As Reuters writes, The American appeals court imposed a fine of PLN 2,500 on the lawyer. dollars after the document he submitted included references to judgments that were never actually made and were only the so-called AI hallucinations. The argumentation prepared using a tool based on artificial intelligence contained fictitious cases, and the attorney – as the court pointed out – did not verify either the correctness of the citations or whether the cited judgments existed at all.
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AI does not relieve liability, says court
The justification emphasizes that it is the duty of a professional attorney to check all sources he refers to, regardless of whether he uses traditional case law databases or generative tools. The judges noted that submitting a letter containing erroneous references to the alleged achievements of the courts constitutes a violation of professional standards and undermines the credibility of the proceedings.
This is another case in the US in which the court clearly signals that technology can support the work of lawyers, but cannot replace their professional diligence. Humans are always responsible for the content of documents – even if they use the most advanced tools, the court said.
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Growing risk of “hallucinations” in lawyers' work
As cited by Reuters, the case is part of a broader debate on the use of artificial intelligence in the legal industry. Law firms are increasingly using AI to analyze documents or prepare draft letters, which significantly speeds up work. At the same time, the number of cases in which language models generate credible-sounding but false information, including non-existent judgments, is growing.
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