Sanctions watch

“I absolve the mother of any intention to mislead the court.”

“This is larger than any of us,”

“The opinion is short and direct.”

““I did not comprehend that ChatGPT could fabricate cases,” Schwartz later told the judge.”

“Citing fake cases in court filings and other materials handed up to the court is an abuse of process and is tantamount to making a false statement … Unchecked, it can lead to a miscarriage of justice.”

“Ms. Lee forthrightly acknowledges the fact that her factum was created using ChatGPT and contains fake cases.”

“This was “an extreme dereliction of professional responsibility” and “lazy, convenient fictions” substituting for truth.”

“In doing so, the intern acted without authorization, without disclosure, and contrary to not only chambers policy but also the relevant law school policy.”

“The most obvious explanation is … that the grounds of appeal were drafted in whole or in part by generative artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT.”

“"here is this case and it supports our position" and the case doesn’t exist.”

“the attorneys’ actions were “embarrassing and certainly negligent.””

“if fines and public embarrassment were effective deterrents, there would not be so many cases to cite.”

“He wrote that allowing revisions would unfairly burden defendants who had already responded, noting that the proposed corrections still contained errors.”

“the case simply does not exist”

“It appears that the worker’s submission was created, at least partly, with the use of artificial intelligence.”

“This sounds like something that derived from an artificial intelligence source. It has all the hallmarks of ChatGPT, or some similar AI tool.”

““an unrepresented person is still under a duty not to mislead the court””

“to put client letters and decision letters from the Home Office into an open source AI tool, such as ChatGPT, is to place this information on the internet in the public domain, and thus to breach client confidentiality and waive legal privilege, and thus any regulated legal professional or firm that does so would, in addition to needing to bring this to the attention of their regulator, be advised to consult with the Information Commissioner’s Office.”

“Legal professionals are obliged to ensure that legal arguments which are presented to the First-tier Tribunal or Upper Tribunal are factually and legally accurate.”

“It matters not how such citation errors come about.”

“The six cases were fake and likely the handiwork of a ChatGPT or similar artificial intelligence (AI) program’s hallucinations,”

““no lawyer should be using … a generative AI product to perform research without verifying results. Period.””

“The technology was “not capable of conducting reliable legal research.””

“the worst example of misconduct by a lawyer that I think I’ve ever seen since I’ve been on the bench.”

“it would be easy to think that this is a case about the naïve use of generative AI, but it is not merely about that; it is principally about supervision and the obligation to ensure that the tribunal is not misled.”

“like an idiot”

““as a warning””

“"This is unacceptable," the appeals court said.”

“tantamount to bad faith”

“It should go without saying that it is the lawyer’s duty to read cases before submitting them to a court as precedential authorities.”

“why they should not be sanctioned for misrepresenting “the law through the use of generative artificial intelligence.””

“The next lawyer who does the same thing is warned that he or she will likely see a more significant penalty.”

““Lawyers make errors. Competent and ethical lawyers own them””

“Although AI can be a useful aid in research and drafting, its use does not diminish an attorney's nondelegable duties of diligence, candor, and reasonable inquiry.”

“The Upper Tribunal pointedly noted that it cannot afford to have its limited resources absorbed by representatives who place false information before the Tribunal.”

“Still, they “displayed a reckless disregard for the obligation to ensure that what is filed in federal court is true, verified, and worthy of the public trust,” warranting sanctions “both to redress the specific harm and to deter recurrence.””

“Pro se status does not shelter plaintiffs from sanctions pursuant to Rule 11. … Filing a document that contains citations to nonexistent cases, quotes language that comes from no real case, or that contains arguments wholly unsupported by the record violates Rule 11. Allen did just that. This demonstrates that Allen failed to make a reasonable inquiry into the supporting law or facts.”

““Freely available generative artificial intelligence tools, trained on a large language model such as ChatGPT are not capable of conducting reliable legal research.”

“Hughes struck Solis’ written response after finding it used AI without disclosure and relied on “hallucinated,” false legal citations.”

“Only 14 out of 60 cases were hallucinations.”

“the Rule 11 duty is “nondelegable.””

““To this day it blows my mind it has that capability,””

““This would have had the effect of misleading the Tribunal had the Tribunal not challenged the point.””

“To be clear, it is not professional misconduct for a lawyer to use AI to assist in the preparation of a factum.”

“The judge additionally imposed a $3,000 sanction on co-counsel Celeste Boyd, who he said used ChatGPT to draft and edit portions of the briefs but failed to verify the material, Reuters also reports.”

“The Court further emphasized its focus was “not on the misuse of artificial intelligence to conduct unreliable legal research and drafting,” but “the inexcusable submission of false authority and factual arguments to the Court, the subsequent misrepresentations about the extent of the improper conduct, and the failure to take prompt responsibility for errors once discovered.””

““This is a very unusual case and one that may resonate throughout the administration of justice.””

“In other words, the Court must be concerned with the message sent to other lawyers, firms and non represented parties as to the consequences of cutting corners, by using tools such as ChatGPT or even AI modules offered by reputable legal research databases without adequate care, or otherwise failing to verify the accuracy of citations and assertions in legal filings.”

“attorneys must not allow their personal feelings to cloud their professional judgment, and Ms. Preston crossed a line when she resorted to making use of arguments and authorities generated by artificial intelligence”

“It would be easy to think that this is a case about the naïve use of generative AI, but it is not merely about that; it is principally about supervision and the obligation to ensure that the tribunal is not misled.”

““The ‘AI-generated citations’ in the filing were ‘hallucinated’ and not supported by the law.””

“while “there is no proof that AI was, in fact the author” of a Cal State brief, the document “bears all the hallmarks of the hallucinations associated with AI-generated texts” and contains a series of misquotes Cal State failed to explain.”

“it is unquestionably improper for an attorney to submit a brief with fake cases generated by AI.”

“Plaintiff's counsel submitted legal authority and citations generated by “A.I.” software without verifying their authenticity.”

“The Court therefore imposed a $5,000 sanction on the Defendant, both to punish his conduct and to deter similar behaviour in the future.”

““Delivering a factum containing non-existent legal submissions creates a serious risk of a miscarriage of justice.””

“Our decision here is not based on the use of AI as a method of research; it is based on the protester’s repeated reliance on non-existent citations or decisions without verifying their correctness and applicability to the arguments being presented.”

“The court finds “good cause supports the imposition of sanctions in order to deter such conduct in the future, which amounts to serious misconduct that threatens to impugn the integrity of the courts and the administration of justice,” Guerra Gamble said.”

“We do however conclude that this is a case where referral to a regulator, in this instance the BSB, is most definitely appropriate”

“Nearly all of the legal quotations in plaintiff’s opening brief, and many of the quotations in plaintiff’s reply brief, are fabricated,”

“Rule 11 does not prohibit the use of generative AI, however, it does require parties to verify that they are not submitting briefs to the Court which rely on fictitious cases.”

“The Court does not take this action lightly.”

“attempted to mislead”

“"failing to prevent AI hallucinations in legal filings"”

“When he argued the fine was too high, the court shot back that caving to his arguments “would only benefit serial hallucinators.””

“a matter of the utmost seriousness”

“to bring home to all lawyers the need to check and not to trust factums [sic] generated by AI or by others”

“This sounds like something that derived from an artificial intelligence source,”

“irresponsible and downright unprofessional”

“The conduct of the ALR, in filing an application and submissions which contained citations to Federal Court of Australia cases which do not exist and alleged quotes from the Tribunal’s decision which do not exist, falls short of the standard of competence and diligence that the applicant in the substantive proceedings was entitled to expect from his legal representative.”

“Rule 11 imposes a “personal, nondelegable responsibility” to ensure the accuracy of everything filed.”

“the statement of claim having been drafted entirely with the assistance of ChatGPT.”

“Citing fake cases in court filings and other materials handed up to the court is an abuse of process and is tantamount to making a false statement to the court. Unchecked, it can lead to the miscarriage of justice.”

“Sanctions were warranted against Becker for “his failure to verify the validity of the AI-generated material, and submitting the AI-tainted Motion to the court,” the judge said.”

“two disturbing developments that are adversely affecting the practice of law”

“well below the basic obligations of counsel”

“The Court of Appeals noted that the “bogus citations” could not, “for any reason….be countenanced and represent a flagrant violation of the duty of candor” owed to the court.”

“As this case has unfortunately made clear, generative AI is still no substitute for the professional expertise that the justice system requires of lawyers.”

“In November 2023, a Colorado disciplinary judge approved a suspension of one year and one day, with 90 days to serve, for violations including competence, diligence, and candor to the tribunal.”

“the responses generated by ChatGPT cannot be the basis of adjudication of legal or factual issues in a court of law.”

““The use of ChatGPT was not disclosed to the Court.””

““The Court is deeply concerned that a lawyer would submit a brief with citations that do not exist.””

“Judge P. Kevin Castel sanctioned Schwartz, co-counsel Peter LoDuca, and their firm $5,000.”

“The judge called it absurd and considered sanctions.”

“The summaries of the decisions cited in the brief showed “stylistic and reasoning flaws that do not generally appear in decisions issued by United States Courts of Appeals.””

“the result, said the judge, was “gibberish””