AI is part of our daily life. Many people use it for work, relationships, therapy, and even their legal questions. Every day, I either read or talk to a client who has already spent hours on an AI platform running through numerous scenarios. Lately, some of the client emails I receive are AI-generated.
This week, I have seen the same questions from potential clients on a variety of topics that they never asked before. For example, have you performed a conflict check for all parties and their legal counsel? Can you give a price breakdown of my entire case from start to finish without exceeding limits? How will you assign work to other paralegals, associates, clerks, and assistants at your firm, and will you review their work? What would your legal strategy be for my entire case from filing a complaint to trial? The list typically includes about 20 questions in a single e-mail and is asked after the potential client receives an Engagement Letter or Retainer Agreement.
The Dangers of Letting AI Be the Intermediary with Your Attorney
I understand that AI can be one of people’s trusted confidants. However, if you are going to retain legal counsel, you should consider the dangers of using AI as the intermediary with your attorney – it can affect your relationship with your attorney and impact your case in the following ways:
- Trusting AI more than your lawyer. Your lawyer is smart and educated and knows the 20 questions you sent were AI-generated. Often, some of the questions are repeated from previous emails your lawyer has answered or addressed. By using AI to generate your communications, you are advising your lawyer that you trust your AI bot more than their advice.
- AI is asking the wrong questions. If AI is truly intelligent, it should advise you how law firms work, how attorneys bill for their time, how retainers work, how litigation plays out and takes months or years, and how unknown variables and surprises are unavoidable. However, AI often spends more time generating questions that won’t help you win your case or best defend you. Do you want your lawyer spending time answering questions that won’t help your case?
- Your AI chats could become part of your case. If your case is litigated, the request for documents and information issued during the discovery process can be expansive. Putting information into an AI bot can be protected under attorney-client privilege; however, once you start treating an AI bot as a licensed attorney, you lose that privilege and the other side could get access to it. Thus, information you would not want known to the other side is now being sought after – potentially damaging your case.
Empower Yourself Through Research
AI is a tool, but it can be detrimental. You have the power to research issues, attorneys and the law without having AI formulate unverified answers. If you have questions about your lawyer or your case and you want to do some research, try some of these approaches:
- Read your lawyer’s profile. Most lawyers have a profile page on their law firm’s website. The profiles include educational backgrounds, licenses, credentials, and practice areas, as well as the types of cases the lawyer has handled, publications they have written, and the awards they have received. Some law firm websites even include an attorney’s favorite quote and hobbies.
- Research your lawyer’s website and blogs. Most lawyers have websites and blogs, like the one you are currently reading. To understand how your lawyer thinks or how lawyers operate in a law firm, look through their website and read their blogs. This is a good way to access a lawyer’s thought process for free. It’s not legal advice, but you have access to written content and thought leadership by clicking a few buttons online.
- Read legal articles, reviews, and opinions. If you want to learn more about your legal case and your lawyer, read legal articles, reviews, blogs, and opinions available online. Note that different states and jurisdictions have different approaches to the same legal question, so be cautious when doing research. For example, if you have a property ownership question, you will need to know whether your state is a community property or equitable property state.
How to Communicate with Your Attorney Without AI
I want to encourage more clients to consider not using AI to communicate with their lawyer and here’s why:
- AI can reframe reality. Don’t let AI shape your opinions and perceptions about life. It can be another voice in your head, making you consider all sorts of factors you didn’t even know about. Don’t let AI decide how you think. Make sure you decide what matters.
- Talk to people you know. You are not the first person who has been sued, wants to draw up a Will, is interested in forming a business, or is looking to buy a house. Other people in your life have done this – talk to them. Some of my best clients came through referrals from people I have helped in similar situations. They can tell you how a lawyer operates, thinks, and handles matters. Trusting people you know who have also worked with the attorney is better than having AI generate a list of lawyers. And while I appreciate my AI referrals, I’m concerned because some have been outside my practice areas. It appears AI search results merged my bio with another lawyer’s bio at my firm and provided inaccurate information. This past month, I have received at least three referrals for cases I don’t handle but my colleagues do, all because of the mysteries of AI algorithms
- Communicate with your attorney. Talk to your attorney directly about your questions and concerns, not those that AI generates. Your attorney will provide you with the information you are looking for. If you have a clarifying question, ask it.
- Educate yourself on billing structures. A recent issue that has arisen comes from billing structures. Clients want limited scope, contingency-based, and not-to-exceed rates – and there are scenarios where these apply. In my practice areas, however, these billing structures don’t apply. Not every case can be a contingency fee case, and not every case can be done on a limited basis, especially if you are a business entity.
Final Thoughts About the Risks of Using AI
At JGL, we are not allowed to use AI to respond to clients or to draft pleadings, contracts, wills, or other documents. We use templates, research statutes for compliance, and write the documents ourselves.
Many blog posts describe lawyers getting in trouble with Courts for using AI to write documents. Our lawyers are not allowed to use AI to draft important documents. We must use our own minds, research, experience, and skills.
If you want to engage with an attorney, remember you are engaging with a well-educated human being. Is any lawyer perfect? No. Will an AI bot catch something your lawyer forgot? Possibly. Is an AI bot perfect? No, absolutely not. Will AI hallucinate things that are not true? Absolutely.
AI may be here to stay, but you should stay in charge of your own mind. Don’t let AI interfere with your legal matter. If you put down the AI chat tool and talk to your lawyer, they can answer all your questions and help you with your legal issue – after all, it’s what we are trained to do.
