The fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is considering adopting a rule that would require lawyers and unrepresented litigants to provide a certification regarding their use of artificial intelligence in preparing court filings. While at least 14 federal trial courts have adopted AI-related rules of some sort, this appears to be the first instance of such a rule being considered by a federal appeals court.
Many courts were spurred to consider such rules following Mata v Avianca where two lawyers were sanctioned for filing a brief filled with cases hallucinated by ChatGPT. Lawyers and other filers would be required to certify either that they had not used AI in drafting the document or that, if they did, “a human” had reviewed the document for accuracy.
Specifically, the proposed would amend the circuit’s Rule 32.3 — which already requires attorneys to sign a certificate of compliance with the court’s filing guidelines as to typeface, page limits, etc. — to add:
“Additionally, counsel and unrepresented filers must further certify that no generative artificial intelligence program was used in drafting the document presented for filing, or to the extent such a program was used, all generated text, including all citations and legal analysis, has been reviewed for accuracy and approved by a human.”
A material misrepresentation with regard to the use of AI could lead to rejection of the document and sanctions imposed on the person who filed the document.
Source: Law Sites
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