May 12, 2026
We have written before about the risks of trying to draft your contracts yourself. We suggested that “trying to be your own lawyer is like trying to be our own brain surgeon.”
Admittedly, unlike brain surgery, drafting your own contracts is commonplace, and we all make contracts constantly without even thinking about it.
However, where the contract is being custom prepared for an important deal or drafted to be a template form for more routine transactions, having it drafted by a lawyer may save you expenses in the long run. Like do it yourself wills, the cost of fixing errors in the contract, or resolving disputes, far exceeds the modest cost of having a lawyer draft the contract right in the first place.
Lawyers are trained to ask the correct questions and mold the answers into a document which reflects your needs based on your intentions and the context.
ISSUES
Has AI changed this?
Should you use AI to draft your own contracts?
SHORT ANSWERS
AI will change how contracts are drafted, but drafting your own contracts using AI without a lawyer is as risky as ever.
DISCUSSION
Any use of AI means caution is necessary. Perhaps you have read the warnings about AI giving bad medical advice. The same thing happens in law. Lawyers who have tried using AI without properly understanding the limitations have been disciplined, and the subject of negative headlines.
In the legal area, AI has a dangerous tendency to give answers described as “fiction.” For instance, it will refer to precedent cases which literally do not exist.
An AI algorithm:
- Does not have the training to ask the necessary questions to draft the contract that you need.
- Does not understand the context.
- Does not understand the product or service being provided.
- Does not understand your unique deal.
- Does not understand your risk tolerance level, or that of the other party.
- Does not appreciate the risks you need to guard against
- Will supply the what it decides is the closest answer that it can find, not necessarily the right fit for you.
- Will not know whether it has reduced your deal accurately into writing.
- Will make something up if it does not know the right information- a lawyer will research the point and get it right.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
Using AI in contract drafting will become increasingly common. But we suggest that you should leave it in the hands of your lawyers.
Nothing about AI changes our opinion that trying to do it yourself I risky business and may well cost you much more in legal fees in the long run.
WHAT WEILERS LLP CAN DO TO HELP YOU
At Weilers LLP we encourage our clients to take the time to think about the risks that they are accepting under contracts We know that our clients understand their businesses. We like to work with our clients closely enough to gain some understanding as well.
We are just a phone call or an e-mail away if you have a question about something in one of your contracts. We always appreciate it when you call us before you sign the contract rather than after something bad has happened.
Weilers LLP has over 79 years experience in drafting custom contracts for specific situations. We have precedents available which will reduce your cost, and the expertise to know when to create made to measure language. Like a good tailor, we want to make it fit.
Also, if the other party has presented you with a custom drafted contract, we have the experience and expertise to suggest revisions, and to help negotiate for the language that would benefit you the most. Many of our clients are great dealmakers. That is why they are successful. We are successful because we are experts at capturing your deal in clear and concise language.
Whether you are about to sign a contract or draft one, we invite you to give us a call to see whether Weilers LLP may be the right lawyers for you.
(credit where it is due: we took inspiration for this topic from a LinkedIn post by Laura Fredrick, a Pennsylvania based lawyer who has compiled many of her tips from LinkedIn into a book, Practical Tips on How To Contract. To understand the true complexity of contracts, consider that Laura has been posting daily tips for over five years without running out of topics. We wrote this specific article ourselves.)