ICAM urges Penal Code reform over AI legal advice

The Ilustre Colegio de la Abogacía de Madrid (ICAM) has filed a proposal with Spain’s Congress to amend Article 403 of the Criminal Code (professional intrusion), seeking to address what it describes as “digital neo-intrusion” linked to AI-powered legal “consultancy” offered through platforms, chatbots and automated systems without effective professional supervision.

ICAM warns that automated tools may present themselves as legal advice and prompt users to take high-impact decisions—such as signing contracts, filing administrative appeals, submitting claims, accepting settlements, waiving rights or choosing litigation strategies—without the safeguards associated with regulated legal practice, including professional duties and liability.

According to Eugenio Ribón (pictured), ICAM’s dean, the issue goes beyond access to general legal information and risks becoming a functional replacement for human professional judgement, with accountability blurred when the “service” is delivered through products and platforms rather than an identifiable individual.

What the ICAM proposal includes

ICAM’s text would keep Article 403(1) and (2) unchanged and add two new paragraphs (3) and (4) aimed at covering “digital intrusion” scenarios while avoiding the criminalisation of legitimate uses of technology. The proposal would place the focus on the operator or commercialiser rather than the user, targeting those who design, market, offer, advertise or make available automated systems—typically on a for-profit or professional basis—that generate recommendations, opinions, strategies or documents amounting to reserved professional acts without direct and effective oversight by a qualified professional. It would also introduce a “human-in-the-loop” threshold requiring meaningful professional involvement to prevent enforcement gaps and ensure human validation, while expressly carving out lawful uses such as general, non-personalised legal information, internal tools used by professionals under their direction, and systems subject to direct and effective professional supervision with the responsible professional identified to the recipient.

ICAM says it is advancing the reform preventively, arguing that the scale and speed of dissemination of automated advisory services could multiply harms before they become publicly visible