with Real World Advice

So, can AI replace Family Lawyers? Ultimately, no. From child custody disputes and parenting agreements to property settlements, Family Law matters are always guaranteed to be nuanced and thus require critical assessments and tailored resolutions that meet the varying personal, financial, and legal needs of all parties. As AI chatbots can only repurpose static legal information, they lack the nuance to handle Family Law matters with the empathy-driven approach that families need.

If you have any Family Law matters that require Court proceedings or mediation services, we urge you not to hesitate to get in touch with your local Family Law specialists to ensure no time is wasted in strategising for a swift and fair resolution. 

Book your free 30-minute preliminary consultation today by calling (03) 9670 7577 or leaving an enquiry via our web contact form.