It’s 11 p.m. You’ve received a termination letter. There’s an agreement attached, a deadline to sign and a number that looks rather smaller than you had hoped.
Your lawyer’s office is closed. ChatGPT is not.
You upload the letter, ask whether the offer is fair and receive a detailed answer within seconds. It’s clear. It’s confident. It even sounds sympathetic.
That’s reassuring. But is it right?
A good answer starts with the right questions
There is nothing wrong with wanting to understand a legal problem before speaking with a lawyer. Should you ask AI to help explain unfamiliar terms, organize your thoughts and prepare questions?
Sure. Just remember that AI might give you explanations that are wrong and don’t apply in our jurisdiction. AI may give you a list of questions that are not applicable or appropriate.
Ask AI whether your severance offer is fair and it will give you an answer. But that answer could be all wrong.
A lawyer will start by asking to see your employment agreement, asking about your work and finding out what happened before the termination letter arrived. Those questions aren’t a detour. They’re part of the advice.
The same is true when you’re buying a home, making a will or entering a business arrangement.
A detail you didn’t think worth mentioning may be the detail that changes the answer. You won’t have any way of knowing if what AI spat out is legal, appropriate or addresses everything that needs to be addressed.
The agreement looks professional. So what’s missing?
AI is very good at producing something that looks finished. Neat headings. Numbered clauses. All the right-sounding words.
Unfortunately, the appearance of a legal document tells you very little about whether it will do the job.
Take an agreement between business partners. You might think a short agreement is perfectly adequate. But what happens when one partner wants to leave, the owners disagree about a major decision or someone dies? AI can’t tell you what’s missing and what needs to be there to address your unique situation.
That is usually when people start reading the agreement rather more carefully.
A useful agreement needs to reflect the business and the people involved—not simply look like a nice agreement.
Wills present a similar problem, with an added complication: by the time an omission comes to light, the person who could explain what they intended may no longer be here.
A document can be easy to generate and difficult to fix.
“But ChatGPT said…”
Sometimes an AI answer differs from advice you’ve already received from your lawyer. AI should NEVER be relied upon as a second opinion or to “verify” your lawyer’s advice. If you really want a useful second opinion that you can rely on, get one from another qualified lawyer.
If you were seeing a medical specialist who was diagnosing your problem, would you say “But my neighbour tells me X, so tell my why he is wrong”? Really? It reminds me of the signs you see at your auto mechanic’s shop:
HOURLY RATE
$100/hr Standard Rate
$180/hr if you watch
$200/hr if you help
$300/hr if you worked on it first
$500/hr if you tell me how to do my job
Sure, we tell you why the AI answer is wrong or why the AI document is inadequate. But that takes more time and costs more money.
Most lawyers have document templates and clauses that they are comfortable with and that they know are reliable. It takes more time and more work to “fix” or expand on a document that you bring to us. An AI “first draft” that you bring in to your lawyer will not speed up the process – it will slow it down. You’re entitled to understand the advice you’re being given, particularly when it affects your home, family, livelihood or business. You are entitled to ask your lawyer to explain it. But it’s a waste of money to bring an AI answer to your lawyer and ask them to explain the difference between that answer and the lawyer’s answer.
An AI response may rely on outdated information, apply the law of another jurisdiction or refer to a case that doesn’t exist. The problem is that none of those errors necessarily makes the answer sound less convincing. AI is incapable of reliable analytical reasoning.
Before you click “upload”
There’s another question worth asking before sharing a legal document with an AI service: what information are you handing over?
An employment agreement, will or business contract can contain much more than the clause you want explained. Names, addresses, financial details, family circumstances and confidential business information may all be included.
Different AI services have different privacy terms and settings. Depending on the service, information may be retained, processed by third parties or stored outside Canada.
Don’t assume that uploading a document to an AI platform provides the same confidentiality protections as sharing it with your lawyer. Check how the service handles information before you share it. If you’re unsure, leave sensitive documents out.
AI may be useful starting point. Never the final word.
AI may help you arrive at a legal appointment better prepared. You might use it to make a list of questions, understand unfamiliar vocabulary or organize a non-confidential summary of the issues you want to discuss. (Note that we are hearing stories of clients coming to see lawyers with very long “summaries” and questions that are not useful and end up wasting time and money.)
Never sign, accept an offer or rely on a document based on AI.
The important question isn’t whether AI can produce an answer. AI will always give you an answer. The answer is as reliable as the long-range weather forecast.
At Mason Bennett Johncox, we help individuals, families and businesses understand their legal options and make informed decisions. If you have questions about a real estate transaction, your estate plan, an employment issue or a business agreement, contact our team.
