If you are going through a divorce or custody case, there is a good chance you have already asked ChatGPT, Claude, or another AI tool about it. Maybe you asked what your odds are. Maybe you vented about your ex at 2 a.m. Maybe you asked it to help you write a text you were too angry to write yourself.
I get it. AI is a great tool, and we use it at Modern Law every day. But there is one thing every family law client needs to know before typing another word: what you put into AI may end up in front of the judge.
Here is how to use AI to help your case, and how to keep it from hurting you.
Your AI chats may be discoverable
What you say to your lawyer is protected by attorney-client privilege. What you say to a chatbot may not be.
In February 2026, a federal judge in New York ruled on this question for the first time. In United States v. Heppner, the defendant had used a consumer AI chatbot to work through his legal situation, then handed those chats to his lawyers. The court said the chats were not privileged and had to be turned over. The judge’s reasoning was simple. The AI company’s own terms said user conversations were not confidential. Typing your case into a public AI tool is more like talking it over with a friend than talking to your lawyer. And sending the chats to your attorney later does not make them privileged after the fact.
Other courts, including a Texas court in June 2026, have gone the other way in some situations. The law is unsettled, and no one knows yet how an Arizona family court will rule on it.
That uncertainty is the point. Assume anything you type into an AI tool can be requested by the other side, subpoenaed, and read out loud in court. That includes:
- What you asked (“How do I keep my ex from getting the kids?”)
- What you admitted (“I had a few drinks before I picked them up”)
- How you described your ex, your kids, and your money
- What the AI told you back
And do not delete chats you have already had. Deleting information that may be relevant to your case can create a bigger problem than the chats themselves. If you have already used AI to talk about your case, tell your attorney so we can deal with it.
What to keep out of AI
A simple test: if you would not want the judge to read it, do not type it. Keep these out:
- Your legal strategy. Settlement numbers you would accept, what you plan to ask for, what you are worried the other side knows.
- Admissions and confessions. Anything about drinking, drug use, a temper, a new relationship, money you moved, or anything else you would not say on the stand.
- Venting about your ex. A 2 a.m. rant reads very differently when opposing counsel prints it.
- Your children’s private information. Their names, schools, medical and counseling details, and anything they told you in confidence.
- Account numbers, Social Security numbers, and passwords. These do not belong in any AI tool, case or no case.
- Your attorney’s advice. Pasting what we told you into a chatbot to get a “second opinion” can put the privilege on that advice at risk.
Also check your settings. Many consumer AI tools save your history by default and may use it to train their models. Turning that off helps, but it does not make a chat privileged.
Where AI can help your case
None of this means you should avoid AI. Used the right way, it can save you time, stress, and legal fees.
Get organized. Divorce and custody cases produce a mountain of paper: bank statements, pay stubs, school records, text messages, calendars. AI is very good at sorting, labeling, summarizing, and building timelines. A clean, organized client file makes your attorney’s work faster and your case stronger.
Work with your disclosures. In Arizona family court, both sides have to disclose relevant documents to each other. Your disclosures go to the other side anyway, so using AI to organize them carries far less risk than typing out your private thoughts. AI can help you cross-reference which disclosures support which issues. For example, in a custody case the judge looks at the best interest factors in A.R.S. 25-403. AI can help you match a school attendance record, a medical log, or a set of texts to the factor it speaks to, so you can walk into your next attorney meeting ready to talk.
Keep your messages to your ex neutral. Judges read co-parenting messages. A lot of them. AI can take an angry draft and turn it into something short, calm, and focused on the kids. Write what you feel, then ask AI to make it neutral before you hit send. Just paste the draft, not the backstory.
Prepare for meetings with your attorney. AI can help you understand general terms, list your questions, and spot issues worth raising. Bring that list to us. It makes our time together more productive.
The common thread: use AI on facts and documents that are going to be shared anyway, and on drafts you plan to send. Keep your strategy, fears, and admissions for your attorney.
Where AI stops and your attorney begins
AI cannot give you good legal advice about your case. It can explain general concepts. It can surface issues. It can sound very confident. But it does not know your case, and it does not know our courts.
When you hired Modern Law, you hired a firm that practices only family law, and only in Arizona courts. Our attorneys are in Maricopa, Pima, and Pinal County courtrooms every week. We know how individual judges tend to run their courtrooms. We know the local rules, the local practices, and the unwritten expectations that never show up in a statute or a search result. That knowledge shapes every recommendation we make.
AI also gets things wrong. It mixes up laws from other states. It invents cases that do not exist. Courts across the country have sanctioned people for filing papers with fake AI-generated citations. A confident answer is not a correct one.
So here is how to think about it:
- AI is good for: organizing, summarizing, drafting, and coming up with questions.
- Your attorney is for: deciding what those facts mean, what to ask for, what to give up, and how to present it to your judge.
If AI tells you something about your case that worries you or surprises you, bring it to us. That is a great use of AI. Acting on it without talking to us first is not.
AI can be used to fake evidence
The same tools that help you write a calm email can create a fake text thread, a doctored photo, an altered bank statement, or an audio clip of someone saying things they never said. Courts and rulemakers across the country are still working out how to handle this.
We are on the lookout for it in every case. If something the other side produced does not look right to you, tell us. Examples:
- A text or email you do not remember sending or receiving
- A photo that looks off, or shows something that did not happen
- A recording of your voice saying something you did not say
- A financial document with numbers that do not match your records
Do not confront your ex about it and do not try to prove it yourself. Bring it to us. We can examine the file’s metadata and history, request the original files and devices, and bring in a forensic expert when needed to determine whether the evidence is real.
Never use AI to create, edit, or “clean up” evidence in your own case. Presenting false evidence to a court can destroy your credibility and your case, and it can lead to sanctions or criminal charges.
The bottom line
- Assume anything you type into AI can be read by the other side and the judge.
- Keep strategy, admissions, venting, and your kids’ private details out of it.
- Do not delete past chats. Tell your attorney about them.
- Use AI to organize documents, match disclosures to the issues in your case, and keep messages to your ex neutral.
- Treat AI as a way to come up with questions, not answers. Bring those questions to us.
- If you suspect any evidence in your case was created or altered with AI, tell us right away.
AI is a powerful tool. Your attorney is the one who knows how to use what it finds in an Arizona courtroom. If you are a Modern Law client, talk to your attorney about how you are using AI in your case. If you are going through a divorce or custody matter and want a team that understands both the technology and the local courts, schedule a consultation with us.
This post is general information, not legal advice for your situation. The law on AI and privilege is changing quickly. Talk to your attorney before acting on anything here.
