Will AI Decide Your Divorce? What HMCTS’s New AI Plan Actually Says

July 24, 2026
3:43 pm

HM Courts & Tribunals Service published its first AI Adoption Plan in June 2026. It confirms that the justice system is already testing artificial intelligence. If you’re going through a divorce right now, that headline alone might worry you.

Is a machine going to decide how your house gets split, or how much time you spend with your children? The honest answer, straight from HMCTS itself, is no.

Understanding exactly where AI in family courts starts and stops tells you far more about your case than the headlines do.

What Has HMCTS Actually Said About Using AI in Family Courts?

HMCTS Chief Technology Officer Gary O’Reilly set out the plan in a blog post on 5 June 2026. He described a “careful and responsible approach” built around nine principles, grouped under three headings: appropriate, safe, and controlled. In practice, HMCTS is trialling AI for tasks like processing information more quickly and helping staff manage cases. It is not trialling AI for decisions about people’s lives.

Every tool goes through testing, review and monitoring before HMCTS introduces it. HMCTS also says it works with the judiciary, the Ministry of Justice and legal professionals throughout, rather than rolling anything out alone. That governance detail matters more than it sounds. It’s the difference between a pilot scheme with real oversight and quiet changes to how your case moves through the system.

Will AI Ever Decide How Your Money or Children Are Divided?

No. HMCTS has been explicit about this.

Its guidance says AI may in future help with certain aspects of judicial work, such as summarising documents. But it “will not replace the judicial role in final determinations,” and safeguards protect judicial independence.

A judge still decides your financial remedy outcome. A judge still decides any arrangement for your children.

Professor Richard Susskind, one of the most widely cited experts on AI and the legal profession, puts the broader shift like this:

“Lawyers are not being replaced by robots, but by other lawyers and clients armed with AI.”

The same logic applies to the courts. AI is changing how information moves around your case. It isn’t changing who makes the actual decision.

Does It Matter That the Justice Secretary Just Changed?

This is worth adding, because it’s genuinely new. Andy Burnham became Prime Minister on 20 July 2026. In the reshuffle that followed, David Lammy left his role as Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary. Alex Norris MP has taken over — the first non-lawyer to hold the post in a Labour government.

It’s fair to ask whether a new minister means the AI plan gets shelved or slowed down. On the evidence so far, that looks unlikely. HMCTS’s AI Adoption Plan is a Civil Service programme, led by its own Chief Technology Officer. It isn’t a personal initiative tied to one minister. The Ministry of Justice’s stated priorities under the new Prime Minister still include modernising the justice system and cutting court backlogs. Nothing published since the reshuffle points to a change of direction. What’s genuinely uncertain is the pace Norris sets over the coming months — that’s simply too soon to call, and we’ll keep watching it.

Why Are Courts Turning to AI in the First Place?

The honest driver is backlog. Family court delays have been a real, well-documented problem for years. Anyone waiting months for a hearing date knows exactly what that costs in stress and uncertainty. HMCTS says plainly that its interest in AI is about processing cases more efficiently, not replacing legal judgment. If it works as intended, the realistic upside is a system that moves faster around the edges: scheduling, document handling, case updates. The decision about your case still gets made exactly the way it is now.

Should You Be Worried About AI “Hallucinating” in Your Case?

This is where real caution belongs — but it’s about how some lawyers use AI, not about the courts themselves. In Ayinde v London Borough of Haringey in June 2025, legal representatives submitted fabricated case citations to the High Court. One supposedly came from the Court of Appeal and didn’t exist.

The judge called it “wholly improper.” In March 2026, a court referred a solicitor to the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The solicitor admitted they hadn’t checked AI-assisted research before it went before a judge.

Both cases involved lawyers failing to verify AI-generated content. Neither is a story about AI in family courts going wrong at the institutional level — both are about individual lawyers cutting corners. If anything, they show why HMCTS’s emphasis on testing and human oversight matters. If you’re instructing a solicitor, it’s entirely reasonable to ask how they use AI tools, and how they check the output before it reaches your case.

So What Does This Actually Mean for Your Divorce?

Practically, very little changes for you right now. The court process stays the same. A real judge still applies the same legal tests. The same questions still decide your financial settlement. What AI might change, gradually, is how quickly the administrative side of your case moves — and that’s worth welcoming, not fearing.

HMCTS’s version of AI in family courts targets case administration for now, and that’s a sensible place to start. It also points to a bigger shift already under way.

Smart technology, built on real legal and judicial expertise, can give people clearer, earlier answers than the traditional court timeline ever could.

That’s precisely the space What Would a Judge Say? was built for, and we’re continuing to invest in it. The sooner you understand where you stand, the sooner you can decide with confidence.

Get Clarity on Your Divorce Settlement

Our aim is to give separating couples a clear, judge-led written opinion on how their finances are likely to be divided. It usually takes six weeks, for a fixed fee. It draws on the same judicial insight that sits behind every court decision, just delivered faster and without the wait for a hearing date.

If uncertainty about your financial settlement is keeping you up at night, an early, credible answer matters more than headlines about AI in family courts. Whatever pace AI reform moves at, our approach starts with the judge, not the court, because that’s the perspective that actually resolves your case.

Not every case is straightforward. Some separations involve international assets, complex trusts, businesses or significant wealth, where full-scale representation is the right next step. Our sister firm Paradigm Family Law specialises in exactly this kind of complex and cross-border financial remedy work, led by Senior Partner Frank Arndt.

Get a fixed-fee, judge-led opinion on your divorce settlement, within six weeks.

Find out more at whatwouldajudgesay.com.