What AI Chatbots Can Teach Us About Unmet Legal Needs

Key Findings

• — Of 3,287 respondents, 1,428 (almost half) reported a legal dispute in the last two years; 233 of those (16.3%) had used an AI chatbot for help, information or advice about it
• — Chatbot use among people with a recent legal problem was 26% for 18-24-year-olds versus 10% for 55-64-year-olds, while the incidence of legal problems was flat across age bands
• — Only 6% of chatbot users relied on the chatbot alone; chatbot users drew on 3.7 sources of help on average versus 1.9 for non-users
• — Chatbot users were less likely to have sought a solicitor's advice (33.9% versus 44.6% of non-users) and somewhat more likely to have gone to Citizens Advice or a legal advice service
• — 77 participants (about a third of chatbot users) shared real conversations, forming a dataset of unprompted public-AI legal exchanges; uses included translating legal language, drafting, and checking their own lawyers' conduct

Methodology Notes

Online survey of 3,287 UK adults via Prolific, December 2025 to January 2026, with quotas for age, gender and ethnicity; qualitative analysis of 77 shared chat transcripts (self-selected, so subject to selection effects). Published as a web report on justice.org.uk; the JUSTICE reports listing dates it 1 September 2026 and the page itself carries no visible date. Opt-in panel: prevalence figures are indicative, not population estimates.

Sources