{"id":623374,"date":"2026-04-23T13:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/623374\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T13:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:44:08","slug":"among-canadas-lawyers-the-jury-is-still-out-on-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/623374\/","title":{"rendered":"Among Canada\u2019s lawyers, the jury is still out on AI"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Hilary Angrove, the founder of contract law firm Angrove Law.Stacy BLOUNT\/Supplied<\/p>\n

In a system where time is money, AI could reshape how legal professionals do their jobs and how they charge for it. <\/p>\n

Surveys suggest that many legal professionals are using artificial intelligence. Nearly 90 per cent of Canadian lawyers said their firm is piloting or integrating AI tools, according to a 2025 survey<\/a> from Best Lawyers, an organization that ranks legal professionals. Hours-long administrative and legal research tasks can be conducted by AI in a fraction of the time it takes a person to complete. <\/p>\n

Some lawyers are welcoming AI, pointing to its efficiencies and saying it could lead to lower legal fees for clients. Other lawyers are wary, worried that the new technology fast being adopted by the profession poses a host of potential problems to both lawyers and the clients they serve. <\/p>\n

AI could save hundreds of dollars for people seeking legal support, according to Hilary Angrove, the founder of contract law firm Angrove Law. The price tag of administrative or paralegal work can be $175 an hour, she said \u2013 and that\u2019s on top of the cost of a lawyer. <\/p>\n

AI\u2019s impact is larger in document-heavy professions, making law ripe for transformation<\/a><\/p>\n

At Ms. Angrove\u2019s firm, AI is used to send e-mails, schedule meetings and fill out government forms that can take three to eight hours for a person to complete. Using AI for administrative tasks helps Ms. Angrove\u2019s team operate more efficiently, which allows them to work for a lower flat rate instead of the hourly rate most lawyers use. <\/p>\n

For example, Ms. Angrove said a prenuptial agreement can cost $2,000 to $3,000 at her firm, compared with $5,000 at a firm operating on the billable hour.<\/p>\n

\u201cA huge part of my job is finding efficiencies for my team so that we can provide legal services at an accessible price,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

The technology is becoming more popular, according to Matthew Peters, who leads the AI adoption strategy as the national transformation leader at business law firm McCarthy T\u00e9trault.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery firm is either looking at or has one tool,\u201d he said. McCarthy T\u00e9trault uses three AI programs to handle tasks such as legal research, developing questions for witnesses or preparing drafts. AI can produce higher-quality work by catching information that people miss, Mr. Peters said, and it can cut hours off the time it takes to do legal work. On some tasks, he said, AI has cut down 10 hours of work to one hour.<\/p>\n

\u201dThe hour is obviously the human review,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Spending too much time on administrative tasks compared with legal work has been identified as a key pressure in the sector, with more than 80 per cent of firms reporting it as a moderate or significant challenge in a 2024 report<\/a> by Thomson Reuters Institute and the Canadian Bar Association. <\/p>\n

Cutting time can translate to cutting fees. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re billing in the traditional way, on an hourly basis, the efficiencies flow directly to the clients,\u201d Mr. Peters said. <\/p>\n

The pricing changes brought by AI could push lawyers away from the billable hour toward fixed-fee models, he added.<\/p>\n

Ms. Angrove, whose firm already operates with that pricing, said flat rates benefit people seeking legal support. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople want to know what to expect,\u201d she said. \u201cEspecially with how expensive it is right now just living, buying groceries, people need to budget.\u201d <\/p>\n

But clients may not see a lower price tag quite yet, according to Amy Salyzyn, a University of Ottawa law professor who studies the ethics of technology and access to the justice system. There isn\u2019t clear evidence of shifting legal fees, she said, and even if there were, it\u2019s unclear if they would drop enough to be affordable for those most in need. <\/p>\n

Opinion: The future of AI will be decided by trust, not speed<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe jury\u2019s still out on that question,\u201d Dr. Salyzyn said. <\/p>\n

In the meantime, legal professionals can be wary of AI. Nearly three-quarters of respondents to the Best Lawyers survey said they were slightly or moderately concerned about the risks AI poses to their practice. <\/p>\n

Those concerns include security issues around putting clients\u2019 confidential information into AI tools or AI reproducing discrimination in the legal system, Dr. Salyzyn said. There\u2019s also the possibility of AI making mistakes.<\/p>\n

In a 2025 case, a judge said in a Federal Court<\/a> decision that the applicants\u2019 lawyer drew on two precedent cases and a test which had been \u201challucinated,\u201d or made up, by an AI legal research tool.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe use of generative artificial intelligence is increasingly common and a perfectly valid tool for counsel to use,\u201d the judge wrote in a decision. \u201cHowever, in this Court, its use must be declared and as a matter of both practice, good sense and professionalism, its output must be verified by a human.\u201d <\/p>\n

Generative AI can also be flawed for people who can\u2019t afford legal aid and represent themselves in court, according to Kathy Batycky, a member of the Canadian Bar Association\u2019s access to justice subcommittee. Those people could turn to AI, which could make up cases or simply not understand complex legal issues, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to double-check all the cases,\u201d Ms. Batycky said, adding she is reluctant to use AI in her practice as a family lawyer. \u201cIt\u2019s too risky.\u201d <\/p>\n

Anthropic\u2019s release of AI tools for lawyers prompts massive legal-tech sell-off<\/a><\/p>\n

Ms. Angrove said several clients have asked her team to review AI-generated contracts, which she said are always missing information or made for the wrong jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe user doesn\u2019t know how to prompt properly,\u201d she said. Lawyers, on the other hand, have the education to become the \u201cultimate prompter.\u201d That\u2019s why the legal profession is still needed, Ms. Angrove said, even though jobs will likely be lost as AI gains popularity. <\/p>\n

The change could pose an existential issue for the future of the field, as entry-level research and drafting work done by law students is no longer necessary. <\/p>\n

\u201cHow do we actually develop the next generation of lawyers, if a bunch of the tasks that have been used to develop their skills are going away?\u201d Mr. Peters of McCarthy T\u00e9trault said.<\/p>\n

Dr. Salyzyn said there is concern among her law students about what their future field will look like. However, she said AI may change the type of work that lawyers do, but not the public demand for them. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m optimistic that there will always be a place and an important role for that human judgment, for that human connection when it comes to the delivery of legal services.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Hilary Angrove, the founder of contract law firm Angrove Law.Stacy BLOUNT\/Supplied In a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,901,276,277,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":{"0":"post-623374","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-alberta","10":"tag-artificial-intelligence","11":"tag-artificialintelligence","12":"tag-arts-news","13":"tag-bc","14":"tag-breaking-news","15":"tag-breaking-news-video","16":"tag-british-columbia","17":"tag-ca","18":"tag-canada","19":"tag-canada-news","20":"tag-canada-sports","21":"tag-canada-sports-news","22":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","23":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","24":"tag-canadian-news","25":"tag-economy","26":"tag-education","27":"tag-environment","28":"tag-federal-government","29":"tag-foreign-news","30":"tag-globe-and-mail","31":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","32":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","33":"tag-government","34":"tag-life-news","35":"tag-lifestyle","36":"tag-local-news","37":"tag-manitoba","38":"tag-national-news","39":"tag-new-brunswick","40":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","41":"tag-northwest-territories","42":"tag-nova-scotia","43":"tag-nunavut","44":"tag-ontario","45":"tag-pei","46":"tag-photos","47":"tag-political-news","48":"tag-political-opinion","49":"tag-politics","50":"tag-politics-news","51":"tag-quebec","52":"tag-sports-news","53":"tag-technology","54":"tag-travel","55":"tag-trudeau","56":"tag-us-news","57":"tag-world-news","58":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}