You have a legal question. You look at how much a solicitor in your area would cost, and all of them appear to be out of your budget. So, instead of calling a solicitor, you ask ChatGPT.
The AI tool gives you an instant answer. It sounds authoritative, and it seems to address your situation, so you follow its advice.
The appeal is understandable. However, AI legal advice comes with significant risks that many people don’t realise until it’s too late. We’ve had clients come to us having been given incorrect information by AI tools or, in some cases, after sharing confidential information with systems that offer no protection at all.
This doesn’t mean AI is useless. But understanding what AI can help with, and where it falls short, is essential before you rely on it for legal matters.
The Difference Between Legal Information and Legal Advice
It’s first important to understand the distinction between legal information and legal advice.
Legal information answers general questions about the law: “What is divorce law in the UK?” “What are my statutory rights as an employee?” “How does probate work?” These are factual questions about the law.
Legal advice applies that information to your specific situation: “Given your income of £40,000, your partner’s income of £60,000, your two children aged 5 and 8, and your £300,000 home, here’s how divorce law applies to you and what you should do about spousal maintenance and child arrangements.” This is situation-specific guidance shaped by your circumstances.
AI can give you legal information with moderate success, but it struggles significantly with giving legal advice.
Someone might ask their AI tool, “Can I be dismissed for taking sick leave?” and receive an accurate general answer: “No, in most cases, dismissing someone purely for taking sick leave is unfair.” That’s true information, but it’s practically useless without context.
The AI tool doesn’t know if your company has a pattern of managing out employees they don’t like. It doesn’t know whether your employer’s disciplinary procedures are flawed. It doesn’t know your employment history, your salary, your role’s criticality, or dozens of other factors that matter.
A good solicitor would know these factors are important, and would ask the questions to understand your full situation. They’d then give you advice tailored to your circumstances.
This is one reason why relying on AI legal advice is risky; you’re actually getting legal information rather than true legal advice. And when your job, your family or your finances are at stake, the difference matters enormously.
The Specific Risks of Using AI Legal Advice
AI Hallucinations
One of the most dangerous aspects of AI is “hallucination”, when AI generates information that sounds credible but is completely false.
Matthew Lee, a barrister in England and Wales, has documented a handful of confirmed and suspected cases of AI hallucinations affecting legal outcomes on his website Natural and Artificial Intelligence in Law. In these cases, individuals relied on AI-generated legal information that was factually incorrect, and it contributed to unfavourable results, such as one appellant seeing their tax appeal refused and coming close to being found in contempt of court for sharing fabricated information.
AI doesn’t “know” things in the way humans understand knowledge. It predicts the next likely word based on patterns in its training data. Sometimes, the pattern it recognises produces an answer that sounds completely plausible but is entirely made up, particularly with specific details like case names, statute numbers, or precise legal requirements.
Outdated Legal Information
AI tools are trained on data with cutoff dates. If an AI system were trained on 2023 data, it would not understand changes that happened in 2024, 2025, or 2026.
This is particularly relevant right now with the Employment Rights Act 2025, which introduced major changes to UK employment law. Some AI systems are trained on data from before implementation, meaning that they may not fully understand the new rules and their implications.
You could receive AI-generated advice based on employment law that’s no longer current, leading you to make decisions based on rights or restrictions that no longer exist or have been significantly changed.
Solicitors stay updated. We track changes in legislation, court rulings, and regulatory guidance as they happen. We also attend training, read legal updates, and understand the practical implications of new laws. AI tools, on the other hand, remain frozen at their training cutoff date.
No Legal Professional Privilege
When you share information with a solicitor, it’s protected by legal professional privilege. That information is confidential and cannot be disclosed without your consent (with very limited exceptions).
When you share information with an AI tool, no such protection exists. Your information can be stored, used to train the AI model, accessed by company staff, or subject to government requests.
If you’re sharing sensitive details with an AI tool expecting confidentiality, you’re taking a risk you may not realise. Always check the AI’s terms of service before sharing sensitive information.
No Accountability
If a solicitor gives you bad advice that damages you, you have options: complain to the firm, report them to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, or potentially bring a claim for professional negligence.
If ChatGPT, Google, or any other AI tool gives you legal advice that damages you, you have none of these options. AI providers explicitly don’t accept responsibility for the outcomes of using their advice. Their terms of service make this clear.
This asymmetry is a fundamental difference between AI and actual legal advice. With a solicitor, there’s accountability. With AI, there isn’t.
Lack of Contextual Judgement
Legal advice requires judgement shaped by years of experience. A solicitor understands how courts interpret the law, what judges tend to prioritise, what negotiation strategies work with particular opposing solicitors and what realistic outcomes are in similar cases.
AI has access to data, but it doesn’t have judgement. It can’t advise on the strategic implications of different options. It can’t tell you, “Here’s what the law technically allows, but here’s what will actually happen if you try to do that because courts don’t typically approach these situations that way.”
What AI Can Actually Help With
AI can be helpful for legal matters, as long as you use it appropriately.
Finding Solicitors: AI can help you search for legal professionals in your area who specialise in your issue. You can ask it to find employment law solicitors in Coventry or family law specialists near you. This is information-gathering, and it’s perfectly safe.
Understanding Legal Terminology: Legal language is intentionally precise but often confusing. Asking AI to explain a term is helpful: “What does ‘tort’ mean?” “Explain the concept of unfair dismissal.” “What’s the difference between a conditional order and a final order?” Using AI-generated explanations as background knowledge is fine, though you should still be aware of the potential for hallucinations.
Formulating Questions for Your Solicitor: AI can help you brainstorm questions before your consultation. Thinking through what you need to ask means you get more value from the time you pay for and can help you make consultations more efficient and focused.
Finding Official Information and Resources: AI can help you locate government guidance (GOV.UK), Acas resources, and regulatory information. The official sources themselves are reliable; AI is just finding them for you.
Will Using AI for Initial Research Make Legal Advice Cheaper?
Many people assume that doing their own AI-assisted research will reduce legal costs. They imagine showing up to a solicitor with detailed AI-generated research, saving the solicitor time, and paying less as a result.
In reality, your costs most likely won’t go down; in fact, there is even a chance that doing this could make them rise.
Your solicitor would need to review what you’ve already done, identify gaps or errors, correct misinformation, and reorganise the material into something legally sound.
If your research contains hallucinations or outdated information, your solicitor has to unpick this and start over with accurate foundations. This process takes additional time, time you may have to pay for.
The better approach: Come to your solicitor with raw material and questions, not with AI-generated legal analysis. Bring the information you’ve gathered, the concerns you have, and the questions you want answered. This is a far more efficient and cost-effective approach.
How Accurate Are Google AI Overviews?
An analysis conducted by a team of reporters and AI research firm Oumi, and reported on by the New York Times, suggests AI Overviews are accurate about 90% of the time, which sounds good at face value.
Consider, though, that Google processes over 5 trillion searches per year. If 90% are accurate, that means 10% are inaccurate. 10% of 5 trillion equals 500 billion inaccurate responses per year, or approximately 1.37 billion inaccurate responses per day.
For someone searching for legal information, the question becomes, ‘Am I in the 90% that got accurate information, or the 500 billion that didn’t?’ You can’t know which, and the stakes are high if you guess wrong.
Additionally, “accuracy” can mean different things. A response might be factually accurate but not applicable to your specific situation.
Even if Google AI Overviews are 90% accurate overall, they’re not a reliable source for legal advice. The error rate, combined with the inability to assess whether you’re in the accurate or inaccurate group, makes them unsuitable as a basis for legal decisions.
When You Should Actually Seek a Solicitor
Seek professional legal advice if your question involves:
- A decision that will significantly affect your life, finances, or career. (divorce, dismissal, serious contractual matters).
- Any situation involving litigation or potential tribunal claims.
- Complicated financial or property matters.
- Immigration or asylum.
- Criminal charges.
- Business contracts or agreements.
- Anything where you’re unsure of the answer.
If you’re considering relying on AI because of cost, early legal advice often prevents expensive problems later. A few hours of solicitor time upfront can save thousands in tribunal costs or legal mistakes. Many solicitors offer fixed fees or initial consultations at reasonable rates. The cost of getting it wrong is usually far higher than the cost of getting it right.
Get the Right Advice for Your Situation
AI can help you find information and prepare for a consultation, but there is no substitute for advice from a qualified solicitor who understands your situation.
Use AI to research and prepare. But for actual legal advice, we would ultimately recommend that you consult a qualified solicitor.
At Tann Law, we work with individuals and businesses across Coventry, Birmingham, the West Midlands, and beyond, providing clear, honest legal advice across employment law, immigration, family law, and business legal services.
If you’re ready to talk, we’re ready to help.
Contact Tann Law Solicitors:
Tel: 0247 763 2323
Email: info@tannlaw.co.uk
Visit our homepage to learn more about our services, or check out our client reviews to see what clients say about working with us.
Don’t rely on AI for important decisions. Get advice from a solicitor who can assess your specific situation and guide you towards the right outcome.