Feed: Slashdot
Feed Link: https://slashdot.org/
---

Title: Could UK Lawyers Face Life in Prison for Citing Fake AI-Generated
Cases?

Link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/06/08/0362...

The Associated Press reports that on Friday, U.K. High Court justice Victoria
Sharp and fellow judge Jeremy Johnson ruled on the possibility of false
information being submitted to the court. Concerns had been raised by lower-
court judges about "suspected use by lawyers of generative AI tools to
produce written legal arguments or witness statements which are not then
checked." In a ruling written by Sharp, the judges said that in a 90 million
pound ($120 million) lawsuit over an alleged breach of a financing agreement
involving the Qatar National Bank, a lawyer cited 18 cases that did not
exist. The client in the case, Hamad Al-Haroun, apologized for
unintentionally misleading the court with false information produced by
publicly available AI tools, and said he was responsible, rather than his
solicitor Abid Hussain. But Sharp said it was "extraordinary that the lawyer
was relying on the client for the accuracy of their legal research, rather
than the other way around." In the other incident, a lawyer cited five fake
cases in a tenant's housing claim against the London Borough of Haringey.
Barrister Sarah Forey denied using AI, but Sharp said she had "not provided
to the court a coherent explanation for what happened." The judges referred
the lawyers in both cases to their professional regulators, but did not take
more serious action. Sharp said providing false material as if it were
genuine could be considered contempt of court or, in the "most egregious
cases," perverting the course of justice, which carries a maximum sentence of
life in prison.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

---
VRSS v2.1.180528