The High Court found that solicitors submitted misleading letters to the court in support of a block transfer application (for removing an insolvency practitioner from office), after relying on artificial intelligence (AI) which generated a fictitious legal provision. Solicitors failed to check the accuracy of AI-generated content, resulting in significant public embarrassment and referral to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). The case arose from a block transfer application to replace an outgoing insolvency office-holder. The court became concerned after the legal advisers submitted two letters which purported to quote a non-existent provision from the Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016, claiming an express power for the court to grant release to a liquidator. The error originated from a junior solicitor’s use of AI to draft the letters, with the AI “hallucinating” the legal text. The supervising solicitors failed to check the accuracy of the AI-generated content, and the subsequent explanation to the court “appeared to be untruthful” (which is perhaps not surprising given that “AI was again allowed, at least, to muddy the waters”). The High Court held that all solicitors involved had a duty to ensure the accuracy of submissions and not to mislead the court, regardless of whether AI was used: “Assuming that LA did not check the text of the rule, I...
Exclusive: An online business based in Sydney will be taken to court after it allegedly made false claims it had connections to the victims of the Bondi terror attack. Bondi United, a website that...