By Richard Hamlin, Hamlin|Cody 

Let’s talk about AI in the legal field. We rely on it one area where it is a real time-saver. Otherwise, it is not quite ready for prime time.

AI is good at providing an overview of the statutes and cases that apply in your jurisdiction. This is where AI shines. Properly prompted, AI will summarize the law and give you a starting point for cases that apply to your situation. Emphasizing “properly prompted,” it is a real time-saver, and faster and more thorough than normal computer research (which I have been using since the late 1970’s).

We use Lexis, which works because it limits its database to actual cases and statutes. Even then, we need to read the cases and the statutes because AI, at its best, makes mistakes and hallucinates (makes up facts). On one occasion, I asked AI to draft a routine motion, supporting declaration and supporting brief. It was fast, but it was also generic, superficial and included a lot of “insert facts here” provisions. The format was incorrect.

I suspect most of your readers have seen stories about attorneys who used AI to draft briefs, only to learn from an angry judge that the cases sited by the AI did not exist. AI can be helpful, but you need to be very careful with it when using it to create something new.

AI is ok for drafting routine contracts and letters. That is, if you have a template for a lease and only need to fill in the parties, location, dates and financial terms, AI will save time. If you need a standardized demand letter, release, or similar document that you use repeatedly, AI is ok for that as well. You must check the output for accuracy, but it will save time overall.

AI is not ready for prime time when creating or drafting anything that is not routine. We have had a few vendors offering apps to draft contracts through AI. We have found their output to be unacceptable. AI learns about contracts by reading who-knows-how-many thousands or millions of pages of existing contracts. Unfortunately, there are probably millions of badly written contracts out there.

Attorneys have, for hundreds of years, written contracts in legalese, which can sound like gibberish. We have seen contracts written by large, respected firms that have conflicting provisions, ambiguous language and cross-references to paragraphs that don’t exist. This is the Large Language Model on which AI relies when drafting a contract. Garbage in produces garbage out. We prefer to follow the guidance of Strunk and White from “The Elements of Style.” My understanding of their lessons: “Write simply, with strength and precision.”

AI can be useful to generate a check list of terms that are common to the type of contract that you are using. In the future, perhaps the very short future, AI may learn to draft contracts that are written simply, clearly, and accurately. Until then, be very careful about using AI.

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