Artificial intelligence (AI) has become part of everyday life. Platforms such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini can draft an email or explain an unfamiliar topic in seconds. Many people going through a divorce or custody dispute now use AI to research their cases, write emails, and even prepare court documents.
Courts have taken notice. Several federal judges in Colorado have issued standing orders that require anyone who helps draft a filing in their cases to certify whether AI was used. These orders reflect concern about the accuracy of AI-generated legal documents.
AI can be a helpful tool. Family law cases, however, involve complex legal standards, sensitive personal information, and decisions that shape your finances and your relationship with your children. Relying on AI without understanding its limits can make an already difficult legal process more expensive, contentious, and emotionally exhausting.
Before you use AI in your family law case, keep these six points in mind:
- Accuracy: AI can sound confident and still be wrong.
- Court filings: AI-drafted documents can backfire.
- Privacy: Think about confidentiality before you upload personal documents.
- Legal fees: AI-written emails can raise the cost of your case.
- Judgment: AI cannot weigh your options the way an experienced attorney can.
- Responsible use: Used carefully, AI can help you organize your thoughts and questions.
1. AI-Generated Legal Research May Be Incorrect or Misleading
One of the most serious concerns with AI is its ability to generate responses that sound legally authoritative or persuasive, even when the information is inaccurate or incomplete.
AI platforms may cite nonexistent cases, misinterpret statutes, rely on outdated legal authorities, or provide information from other states or jurisdictions whose laws do not apply to your case.
For example, a parent involved in a Colorado parenting time dispute may ask an AI platform whether certain conduct by the other parent constitutes grounds for restricting parenting time. The platform may generate an extensive explanation suggesting that immediate court intervention is appropriate without adequately addressing Colorado’s specific legal standards for restricting parenting time.
The result may be unnecessary anxiety, unrealistic expectations, or requests for legal action that are not supported by Colorado law.
Understanding a general legal principle is not the same as understanding how the law applies to your unique circumstances. It also does not tell you how a judge will evaluate the evidence, assess witness credibility, interpret testimony, and ultimately exercise judicial discretion in reaching a decision.
Having an experienced attorney is essential to evaluating the applicable statutes, controlling case law, procedural requirements, available evidence, and unique circumstances of your case. Equally important is an attorney’s practical experience and familiarity with the courts, judicial officers, and local procedures, all of which inform an effective legal strategy.
2. Using AI to Draft Legal Pleadings Can Create Additional Problems
Pleadings are more than written arguments. Motions, responses, affidavits, and other court filings must comply with Colorado’s procedural rules and accurately represent the law and facts.
AI-generated pleadings may contain incorrect legal standards, unsupported allegations, irrelevant arguments, or citations to authorities that do not exist.
Colorado courts have already confronted this problem. In Al-Hamim v. Star Hearthstone, LLC, 2024 COA 128, a self-represented tenant appealed the dismissal of his lawsuit against his landlords. His opening brief cited eight cases that do not exist. The Colorado Court of Appeals ordered him to produce copies of those cases or explain why he should not be sanctioned. He admitted that he had relied on AI to help prepare the brief and had not reviewed it before filing.
The court held that a brief containing AI-generated fake citations violates the Colorado Appellate Rules. It also explained that self-represented litigants must follow the same rules as attorneys. The court chose not to sanction the tenant, in part because no Colorado appellate court had addressed the issue before and he accepted responsibility for the error. It did not give him a second chance, however. The court denied his request to file a corrected brief and warned that future filings containing AI-generated fake citations, whether by lawyers or self-represented parties, may result in sanctions.
The same caution applies in divorce and custody cases. If AI helps prepare a court filing, every citation should be verified before the document is filed.
Even when a document appears polished and persuasive, that does not mean it is legally accurate or strategically appropriate.
Clients sometimes use AI to prepare proposed motions or other legal documents and then ask their attorneys to review, revise, or file them. Although this may seem like a way to save money, it usually has the opposite effect.
Your attorney must independently review the proposed document, verify the legal authorities, assess the factual allegations, and determine whether the requested relief is appropriate. Correcting an AI-generated pleading may require more time than preparing a legally sound document from the outset.
Pursuing every conceivable legal argument is also rarely an effective litigation strategy. An experienced family law attorney must consider not only whether an argument is legally available, but also whether raising it advances the client’s overall objectives.
3. Uploading Confidential Information Into AI Platforms Can Raise Privacy Concerns
Divorce and child custody proceedings often involve some of the most sensitive information about a person’s life.
Financial disclosures, tax returns, bank statements, medical records, mental health information, custody evaluations, and communications concerning minor children may all become relevant during a family law proceeding.
Lawyers already use AI extensively. According to the 2026 Legal Industry Report from legal software company 8am, 69% of the 1,300 legal professionals surveyed now use general-purpose generative AI tools for work, up from 31% the year before.
Many companies now offer AI products built for legal work. Harvey is an AI platform designed for law firms and corporate legal departments. Clio, widely used practice management software for law firms, now offers Clio Work, an AI workspace for legal research and analysis. E-discovery platforms such as Everlaw have built AI directly into the tools lawyers use to review evidence.
Anthropic, the company behind Claude, now markets Claude directly to law firms. In May 2026, Fortune reported that Anthropic had released 12 plug-ins for specific legal roles and more than 20 integrations with software that law firms already use.
Clients can use AI as well. Before uploading sensitive financial, medical, or parenting information, however, they should think carefully about confidentiality and privacy.
Depending on the platform and its privacy settings, information submitted to an AI system may be stored, retained, reviewed, or used in ways that the client does not fully understand. Reviewing a platform’s privacy settings and terms of use is a sensible first step.
Uploading attorney-client communications may also create legal questions concerning confidentiality and privilege, depending on the circumstances.
Extra care is warranted when documents contain information about children or other third parties.
Before uploading confidential or case-related documents to an AI platform, talk with your attorney about the best approach.
4. AI-Generated Emails Can Increase Legal Fees and Create Unnecessary Disputes
Another increasingly common concern is the use of AI to draft lengthy emails to attorneys.
A recent Wall Street Journal article described this trend. In one example, a Toronto family lawyer prepared a prenuptial agreement to his client’s specifications. The client responded with a 13-part set of revisions that ran nearly the length of the agreement. The lawyer knew the client had turned to an AI chatbot. Explaining the chatbot’s mistakes would have added to the client’s bill.
The article also cited a survey of 133 lawyers at a national family law firm. Eighty percent said clients had sent them messages, draft filings, or strategy suggestions that they believed AI had generated.
Clients generally have questions throughout the legal process. Divorce and parenting disputes can be stressful, and it is natural to seek reassurance or additional information when an unexpected issue arises.
However, asking AI to analyze communications from an opposing party, interpret an attorney’s recommendations, or identify potential legal violations can sometimes create problems that would not otherwise exist.
For example, a client may receive a routine settlement proposal from opposing counsel and ask an AI platform to identify every potential legal concern. The platform may generate several pages of hypothetical issues, proposed objections, and suggested legal arguments without understanding the history of the case, the parties’ prior negotiations, or the attorney’s overall litigation strategy. It may also recommend terms that the other side would never agree to.
The client may then forward those concerns to their attorney in a lengthy email requesting a detailed response to each issue.
Although the questions may be well-intentioned, many of the issues raised may be legally irrelevant, already addressed, or based on incorrect assumptions.
This can have several unintended consequences:
- Increased legal fees: Attorneys must spend time reviewing the correspondence, identifying legitimate concerns, correcting misinformation, and explaining why certain issues do not require additional action.
- Unnecessary stress: AI-generated responses can make relatively routine legal developments appear more serious or contentious than they are. An AI platform asked to find problems will usually find some. It will rarely respond, “You’re good. You thought of everything and covered it all.”
- Distraction from important objectives: Time spent addressing hypothetical legal disputes may divert attention and resources from meaningful settlement discussions, trial preparation, and other substantive matters.
- Unrealistic expectations: AI may suggest legal remedies or outcomes that are unavailable or unlikely under the circumstances of the case.
Effective communication with your attorney is essential. Clients should always feel comfortable asking questions, expressing concerns, and seeking clarification.
However, concise communications that identify specific concerns and provide relevant information are generally more productive and cost-effective than lengthy AI-generated legal analyses.
5. AI Cannot Replace Legal Judgment and Strategy
The most important limitation of AI is that it does not possess the professional judgment or complete understanding of your case that an experienced attorney brings to the representation.
Family law litigation requires more than identifying legal rules.
Attorneys must evaluate the credibility of evidence, assess litigation risks, understand judicial discretion, consider the financial consequences of legal decisions, and determine how different strategies may affect the client’s long-term interests.
For example, a client may have a legally supportable argument concerning the division of marital property or a parenting time dispute. However, pursuing that argument may involve substantial legal fees, create additional conflict, or jeopardize a favorable settlement.
An experienced family law attorney must consider those practical consequences when advising a client. AI may identify numerous potential arguments, but it cannot reliably determine which arguments are worth pursuing in the context of a particular case.
In family law, the most aggressive legal approach is not always the most effective one.
6. How Can Family Law Clients Use AI Responsibly?
AI is not inherently harmful, and there are ways clients may use it productively.
For example, AI may assist with organizing a chronology of events, creating a general checklist, explaining unfamiliar terminology, or helping formulate concise questions for an attorney.
However, clients should avoid relying on AI to make legal decisions, interpret court orders, draft pleadings, or determine whether their attorneys are pursuing the appropriate legal strategy. They should also be mindful of privacy before entering financial information or other confidential details.
If you encounter legal information through an AI platform that raises concerns about your case, discuss those concerns directly with your attorney rather than assuming the information is accurate.
Likewise, if you have used AI to prepare legal research or draft documents, let your attorney know. Transparency allows your legal team to identify potential inaccuracies and address legitimate questions efficiently.
The Bottom Line: If You Use AI, Use It as a Tool, Not as Your Attorney
AI will continue to influence how individuals access information and communicate. However, convenience should not be confused with reliability, particularly when important legal rights, financial interests, and children are involved.
Divorce and family law disputes are rarely resolved by identifying every possible legal argument. Effective representation requires sound judgment, careful preparation, strategic decision-making, and an understanding of the unique circumstances of each family.
While AI may provide general information, it cannot replace the individualized guidance of an experienced family law attorney.
Before relying on AI-generated legal advice, submitting confidential information, or pursuing legal arguments suggested by an AI platform, consult your attorney.
Doing so may help you avoid unnecessary disputes, control legal expenses, and remain focused on the issues that matter most in your case.
Bailey D. Nelson is a Senior Associate at Griffiths Law. Her practice is focused exclusively on family law related matters, including divorce, allocation of parental rights, post-decree disputes, high asset-high conflict divorces, child support and military retirement.
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