Research undertaken regarding AI usefulness in drafting legal documents

Today, I put into a popular AI chat site the request for it to draft me a consent order which was legally sound.

It contains the basic information regarding the parties and facts. However, the majority of the legal parts are not included.

I requested to create me a consent order based upon these facts:

1. Mr and Mrs Smith selling their family home and splitting the proceeds 50/50.
2. Lump sum of £10,000 to go to Mrs Smith
3. Pensions not to be shared
4. No spousal maintenance

This is a very simple consent order. It would be rather straight forward for a solicitor to draft this to a legally sound standard.

Here’s the results of the AI chat creation:

Is this good enough?

No!

There are quite a few issues with this draft as follows:

1. No mention of The Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 (by which consent orders should relate to)
2. No definitions paragraph as to the items contained within the draft (E.g. Definitions of children of the family and who they are, family home and address, Land registry title number and ownership status or the mortgage.
3. No recitals to outline that the parties have agreed to the terms set out in this order in full and final satisfaction of all claims which are usually listed a-g.
4. No declarations for things such as parties agree that neither have any other legal or equitable interest in any other properties or assets, or liability for the debts of the other, except for any provided for in the order. There also needs to be other declarations here depending on what is agreed.
5. No declarations as to any debts or liabilities which a party should be responsible for.
6. No declaration as to solvency mentioned.
7. Order is not in correct format to show exactly what it being ordered.
8. No dates on when the lump sum should be paid.
9. No clean break declarations for both parties.
10. No recordings such as exact sum figures for sale of property.
11. No undertakings to the court paragraph
12. No liberty to apply paragraph

The tool did not ask me for any further specifics regarding the terms of the order.

On a second attempt, I did request a pension sharing order to be a part of the consent order, but the paragraph when produced was far from sufficient.

The only good part I can take away from this draft is that it laid it out in a relatively easy format to understand and it included the ever-important statement of truth.

Although the consent order had the basic information included, it did not have the right paragraphs to ensure that the order would be legally binding should the court ever consider sealing it. A lot of the information that was not included consists of declarations that each party must make to ensure that the order is legally tight. If this was given to the court, it would be rejected for not including the correct information costing the parties more money on resubmission. If the parties ever managed to get the order sealed by the court and if the main declarations were not included and parts missing it would enable both parties to make a future claim on the other for not specifying those terms.

We offer a free half an hour appointment to talk about your needs of drafting a consent order. If you would like in-depth advice on the terms of an agreed consent order, then this would be chargeable at our hourly rate. Should you wish to instruct us to draft a consent order the cost may vary depending on circumstances of the inclusions required.

Charlotte Dorrington, Family Solicitor