Share of Victorian lawyers using AI rises to 55%, census finds
More than half of Victorian lawyers now use artificial intelligence (AI) in their work, according to a 2026 census of 2,221 lawyers in Victoria, an Australian state. The Guardian reported that the share rose from 37% to 55% over the past year. The census was conducted by the Victorian Legal Services Board and its Legal Services Research Centre.
Most of that use involves general-purpose tools. Seventy-nine per cent of lawyers said they used consumer chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Copilot, while 22% said they used legal-specific AI tools alone. Use was highest in trade practices (85%), banking and finance (78%) and information technology and telecommunications (78%). It was lowest in criminal law (29%), family law (45%) and administrative law (46%).
On fees, 26% of lawyers said their use of AI had lowered client fees. Lawyers working for business clients were more likely to report reduced fees (34%) than those working for individual fee-paying clients (23%). Another 18% said AI had enabled them to take on work that would previously have been uneconomical, meaning not worth doing at the cost involved.
Fixed-fee billing, where a lawyer agrees to charge a set price regardless of the hours spent, is under strain. The Australian Financial Review reported in October that rising client use of AI is placing pressure on that arrangement.
Clients are also bringing AI into the process. The census found that 46% of lawyers had clients arrive with inaccurate or misleading information derived from AI, and 41% had clients present AI-generated documents that needed correcting. Nearly half said client use of AI had increased the time and effort their work required, while 19% said it had reduced it.
Lawyers are checking the output. In the 2025 survey, 89% of practitioners said they had taken steps to verify the accuracy of AI output. Victorian practice guidance issued in December 2024 states that lawyers who use AI should ensure it does not unnecessarily increase client costs above traditional methods, according to the Victorian Legal Services Board.
Errors have reached the courts. In August 2025, a senior lawyer apologised to a Victorian judge for filing submissions in a murder case that contained AI-generated errors, as the ABC reported. In November 2025 the Legal Services Board of Victoria warned lawyers about the use of AI in court, the ABC reported. The Victorian Law Reform Commission has also produced a report on AI use by the state's courts and tribunals.
Younger lawyers appear to be among the heaviest users. A survey reported by Reuters in July 2026 found that nearly half of early-career lawyers use AI daily, mainly to conduct legal research and compile information.
