By John Mahoney · Founder, MedLegal AI · June 18, 2026
If you're facing a deposition, it's tempting to open a public chatbot, type in what happened, and ask "how should I answer this?" Don't. Recent court rulings have made clear that doing so can hand the other side a roadmap to your case.
General information, not legal advice. Talk to your attorney about your specific situation.
The 2026 rulings every deponent should know
United States v. Heppner (S.D.N.Y., Feb 2026): a court held that using a public generative-AI tool creates no reasonable expectation of confidentiality — and declined to extend privilege even after the AI's output was shared with counsel.
Courts have treated AI prompts, outputs, and activity logs as discoverable electronically stored information (ESI) — and the metadata can reveal litigation strategy.
In Conservation Law Foundation v. Shell Oil (2026), a court addressed production of an expert's AI prompts.
Plain English: if you rehearse your deposition by typing your case facts into a public chatbot, those prompts can potentially be subpoenaed and used against you. A well-meaning prep step becomes a discovery liability.
What this means for you
Never enter real case facts — names, dates, specifics — into a public AI tool while you're in litigation.
Confidentiality and privilege are not automatic. They are more likely to attach when AI is used under your attorney's direction, confidentially, without the tool training on your data — not when you're chatting with a public model on your own.
The confidential way to practice
Practicing your deposition is a good idea — done safely. We built a tool specifically for this:
You practice on de-identified scenarios — no real case facts entered or stored.
Confidential by design: encrypted, zero-retention on carrier seats, and built to run alongside and under your attorney's prep, never instead of it.
It coaches how you answer (stay calm, answer only what's asked, don't speculate) — never what to say. That's your attorney's job, not a chatbot's.
Practice is your friend. The public chatbot is not. Use a tool built for litigation.
Practice your deposition before it's real
A realistic AI examiner questions you the way opposing counsel will — privately, as many times as you want. Composure coaching, no case facts stored, built to use alongside your attorney.
General information, not legal advice. MedLegal AI provides deposition practice and composure tools, not legal representation or advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created by use of this service. Always follow the guidance of your own attorney. The privilege/discoverability landscape is evolving — your counsel should confirm the current posture.
Most legal AI is wrong 17–33% of the time. Watch MedLegal AI pin every finding to the exact record page — click any citation and it jumps to the line that proves it.