www.canadianlawyermag.com 35
software companies claiming they can make
your job more efficient," Alexander says.
In fact, as the Nova Scotia Barristers'
Society warned in its recently released AI
Guide, lawyers may even be using AI without
realizing, noting, for example, that "Microsoft
Copilot is now automatically enabled in
Microsoft 365, and Adobe Acrobat requires
users to manually disable its 'AI Assistant.'"
Although family lawyers are not the only
ones dealing with legal AI risks, they have
been prominent in bringing them to public
attention. Soon after BC's Zhang v. Chen case,
Ontario's family law practitioners got their
own AI wake-up call in the divorce case of
Ko v. Li, when Justice Fred Myers ordered a
show-cause hearing for possible contempt by
the applicant's counsel after she cited halluci-
nated cases in a factum. The same judge later
dismissed the hearing, acknowledging the
lawyer's immediate apology and the "public
shaming" she had endured in the meantime.
"AI may not say what you want it
to say, and you don't have to use it.
However, there could be pieces of it that
are helpful and brilliant"
Fraser MacLean, MacLean Law
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At family law boutique Crossroads Law in
Vancouver, founder Marcus Sixta explains that
it's impossible to say whether family lawyers
are uniquely vulnerable to the dangers of AI.
"That would be pure speculation, but what I
would say is that family law is an area that can
