Do you remember your legal writing class? Probably not — the other doctrinals and their associated cold call nightmares probably crowd out the memories of your LW teacher running through how to construct a table of authorities. As it turns out, those were some of the most important lessons to remember. I don’t know how everyone else responds to AI hallucination stories about LLMs being blamed for fake cases and holdings ending up in legal documents, but I always see it as a PEBKAC problem rather than faulty programming. No matter how much the marketing department leans in on an LLM program being ready to help you with your law practice, you’re still responsible for the work product because you’re the with the actual license to practice. Florida’s Supreme Court made some changes to remind lawyers that the responsibility falls on them, not the black box they’re prompting their legal questions into. ABA Journal has coverage:
On Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court released an update to the state’s general practice rules, which requires the signer of any document filed with Florida courts to ensure that “the legal authorities identified exist and are accurately cited.” This requirement applies to filings prepared by attorneys and pro se litigants.
In another amendment, the Florida Supreme Court authorizes courts to impose sanctions for “any filing inconsistent with” the representation that a signer makes under the updated rule. These sanctions could include reprimand, dismissal of proceedings and attorney fees.
Neither of these new rules should change anything. Generic due diligence expectations should cover attorneys submitting documents with legal authorities that are a) actually existing and b) properly cited. What this more or less does is shake off a lazy “I didn’t know any better!” defense when a lawyer gets ChatGPT to cough up a case saying that their client should be able to walk because he said “psych” before he punched a guy in the face. I’ve long been in the Ron White “ignorance of the law is no excuse” camp, but it is a kindness for Florida to go out of their way to make the rules plain.
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My soft spot for the rule update is for pro se litigants. Despite all of the equality under the law trimmings we pretend to believe, fighting in court is a monied person’s battlefield. Pro se litigants are often in that position because they cannot afford a lawyer due to limited resources. Getting help from Claude could be the closest thing they have to getting a legal opinion. If and when they screw up these rules, I hope that the court shows as much grace as it can toward them. Even the annoying sovereign citizen variety.
Florida Supreme Court Issues New AI Rules For Lawyers [ABA Journal]
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Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boat builder who is learning to swim and is interested in rhetoric, Spinozists and humor. Getting back in to cycling wouldn’t hurt either. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by Tweet/Bluesky at @WritesForRent.