More and more people are using ChatGPT to prepare their own divorce consent orders, and I can understand why.
If you’ve already agreed how to split your finances, paying a solicitor to put that agreement into a legal document can seem like an unnecessary expense.
ChatGPT can produce something that looks like a professionally drafted consent order in seconds. You can even ask it to check whether the document is legally correct, and it’ll confidently tell you that it is.
But here’s the problem. If the document is wrong, how would you know?
That’s what concerns me about people relying on AI to prepare legal documents that could affect their financial future.
What we’re seeing at Easy Online Divorce
At Easy Online Divorce, we’re receiving more and more enquiries from people who’ve used ChatGPT or other AI tools to prepare their own consent orders and Form D81.
They’ve already reached a financial agreement, drafted the documents themselves and now want a solicitor to check everything and submit it to the court.
I understand the thinking. If you’ve already done most of the work yourself, why should you pay a solicitor to do it again?
But this is where there’s a misunderstanding.
Producing a document that looks like a consent order isn’t the same as preparing a legally effective consent order.
The work isn’t simply putting your agreement into legal language. It’s understanding what you’ve agreed, identifying which legal provisions are needed and making sure the order actually does what you intend.
Why getting the wording right matters
A financial consent order isn’t just a document recording how you’ve agreed to split your finances.
Once approved by the court and brought into effect, it determines your financial rights and obligations following divorce.
Depending on your circumstances, it may need to deal with property transfers or sales, savings, pensions, maintenance and the dismissal of future financial claims.
Even where you’ve already separated your finances and simply want a clean break, the legal wording matters.
For example, saying that neither person wants anything further from the other isn’t the same as including the legal provisions required to dismiss future financial claims.
An AI-generated document might look perfectly convincing, complete with numbered clauses, formal legal language and references to legislation, but that doesn’t mean it provides the protection you think it does.
And if it doesn’t, you might not discover the problem until the court raises it, or potentially years later when someone tries to rely on the order.
What happens when the court rejects a consent order?
This isn’t just a theoretical concern.
Every week we receive enquiries from people who’ve prepared their own consent orders, submitted them to the Family Court and had them rejected.
In one case, the judge stated:
“The document submitted by the parties does not constitute a properly drafted consent order.”
The judge directed the parties to submit a properly drafted replacement before the application could be reconsidered.
That meant finding a legal professional to prepare the order correctly, despite having already spent time preparing and submitting the original documents.
What was intended to save money had instead delayed the process and created additional work.
And we’re not the only ones concerned about the risks of AI-generated legal documents.
In August 2026, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) issued a warning about the misuse of AI in legal services, highlighting the risk of inaccurate information appearing in legal advice, analysis and documents submitted to the courts.
The Civil Justice Council has also been examining the use of AI in preparing court documents, including the challenges it presents for people representing themselves.
The concern isn’t that AI has no place in legal services. It can be useful when used appropriately.
The problem is relying on legal documents generated by AI without the knowledge or experience to establish whether those documents are correct.
Why we don’t review AI-generated consent orders
One of the most common requests we now receive is for a solicitor to check an AI-generated consent order, correct anything that’s wrong and submit it to the court.
We don’t offer that service.
At Easy Online Divorce, we don’t review or amend consent orders prepared by individuals without legal training, including those drafted using AI.
The reason is straightforward.
To check whether a consent order is suitable, we’d need to understand the financial circumstances, examine the agreement, establish which provisions are required and identify anything that’s missing or incorrectly drafted.
By the time we’ve done that, reviewing and correcting the document can take longer than preparing it properly from the outset.
So rather than trying to repair an AI-generated consent order, we prepare the legal documents ourselves based on the agreement you’ve reached.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use ChatGPT to understand the divorce process, research terminology or prepare questions. It can be helpful for all those things.
But there’s a difference between using AI to understand something and relying on it to prepare a legal document that could affect your financial future.
Professional legal drafting doesn’t have to cost thousands
I suspect one of the main reasons people turn to ChatGPT is because they assume using a solicitor will be expensive.
And if you’ve already agreed how to split your finances, I can understand why you wouldn’t want to spend thousands of pounds getting the paperwork sorted.
But you don’t need to.
Easy Online Divorce is an SRA-regulated law firm specialising in fixed-fee divorce and financial consent orders for couples who’ve already reached an agreement.
You don’t need two opposing solicitors simply to turn an agreed financial settlement into a legally binding court order.
Depending on your circumstances, we offer:
- Clean Break Order – £399: For straightforward cases where there are no assets left to divide and you want to prevent future financial claims.
- Consent Order – £599: For agreed financial settlements involving arrangements such as property, savings or other assets.
- Tailored Consent Order – £999: For more complex financial arrangements requiring additional drafting.
There is also a £62 court fee.
We prepare the necessary documents, arrange for them to be signed at the appropriate stage and submit the application to the court for approval.
Our UK-based team handles the process and keeps you updated throughout.
Should you use ChatGPT to prepare your divorce consent order?
ChatGPT can be useful for understanding the divorce process, explaining unfamiliar legal terms and helping you work out what questions to ask.
But ChatGPT cannot currently be relied upon to draft a legally accurate and effective financial consent order.
It can produce a document that looks convincing, but it cannot reliably establish whether the correct legal provisions have been included, whether anything important has been missed or whether the order will achieve the financial protection you need.
And unless you’re legally trained, you won’t necessarily spot those mistakes yourself.
That’s why we believe financial consent orders should be professionally drafted.
At Easy Online Divorce, we’ve built our service around making that affordable. If you’ve already agreed how to divide your finances, you don’t need to spend thousands of pounds or instruct two opposing solicitors to get a properly drafted consent order.
Using AI to understand your divorce can be helpful. Relying on it to prepare your financial consent order is a risk you don’t need to take.
Find out more about our fixed-fee Consent Order service
James Brien is the Founder & Managing Director of Easy Online Divorce, an SRA-regulated law firm specialising in fixed-fee divorce and agreed financial settlements in England and Wales.
