AI Can Now Help You With Your Demand Letters — Even Judges Are Using It

89% of judges in the Superior Court’s pilot project want to keep using their artificial intelligence assistants. The Barreau du Québec is proposing a framework for AI-assisted legal document drafting. Meanwhile, ordinary citizens are discovering they can create — or understand — a demand letter in under two minutes. Watch the demonstration.

Just two years ago, suggesting that a citizen use artificial intelligence to prepare a legal document raised eyebrows. This spring, two developments from the highest levels of Quebec’s legal world changed the conversation — and they directly concern the one legal document every citizen is likely to encounter someday: the demand letter.

The NewsSuperior Court judges have embraced AI — and want to keep it

The Superior Court of Québec, the province’s court of general jurisdiction, made public this spring the summary of results from its artificial intelligence pilot project — a document dated April 2026, widely covered by legal media in late May. The experiment ran for 98 days, from December 8, 2025 to March 16, 2026, with 22 volunteer judges from different regions, areas of law and levels of technological comfort.

The results are unambiguous: 89% of responding judges want to continue using these tools, which were deployed for preparatory tasks — revising a text, translating it, locating a section of law, correcting a legal citation. The average engagement rate reached 94%, the drafting assistant was used by every single respondent, and 84% affirmed that their professional autonomy was preserved. No judge reported that AI influenced a judicial decision. Tellingly, the internal evaluation still detected one hallucination in one of the nine deployed agents — which, the report itself notes, confirms the importance of always verifying AI’s answers.

The News, ContinuedThe Barreau opens the door to AI-assisted legal drafting

At the same time, on May 20, 2026, the Barreau du Québec’s Pilot Project on Innovative Legal Services was published in the Gazette officielle du Québec for a 45-day public consultation — which just ended in early July. The objective: to create a « regulatory sandbox » lasting up to two years to oversee experimentation with new ways of offering legal services using innovative technological tools, including artificial intelligence. Entities not authorized to practise law — or not owned by lawyers — could notably offer legal consultations and opinions as well as legal document drafting. Representation before the courts remains excluded, and the project will only come into force once adopted.

The Barreau justifies this initiative through its very mission: protecting the public and contributing to accessible, quality justice, notably by exploring solutions likely to reduce costs and improve access to legal services. Its notice to members even gives concrete examples: a generative AI tool could guide the public in preparing a Small Claims file, or generate a contract, a lease or a will. In other words, the professional order of lawyers itself recognizes that AI has a legitimate role to play in preparing legal documents — provided it is properly supervised.

What It Means for YouThe two-minute demand letter — the demonstration

What do these developments mean for ordinary citizens? Let’s take the most concrete case there is: the demand letter. It’s the formal letter that precedes — and often avoids — the courts. A borrowed item that isn’t returned, botched renovation work, an unpaid invoice: the demand letter is the first step, and in some cases it’s even mandatory before suing.

Traditionally, you had two options: pay several hundred dollars for a lawyer to draft the letter, or go it alone with a template found online. For a dispute worth a few hundred dollars, neither was satisfying. Here’s the third option, demonstrated in real time in the video below: open an AI assistant in your browser, describe your situation in your own words, and get — in under two minutes — a draft that follows the Quebec format, in PDF, ready to review, complete and sign.

And as the second part of the video shows, the method works both ways. If you’re the one receiving a demand letter, you can copy it into the assistant and ask it to explain everything in plain language: what is being claimed from you, how much time you have, and your options — pay, negotiate, contest — and even get help drafting a professional written response. A message as simple as this one is enough:

For the complete step-by-step guide — when a demand letter is mandatory, how to write it, how to send it, what to do when you receive one, with a full template — see our practical guide to the demand letter, updated with the simplified AI method.

The CaveatsA double-edged reality — what the research says

Let’s be honest: AI is not magic, and it sometimes gets things wrong. A 2026 study by Université Laval researchers for the International Observatory on the Societal Impacts of AI (OBVIA) evaluated the AI tools available to Quebec citizens. Its conclusion is nuanced: these tools represent a promising avenue for improving access to justice, but the spread of sometimes inaccurate legal information can lead citizens to make poorly informed decisions.

Even the Superior Court’s report notes that its judges benefited from a controlled institutional environment — a decisive advantage over general-purpose commercial tools. The lesson is not to avoid these tools: it’s to use them intelligently. Three golden rules apply. Reread everything — every fact, every date, every amount — before sending a document produced by AI. Never share more personal information than necessary. And know the limits: AI gives you information and a head start, not legal advice. For a significant amount or a complex situation, consult a lawyer.

Used with these precautions, artificial intelligence becomes what it should be: an equalizer. At Small Claims Court, where with few exceptions you must act alone before the judge without being represented by a lawyer, every tool that helps you understand your rights counts. A demand letter drafted in two minutes may seem like a small thing — but for the person who would never have dared send one, it can be the difference between enduring and acting.