In April 2023, a Colorado lawyer prepared a motion to set aside judgment in a civil case for his client. During his drafting, the attorney used ChatGPT, the popular AI chatbot, to find a case law to support his client’s argument. The only problem was that the cases ChatGPT cited were either inaccurate or did not exist. When confronted by his presiding judge, the attorney admitted he had not verified the cited cases. This past week, that attorney has had his license temporarily suspended for at least 90 days with a two-year probationary period.
A similar story played out in June when two New York lawyers received sanctions for submitting a legal brief that included fictitious case cites generated by ChatGPT, with the presiding judge calling one case cite “gibberish.” These lawyers were required to pay a $5,000 fine and notify the real judges that had been claimed to author the fake cases in their brief.
These two stories are part of the current wave of AI excitement that has begun to impact the legal world. With the AI legal software market projected to be in the billions by 2030, AI has real potential to be an effective tool that helps lawyers and brings costs down for clients. However, as these two examples clearly show, using AI is not a foolproof plan, and legal professionals nationwide are scrambling to catch up with the new technology. This year, the American Bar Association (ABA) created a Task Force on Law and AI to study and address potential risks and the impact of AI in the legal world. Individual judges also decide how to handle the use of AI, whether it be a ban, disclosing its use, or incorporating it into honor codes. Even the judge who sanctioned the New York attorneys stated that there is nothing inherently improper in using AI for assistance.
Time will tell if AI reinvents the legal profession or if things largely remain the same. However, we can see that a blind embrace of AI without proper care or oversight can have professional, financial, and embarrassing ramifications.
Luca Tappa, Law Clerk, BridgehouseLaw LLP, Charlotte
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