AI and Digital Evidence in Family Proceedings: Transforming the Adjudication and Access to Justice

Abstract

Family conflicts are often described as the battleground of human emotions, capacities, histories, and even human complexity, within which legal reasoning alone struggles to capture the full spectrum of lived realities. Building on this aspect, the integration of AI, i.e., Artificial Intelligence, which has made a mark in family law, has played a pivotal role, particularly in a sensitive domain for child custody. In the Indian jurisdiction, it is seen that the custody determination, which is deeply influenced by socio-cultural dynamics, is exercised with judicial discretion and often encounters challenges related to subjectivity and the potentiality of secondary evidence. By leveraging a large dataset, which includes case histories, bank balances, behavioural aspects, and economic background, AI can assist the court in determining parental fitness by forecasting the child's welfare as well as the spouse's best interest. The study will undertake a comparative analysis of all the jurisdictions. The paper will argue on the issue that while AI holds substantial promises, it is arguable for promoting fairness. In conclusion, AI and all the digital footprint from social media play a significant aid for the family proceedings, particularly in assessing the financial capacity and other maintenance obligations. Family maintenance records claims shall not overshadow the algorithmic inference, which may be selective or misleading. The court here can retain a cautious as well as balanced approach for ensuring the AI-driven insights, as the social media evidence is merely based on assistance in strengthening the fact-finding, which would be without disregarding the judiciary scrutiny, secondary evidentiary standard, and also the fundamental objective for securing the fair and equitable maintenance outcome and welfare of the child.