The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become common and often of much assistance in so many different aspects of daily living. We look up medical terms, research appliance reviews, read summaries of travel sites and can have complicated subjects explained all in seconds of our time at virtually no cost. By comparison paying hourly fees for legal advice is expensive for most people. AI is available 24/7 while attorneys may need to respond later in the day or perhaps the next day.
So the question is how effective or helpful is AI in a contested divorce case? Like so many other searches done with AI, it is a tool but cannot replace the years of training, experience and more importantly the critical need to understand the nuances of divorce cases.
AI can assist with document preparation in uncontested divorce cases, but then for many years there have been legal forms online as guides, for purchase and with software to help complete.
AI can provide a fairly accurate explanation of many divorce concepts and listing of important factors utilized by judges to make determinations. However, AI cannot "read the room", understand the personality of the other party, know the preferences, style and leanings of an individual judge, the style of opposing counsel and truly understand the emotional aspect of a divorce. AI cannot teach you the best way to make a legal argument to a judge or how to best advocate for yourself whether with opposing counsel and/or the other party.
AI when properly used in large document cases can help summarize depositions, isolate financial transactions, find irregularities, create income, expense and spending reports that are very useful.
AI can help with legal research and explanations of legal concepts if the search is properly defined and the results are separately verified and checked. Most of us have heard of the dreaded "AI Hallucinations" where AI creates what appears to be very specific analysis of case law only to later learn that the case did not exist.
Divorce cases are complex unless there are few assets and no custody or support issues. Support determinations and knowledge of deductions and understanding of changes in circumstances are potential landmines for a computer model. Determinations of separate and marital property and the conversion of assets from one status to another and then determination of the value for equitable distribution can be rigorous.
Understanding the "best interests" for custody determination and how to best persuade a judge is unique to almost every case as the parties and the children involved are different as well as the factual background of their residence, interaction of parents, distance between residences, income of the parents, presence of other family members and the list of factors could fill another blog post.
As is true with so many other uses of AI is a tool that is not one size fits all. A hammer is not a screw driver and no tool will ever be able to assess and understand the human emotions in decision making...at least not yet.