Victorian solicitor stripped of his ability to practise as a principal lawyer after acknowledging he did not verify case list
A Victorian lawyer has become the first in Australia to face professional sanctions for using artificial intelligence in a court case, being stripped of his ability to practise as a principal lawyer after AI generated false citations that he had failed to verify.
Guardian Australia reported in October last year that in a 19 July 2024 hearing, the anonymous solicitor representing a husband in a dispute between a married couple provided the court with a list of prior cases that had been requested by Justice Amanda Humphreys in relation to an enforcement application in the case.
When Humphreys returned to her chambers, she said in a ruling that neither herself nor her associates were able to identify the cases in the list. When the matter returned to court the lawyer confirmed that the list had been prepared using legal software that utilised AI.
He acknowledged he did not verify the accuracy of the information before submitting it to the court.
The lawyer offered an “unconditional apology” to the court and said he would “take the lessons learned to heart” and asked not to be referred for investigation.
He said he did not fully understand how the software worked, and acknowledged the need to verify AI-assisted research for accuracy. He made a payment to the solicitors for the other party for the costs of the thrown away hearing.
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