Letter · Client-facing & access-to-justice AI tools
Client letter: using AI tools with your legal matter (confidentiality, privilege and evidence)
Letter warning clients that putting legal advice or matter details into AI tools can risk confidentiality and privilege, that evidence must be in their own words, and that AI legal information can be wrong.
- Kind
- Letter. A letter or email you adapt and send.
- Where it applies
- Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland
- AI use
- Yellow AI can help in set ways. A lawyer checks specific points before use.
- Law stated as at
- 17 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked against the cited sources on 17 October 2026.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Send at the start of litigation or any sensitive matter, or when you learn a client is using AI tools on their matter (for example drafting their own statement or "checking" your advice). Tailor the court paragraph to the forum.
How AI may be used
AI can tailor the letter to the forum and the client's situation from the lawyer's notes, but the lawyer decides what the client is told about privilege and evidence.
AI may
- Insert the forum-specific court paragraph from the lawyer's choice of jurisdiction.
- Simplify the language to the client's reading level and produce a translated version for checking by a qualified translator.
- List the client documents on file that may have been prepared with AI, for the lawyer to raise with the client.
AI must not
- Must not advise the client whether privilege has in fact been lost.
- Must not draft or "improve" any part of the client's evidence.
- Must not be given the client's own AI chat logs unless the tool is approved for privileged material.
The lawyer checks
- The court paragraph matches the forum's current practice note.
- Any past AI use by the client has been discussed and its effect on privilege and evidence assessed.
- The letter does not discourage the client from seeking information, only from risky disclosures.
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Read the full text
The full text is for signed-in accounts. It is free. When you sign in you can:
- read the whole precedent, with its drafting notes beside it;
- copy it, or download it as a Word file or Markdown;
- add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
- let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.
The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.
More in Client-facing & access-to-justice AI tools
- Client notice: how we use AI on your matter, with consent form
- Terms of use and opening disclaimer for a client-facing legal AI assistant
- Pre-launch assurance and supervision checklist for client-facing AI tools
- Collection notice for AI intake and triage tools (APP 5), with short in-chat version
- Human escalation and handoff protocol for client-facing AI tools
All precedents for Client-facing & access-to-justice AI tools · Tasks and AI use in this area