Ahora desde Louisiana, caso de citas inventadas (hasta copypasteó el texto donde dice que la IA puede cometer errores 😁)
El fallo competo, en el segundo posteo
Louisiana court of appeal weighs in for the first time about lawyers who misuse AI.
"The evidence shows that plaintiff's counsel, even after being placed on notice of erroneous citations, failed to clearly identify and correct those fake citations, conducted an incomplete and haphazard inquiry into the law fabricated by the generative AI programs, and doubled down on her previous mistakes by filing pleadings with additional, avoidable errors."
Lots of good quotes from this opinion, which I'll include below.
Background: Lawyer submitted a brief that included two fake, AI-hallucinated cases.
Opposing counsel called out the errors by email, requesting courtesy copies of the cases they couldn't find.
Lawyer replied with AI-generated summaries of the cases, then apologized for the "mistake" and refiled the brief.
But "Instead of correcting the citation errors from the previous filing, with this supplemental pleading plaintiff's counsel doubled down and provided additional false citations."
Opposing counsel moved for sanctions; court awarded OC $1,368 in attorneys' fees. Lawyer appealed. Sanctions award affirmed.
Quotes from appellate opinion:
-Rejecting lawyer's claim of "honest mistake," court noted that "the inclusion of fake or false citations alone is prima facie evidence sufficient to support a finding that counsel did not meet her affirmative duty of objective, reasonable inquiry into the law as required"
-Doubling down and submitting more fake cases was "objectively unreasonable."
-"We reiterate here: the Burns and Smith cases do not exist. They were entirely fabricated by generative AI programs in response to plaintiff's counsel's search query or prompt."
-"It is unclear why plaintiff's counsel, or her paralegals or associates, attempted to validate the erroneous citations fabricated by generative AI software using that same software rather than a recognized, legitimate source."
-"Additionally, the summaries contain the following disclaimer at the bottom of the page: "AI responses may include mistakes. For legal advice, consult a professional." For our analysis, the most important aspect of such a disclaimer is not its veracity, but rather that such a disclaimer is an additional obvious sign that the text being read is not an actual, real legal case."
-"It was objectively unreasonable for plaintiff's counsel to rely solely on AI-generated case summaries when conducting legal research or verifying AI-generated legal citations, especially in light of the evidence showing that she had access to a traditional legal research database that contains the full texts of genuine reported cases."
-"A basic prerequisite to the filing of any pleading, motion, response, reply, or paper in court is for the drafting and filing attorney to carefully check every case citation, fact, and argument to make sure they are correct and proper. Attorneys cannot delegate that role to AI, computers, robots, or any other form of technology."
-"Just as a competent attorney would very carefully check the veracity and accuracy of all case citations in any pleading, motion, response, reply, or other paper prepared by a law clerk, intern, or other attorney before it is filed, the same holds true when attorneys utilize AI or any other form of technology."
-"The filing of pleadings that cite fake legal authority undermines the rule of law and a judicial system based on reason. Such fakery also erodes public trust in the legal profession."
-"Ms. Trieu, citing her own years of experience practicing law, argued that 7.6 hours of work [spent by opposing counsel in responding] was too much for tasks as simple as conducting legal research or making phone calls. The work of verifying the citations could be done in 7.6 seconds, she stated. Such statements display an astounding lack of awareness of counsel's obligations."
-"The lawyer's obligation ... is crystal clear: read the law you cite. Read the Code. Read the statutes. Read the cases."
-"There is no reason fake citations, be they generated by AI programs or by humans, should appear in any pleading filed in a Louisiana court."