I'm attorney Blair Goss, and I use artificial intelligence in my criminal defense practice almost every day. Used the right way, it makes me faster and more thorough, and that frees up more of my time for your case.
But if you are under investigation, have been arrested, or are worried you might be, please don't type anything about it into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or any other AI chatbot. What you tell a chatbot is not confidential. It can be found, handed over, and used against you. A federal court has already ruled on exactly this.
How I use AI, and the rules I follow
I'm a true solo attorney. I have no associates or paralegals, so I go to court on your case, review your evidence, and do my own research and writing. AI tools help me do that work faster without handing your case to someone you've never met. I use them to:
- Organize and search long police reports, transcripts, and other discovery
- Spot legal issues and research leads worth checking
- Draft letters and first versions of motions, which I then rewrite
Three rules keep this safe:
- I check everything. AI can make up court cases and get the law wrong. I verify every case, statute, and fact I rely on against the real source. Nothing goes to a judge or prosecutor that I haven't read and approved.
- AI doesn't make decisions. Advice, strategy, and every judgment call in your case come from me.
- I protect your information. I use business AI tools with confidentiality terms, and I hold everything to the same duty of confidentiality that covers the rest of your file.
The difference between my use and yours is simple. I'm your lawyer. California law protects what you tell me and protects my work on your case. An AI company is not your lawyer, and none of that protection applies to it.
Why your AI chats are not confidential
Attorney-client privilege covers confidential communications between you and your lawyer. A chatbot is not a lawyer, and the company that runs it is an outside party. Sharing something with an outside party is one of the surest ways to lose protection for it.
This is not just theory. In February 2026, a federal judge in New York ruled in United States v. Heppner that about 31 documents a criminal defendant made on his own with an AI chatbot were not protected by attorney-client privilege or by the work-product rule. The court found:
- The chatbot is not a lawyer, so talking to it is not talking to your lawyer.
- The AI company's privacy terms allowed it to keep the chats and share them, including with the government, so the defendant had no real expectation of privacy.
- Sending the documents to his lawyers afterward did not make them privileged.
- By pasting information from his lawyers into the chatbot, he may have given up the privilege on those lawyer conversations too.
That case came out of federal court in New York, and it does not bind California courts. But it applied ordinary privilege rules, and I would not bet a client's case on a California court reaching a different answer.
Here is how your chats can end up as evidence:
- Your phone. If police search your phone, with a warrant or with your permission, they can read your chat history.
- The AI company. Prosecutors can get records from the company through legal process. Privacy settings and paid accounts don't stop a warrant.
- The company's own review. Some AI companies review conversations and may contact police if they see a risk of harm.
- Lawsuits. In civil cases, the other side can ask for your chat history in discovery.
And chats are written down. A worried question like "can I delete these texts?" or a rough account of what happened can read very differently to a prosecutor or a jury than it felt when you typed it.
What to do instead
- Talk to a lawyer first. What you tell me in a consultation is confidential, even if you don't end up hiring me.
- If you already asked AI about your case, don't delete anything. Deleting chats after you know about a case can look like destroying evidence and make things worse. Tell me what you wrote, and I'll factor it in.
- Don't hand over your phone. You can politely say no if police ask to search it without a warrant.
- Keep general and personal separate. Asking AI what "arraignment" means is very different from describing what happened to you. Anything about your own facts belongs in a conversation with your lawyer.
If you're facing charges or think you might be, call me at (916) 313-3133. You'll get a straight answer about your situation, and it stays between us.
Need help with a case in Sacramento? Read about my criminal defense work, or tell me what happened.
Blair GossI’m a Sacramento criminal defense attorney. I handle every case myself, from the first consultation to the last court date. More about me
This post is general information about California law, not legal advice about your situation. Laws change, and every case is different. For advice about your case, talk to a lawyer.