Disclaimer: The tips below reflect the law as of the date this article was published. The law on artificial intelligence is changing quickly, and courts are still working out the rules. This article is general information, not legal advice. Please speak with an attorney about your specific situation.
Artificial intelligence has moved into almost every part of daily life, and family law is no exception. Clients now come to their first meeting having already asked ChatGPT or Claude what they are entitled to, how custody works, or whether they should move out of the house. AI can be a genuinely useful tool when it is used carefully and for the right things. But it can also cost you money, damage your credibility, or hand your spouse’s attorney a gift.
This is the first of two articles on what every person going through a divorce or custody case should understand about using AI, and where the real risks are hiding.
What You Type Into AI May Not Stay Private
Most people assume that a chat with an AI tool is like a private diary entry. However, those conversations are not confidential or privileged the way conversations with your attorney are.
Here is why that matters. In a divorce or custody case, each side can demand information from the other through a process called discovery. One tool in that process is a subpoena, which is a court-backed order requiring a person or a company to hand over documents or testify. A subpoena can reach your bank, your employer, your phone records, and potentially the company that runs the AI tool you have been chatting with. Attorney-client privilege is the legal rule that keeps your conversations with your lawyer out of that process. The problem is that an AI chatbot is not your lawyer.
Courts are also split on whether you can use AI to prepare court filings at all. Some judges have local rules banning generative AI in anything filed with the court. Some carve out ordinary legal research tools. Some simply require you to disclose that you used it. Many have no rule yet. The rules can differ from one courthouse to the next, and sometimes from one judge to the next inside the same courthouse.
A handful of federal decisions in 2026 have started to sketch the outlines, but there is no clear answer at this time. Until the law settles, treat this as the working rule: your AI conversations about your case are probably not privileged, and they could end up in your spouse’s hands. Do not discuss your legal strategy, the arguments you plan to make, your settlement line, or anything you would not want your spouse reading. If you are going to use AI at all, use a paid account rather than a free one, since paid and business accounts generally come with stronger privacy terms and often do not use your conversations to train the underlying model. Check the settings and turn off chat history and model training where the tool allows it.
The safest rule is simple: do not type anything into an AI tool that you would not want read aloud in court.
AI Cannot Replace a Skilled Lawyer
AI is definitely impressive. It will answer a lot of your questions instantly, at two in the morning, and without sending you a bill. But AI cannot replace a lawyer. AI sounds authoritative even when it is completely wrong. It does not necessarily know the rules of your county. It does not know your judge or your magistrate.
Much of family law turns on standards like what is “fair, just, and equitable” and what is in a child’s “best interests.” Those standards are deliberately subjective, which means the same set of facts can land differently in front of two different magistrates in two neighboring counties, or even in the same court. No AI model has sat in your county courtroom and watched how your magistrate actually rules on shared parenting, support, or which arguments make that particular judge visibly impatient. Your attorney has, and can walk you through the particulars of your jurisdiction and the judge or magistrate assigned to your case.
AI Will Tell You What You Want to Hear, Not What You Need to Hear
Divorce or custody cases are emotional, and AI will almost always tell you that you are right. Sometimes you are definitely not. A tool built to be agreeable will validate a fight that is not worth having, and it will encourage you to hold a baseless position that costs thousands of dollars to litigate.
A good family lawyer will tell you the thing you do not want to hear. And by the way, if your family lawyer always agrees with you and only tells you what you want to hear, it might be exactly what it looks like: too good to be true. That honesty, and the ethical obligation behind it, is a large part of why you are paying an expert. Your lawyer’s job is to guide you through your case to the best result possible.
None of this means AI has no place in a divorce or custody case. Used carefully, it can be an extraordinary tool. Part 2 of this series covers a few more pitfalls to watch for, along with the ways AI can actually save you time and money.
Contact
If you have questions about divorce, custody, support, pre-nuptial, post-nuptial, alternative dispute resolution, or any other family law issue, reach out to Eva C. Saulnier (ECS@kjk.com) or another member of KJK’s Family Law practice group by calling 216-696-8700. Bring your questions, even the ones you started with an AI tool. We will give you answers that actually apply to your situation.