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…
Tag: AI
Prompting Claude.ai and ChatGPT to outline a new Michigan Supreme Court decision
Today, the Michigan Supreme Court issued a split opinion in People v Prude (Docket 165664)—a case that was decided without oral argument. Because users can now attach files with their “prompts” when using the free versions of the generative AI tools Claude.ai and ChatGPT, I decided to take each for a spin to outline the…
Protective orders that prohibit submitting confidential discovery material to open generative AI tools
In a sign of the AI times, the federal court in the Southern District of New York recently entered a protective order that includes an AI-restriction paragraph:
Asking Claude.ai to outline a court decision
Last August, I shared my experience using Claude.ai to outline case briefs (pretty good!). Today, I took the current (free) version of Claude.ai for a spin to outline a recent unanimous Michigan Supreme Court opinion. tl;dr: Claude.ai did a really good job. My only quibble is that it left out the role of one of…
How judges can draft and add easy-to-understand summaries in their written decisions
Summary for Pro Se Plaintiff The magistrate judge is recommending that the motion for summary judgment be granted. Your evidence does not show that Nurse Yule, Nurse Practitioner Housley, or Dr. Wong acted in ways that they knew were likely to cause you additional harm or suffering. Such evidence is required to show a violation…
Procedural takeaways when there are AI/fake-case concerns
In less than a year after the ChatGPT usage in Mata v Avianca, Inc., SD NY (Docket No. 1:22-cv-01461) captured headlines, we’re starting to see a pattern and lessons for how adverse parties and courts are handling suspected fake-case court filings. The pattern often follows the routine of other claims when reliability may be questioned…
Florida attorney receives one-year suspension from practicing in a Florida federal court for including fake cases in court filings (and for other misconduct)
Today, a federal judge in the Middle District of Florida issued a one-year suspension order to attorney Thomas Grant Neusom for naming fabricated cases in filed court documents and for violating other court procedures, processes, and civility expectations. The relevant facts and proceedings toggle between two case files: Clark Pear LLC v. MVP Realty Associates…
Testing should be believing: AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, etc. cannot be used for primary legal research or drafting
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….
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…