Given the continuing reports about lawyers being referred for professional discipline or self-represented litigants being sanctioned for AI-generated court filings that include bogus content, today I took the most common (and free version) AI tools for a legal research and writing test. TL;DR: Do not use. Spare yourself the risk of sanctions and professional discipline….
Tag: AI
Even self-represented litigants can be sanctioned for court filings that include AI-generated, bogus case law cites
A Missouri business owner opted to handle his own appeal following a November 2022 unpaid wages judgment ($311,313.70 with interest accruing 9% per year). For the research and writing part, the self-represented business owner hired an online consultant who claimed to be a California-licensed attorney. (See page 2 of the Reply brief for the explanation.)…
Putting Claude.ai to work creating outlines of filed court briefs
Given Anthropic’s Claude.ai’s impressive ability to handle .pdf uploads and complex prompts, it seemed only right to upload public efiled court briefing, put the AI-created output in comparative table form, and see how things would go. Overall? Pretty darn good! Check out how well (with a couple of misses) Claude followed my instructions on how to…
Putting Claude.ai to work drafting an opinion outline
Anthropic’s Claude.ai is the new [AI] kid on the block. Yes, I did link to one of “those” videos. One of Claude’s unique features is that users can upload file(s) (.pdf, .csv, .txt, and the like) and then ask questions about them. You can’t do this with the free versions of ChatGPT, Bard, or Bing…
ChatGPT was never designed for legal research (and here is why it should NOT be used that way)
Even though ChatGPT has some pretty clear disclaimers about factual accuracy, two New York City attorneys and their law firm gained a lot of public attention for claiming that the bogus cases cited in their federal court filing were the result of (wrongly) using ChatGPT as a legal-research database. Federal District Court Judge P. Kevin…
Using ChatGPT for interpreting text message emojis, slang, and abbreviations
Footnotes 7–13 in a recent Intermediate Court of Appeals of Hawaii unpublished opinion defined quoted text message emojis, slang, and abbreviations: 7 The text messages are quoted verbatim with footnotes throughout to clarify terms, abbreviations, and symbols used, as may be necessary. 8 “Sup” is an “informal greeting equivalent to ‘What’s up?’” Sup, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sup…
I’ll pass on asking ChatGPT to reliably “summarize” court opinions
The Michigan Court of Appeals recently issued an interesting published opinion about two siblings charged with truancy, their right to counsel, and whether they waived that right in the trial court. Court of Appeals Chief Judge Elizabeth Gleicher wrote the lead opinion. She also penned a separate concurring opinion. Judge Thomas Cameron also wrote a…
“Chatting” with ChatGPT about plain-language editing
I had some Q&A banter with ChatGPT because I wanted to get curious about how ChatGPT works and later share a glimpse of how it can help during plain-language editing. Our exchanges are captured in this video. A transcript is reprinted below. (If the video text seems too small when the video is viewed within…
Emoji “translator” needed? Ask Bard (Google), Bing (Microsoft), and ChatGPT (OpenAI)
Cher is known for heavy emoji Tweets. And emojis often find their way into court cases. Ever wonder what a series of emojis may mean? Perhaps someone texted you: 🐰🥚🐣💐🌷🌹🌸🌼🌺🌻🌷💐🌹🌸🌼🌺🌻 Or perhaps you are reviewing law-enforcement produced or civil discovery (or a record on appeal) and come across a message string like this: 🔫🔪🩸😈🤵💵⛓️💀 What…
Comparing and seeing ChatGPT as a valuable plain-language editor for legal writing
Imagine a one-page “notice to leave” taped to a house. Within the notice, the tenant is told: Your compliance with this NOTICE within _ days after its service will prevent any further eviction action against you. YOU ARE BEING ASKED TO LEAVE THE PREMISES. IF YOU DO NOT LEAVE, AN EVICTION ACTION MAY BE INITIATED…