AI has been taking the “y” out of “your” work product for years now. As courts succumb to the apparent inevitability of AI being used to collaborate on briefs, they’ve shared some pretty reasonable expectations with the lawyers who use ChatGPT or whatever LLM is en vogue to do their jobs. First and foremost, you are responsible for whatever work you hand in. And is that really so strict of an expectation? If you expect a judge to sit through your laundry list of WHEAREAS and whatnot, the least you can do is proofread your words and the cases you cite to. A Wisconsin DA didn’t take the time out to clean up his work and got sanctioned for it. CBS News has coverage:
A Wisconsin judge sanctioned a prosecutor for secretly using artificial intelligence in court filings, and getting the law wrong in a burglary case that ended up being dismissed.
…
[K]enosha County Circuit Court Judge David Hughes sanctioned county District Attorney Xavier Solis during a hearing in the case of Christain Garrett, 26, and Cornelius Garrett, 32, who in 2023 were charged with a combined 74 criminal counts — 38 of them felonies — related to burglary and property damage.Court documents requested by CBS 58 indicated that the defense moved to dismiss the case in August of last year. The defense said a reply by the state contained “AI hallucinations,” documents said.
It is worth noting that the reasons for dismissal have little to do with the AI use. The sanctions, though? All because Solis didn’t make sure the caselaw he cited actually existed.
The problem isn’t really that Solis used AI, the problem is that he couldn’t follow the local rules. The judge allows for the use of AI in documents, you just have to also tack on a disclosure that you got some LLM help, give the name of the program you used, explain how it was used, along with some other minor housekeeping stuff. The legal equivalent of your math teacher telling you to show your work. It keeps everyone honest and when you put down that 13×5 = 57, it shows that something in the process went very wrong. The usual tell-tale sign of hallucinations tipped the judge off that Solis didn’t take the time to do a close read of his work product.
A big part of doing the work is making sure that you do the work. Not a high hurdle, yet people keep falling on their faces.
Kenosha County, Wisconsin Judge Sanctions Prosecutor Over AI Use In Court Filings [CBS News]
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim, is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
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