Sanctions watch

“The Court is deeply troubled by the errors previously identified in the Plaintiff’s filings, and counsel’s letter does little to allay the Court’s concerns.”

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

“This citation appears to be an AI “hallucination,” as discussed in paragraph 5 of Diseño Textil.”

““for his blind reliance on a technological tool which he did not seem to fully understand.””

“That to my mind is a gross breach of duty on the part of the solicitor.”

“Finally, Plaintiffs [sic] objects to the Magistrate Judge’s “criticism” of his use of artificial intelligence to cite to non-existent case law and errors in other citations.”

“We are alarmed to reflect that some lawyers have started using AI to draft petitions.”

“"Misuse of AI in legal proceedings has serious implications for the administration of justice and public confidence in the justice system,"”

“All parties – represented and unrepresented – owe a duty to the court to ensure that cases cited in legal argument are genuine and provide authority for the proposition advanced.”

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

“of indisputable importance for matters”

““Submissions that rely on non-existent cases generated by artificial intelligence, resulting in AI ‘hallucinations’ and cases that do not stand for the propositions alleged, are considered ‘frivolous conduct’ under 22 NYCRR § 130-1.1 and are sanctionable.””

“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.”

“sufficient deterrent”

““In this age of instant gratification, this incident serves as a timely reminder to, at least, the lawyers involved in this matter that when it comes to legal research, the efficiency of modern technology still needs to be infused with a dose of good old-fashioned independent reading. Courts expect lawyers to bring a legally-independent and questioning mind to bear on, especially, novel legal matters, and certainly not to merely repeat in parrot-fashion, the unverified research of a chatbot.””

“The ability of the court to rely upon the accuracy of submissions made by counsel is fundamental to the due administration of justice.”

“technological convenience must never outweigh accuracy and integrity in the judicial process.”

“The judge explained to the claimant the danger of relying upon AI to source case authorities and the steps which must be taken to check that they are genuine.”

“from haste and a naive understanding of the technology”

“AI is not a legal advisor, it owes no duty to the Court or the administration of justice and owes no duty to act in the best interests of [the applicant] or to observe regulatory or ethical standards, including in its engagement with other practitioners and parties.”

“It is important for parties to be aware that they have a duty not to mislead the tribunal and that the fabrication of authorities (whether intentionally or because references generated through Artificial Intelligence have not been verified) can lead to sanction.”

“Pro se litigants are not shielded from the sanctions offered by Rule 11”

“no person has immunity from sanction”

“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.”

“Although the use of AI tools for legal research or drafting is not inherently improper, Plaintiffs’ avalanche of filings here, whether AI-generated or not, have burdened the Court, advanced frivolous arguments, misstated the record, and fabricated legal authorities,”

“the circulation of so-called non-existent AI-generated judgments had become a problem of epidemic proportions.”

““The plaintiff’s written submissions are littered with propositions of law in quotation marks which are unsupported by authority; reference to authorities which have nothing to do with the asserted propositions of law; wrong citations; and a few non-existent cases.””

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

“attorneys are not entitled to a second bite at the apple”

““a decision based on such non-existent and fake alleged judgments is not an error in the decision making,””

“"We take cognisance of the trial court deploying AI-generated non-existing, fake or synthetic alleged judgments and seek to examine its consequences and accountability as it has a direct bearing on the integrity of the adjudicatory process,"”

““All precedents cited never existed,” the Chief Justice said, underlining the gravity of the issue.”

“At the very least, the duties imposed by Rule 11 require that attorneys read, and thereby confirm the existence and validity of, the legal authorities on which they rely.”

“Salinas said the attorney presented three quotations that did not exist.”

“A bit of embarrassment for failure to citecheck, failure to ‘fess up, and (if it occurred) use of AI to write a section of the brief is enough for now.”

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

“This was pointed out to him at the hearing.”

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

“the burden should not have fallen on us to expend judicial resources identifying blatantly false cites.”

“Litigants are therefore responsible for reviewing and verifying the accuracy of all content filed with this court that was drafted or assisted by an AI tool.”

“The father's appellate brief contained a citation to a nonexistent decision purportedly issued by the Appellate Division, First Department, in support of the father's claim of judicial bias.”

“This practice of dumping documents / submissions on the court and making the court go through irrelevant or non-existing material must be deprecated and nipped in the bud.”

“In its order, the Supreme Court reminded attorneys they are responsible for the accuracy of all filings and warned that misuse of artificial intelligence in legal work could result in discipline, including substantial fines, suspension or loss of the privilege to practice law in Arkansas.”

““an overwhelming majority of the cases cited by [the plaintiff’s attorney] either did not exist, did not support the proposition for which they were cited, or misquoted the authority.””

“Such tools can produce apparently coherent and plausible responses to prompts, but those coherent and plausible responses may turn out to be entirely incorrect.”

““It is not acceptable for AI to be used unless the product of that use is independently and thoroughly verified,””

“further violations will not be tolerated and may result in sanctions and/or referral to a disciplinary committee.”

“The currency we deal with is honesty and integrity.”

“The court called such behavior completely unacceptable.”

““the incident caused significant stress but was unlikely to be repeated.””

“"At the risk of understatement, the manner in which these events have unfolded is unsatisfactory," Elliott told lawyers on Thursday.”

““12. While these appeared to be important and relevant citations of law, the tribunal on investigation could not find those propositions of law in those cases, and could not find one of the cases referred to. It seemed to the tribunal that these may have been generated by AI””

“"It's my problem ... if we don't stop you by some eye-catching sanction," Judge Hall told Stich.”

“such conduct is unacceptable”

“wastes the time of all parties and GAO”

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

“the filing as "replete with citation-related deficiencies, including those consistent with artificial intelligence generated hallucinations."”

“Artificial intelligence is a tool that carries with it risks as well as opportunities. Its use must take place therefore with an appropriate degree of oversight, and within a regulatory framework that ensures compliance with well-established professional and ethical standards if public confidence in the administration of justice is to be maintained”

“Irrespective of issues concerning artificial intelligence, counsel who misrepresent the law, submit fake case precedents, or who utterly misrepresent the holdings of cases cited as precedents, violate their duties to the court.”

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

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

“The judge called it absurd and considered sanctions.”