Handwritten court forms, exhibits, or correspondence can be hard to read. Either the penmanship is unclear (which can lead to interpretation and case-handling errors) or the recipient can’t read cursive. Signature moves: are we losing the ability to write by hand? Lucky for us, many AI tools can now look at a handwritten page and…
Category: Claude
AI-generated alt-text can be an image-captioning start. The legal writer will do more.
This colorful image was included in the State Appellate Defender Office’s brief recently filed with the Michigan Supreme Court in People v Soriano (Docket No. 167373). Disclaimer: I don’t know whether SADO used any AI tools as a resource when deciding how to caption this image in its brief. Even so, the image and SADO’s…
Testing Claude.ai to summarize a report and create a presentation deck
On August 1, 2025, the Michigan Supreme Court released to the public the 29-page Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission Equity Report – Phase II prepared by the National Center for State Courts. Using Claude.ai, I prompted the AI tool to: Review the attached study and using plain language: (1) list all findings, (2) list all recommendations,…
Using AI to help understand an appellate legal opinion
Before the start of classes, new law students are encouraged to read Orin S. Kerr’s How to Read a Legal Opinion: A Guide for New Law Students, 11 GREEN BAG 2D 51 (2007) to find their footing on how to read and understand the cases they will be studying. Fortunately, anyone can repurpose Professor Kerr’s…
Citing trouble: The unpredictable cost of AI-made-up case names and summaries in court filings to self-represented persons or attorneys
How’d you react if you ordered a delightful gift from a “discount” website to be delivered to a good friend for their birthday…but they instead received a gift box filled with dirty, smelly rags (and your name on the gift note)? When a self-represented litigant or attorney asks AI (artificial intelligence) tools like ChatGPT, Claude,…
Images in legal writing? Include descriptive captions. AI can help.
A “captions” search of this website recalls earlier posts on why image captions play an important—but often overlooked—role in persuasive and informative legal writing. Three times, the State Appellate Defender Office included excellent descriptive image captions in its Application for Leave to Appeal in People v David Serges (167154). The Michigan Supreme Court recently ordered…
Self-represented litigant receives warning (not sanctions) for submitting “false and nonexistent legal authority”
A federal district court judge in New York’s Southern District recently used her discretion to warn a self-represented litigant about submitting false and nonexistent legal authority to the Court. Sanctions may be imposed for submitting false and nonexistent legal authority to the Court. See, e.g., Park v. Kim, 91 F.4th 610, 613-16 (2d Cir. 2024)…
Four different prompts. Asking Claude.ai to help understand a divided appellate decision
Three justices wrote when the Michigan Supreme Court released Thursday’s 62-page decision in Shareef El-Jamaly v Kirco Manix Const (164902-4). Justice Welch penned the 32-page majority (joined by Justices Bernstein, Cavanagh, and Bolden). Chief Justice Clement filed a 3-page opinion that concurred and dissented in part. Justice Zahra authored a 27-page dissent (joined by Justice…
Prompting Claude.ai to create tables of disagreement and agreement in the indigent/expert-witness decision People v Warner (163805)
A divided Michigan Supreme Court released its 39-page decision in People v Warner (163805) last Thursday. I deleted the Syllabus pages and put Claude.ai (a next-generation AI assistant) to work on the majority and dissenting opinions by creating tables showing the areas of disagreement and agreement. Here is the prompt: Create a three-column table that outlines the key…
Using Claude.ai to understand the package-deal plea withdrawal decision People v Samuels (164050)
A divided Michigan Supreme Court released its 32-page decision in People v Samuels (164050) on Friday. I deleted the Syllabus pages and put Claude.ai (a next-generation AI assistant) to work on the majority and dissenting opinions. First, I asked Claudi.ai to outline the decision using this complex prompt: Draft an opinion outline of the attached…