A senior defense lawyer in Australia has apologized to a judge after submitting court documents containing fake legal citations and quotes generated by artificial intelligence, according to the Associated Press.
The mistake occurred in the Supreme Court of Victoria during the case of a teenager charged with murder.
Defense lawyer Rishi Nathwani, who holds the title of King’s Counsel, admitted responsibility for the incorrect filings.
“We are deeply sorry and embarrassed for what occurred,” Nathwani told Justice James Elliott in court on Wednesday.
The inaccurate information led to a 24-hour delay in the case, which Elliott had expected to resolve that day.
On Thursday, the judge ruled the teen not guilty of murder due to mental impairment.
Court documents show the false submissions included fabricated quotes from a legislative speech and citations from Supreme Court cases that do not exist.
The errors were discovered when Elliott’s staff could not find the cited rulings and asked the defense to provide them.
The lawyers later admitted the citations “do not exist” and that the submission contained “fictitious quotes.”
Defense attorneys explained they had verified some citations but mistakenly assumed the rest were accurate.
Prosecutor Daniel Porceddu also received the filings but did not check their validity.
Elliott strongly criticized the defense, saying, “At the risk of understatement, the manner in which these events have unfolded is unsatisfactory. The ability of the court to rely upon the accuracy of submissions made by counsel is fundamental to the due administration of justice.”
He added that the court had issued guidelines last year for how lawyers may use AI, stressing: “It is not acceptable for artificial intelligence to be used unless the product of that use is independently and thoroughly verified.”
The court documents did not identify which AI system was used.
The mishap mirrors other recent high-profile incidents around the world where lawyers relied on AI tools that produced fictitious rulings.
In the United States in 2023, a federal judge fined two lawyers and their firm $5,000 after ChatGPT generated fake case law in an aviation injury claim.
Later that year, lawyers for Michael Cohen, former personal attorney to Donald Trump, filed papers that cited rulings invented by AI.
Cohen said he had not realized the Google tool he used was prone to “hallucinations.”
Judges elsewhere have also issued warnings.
In June, British High Court Justice Victoria Sharp said providing false material as if genuine could be treated as contempt of court or, in serious cases, perverting the course of justice—an offense that carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.
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