ATTORNEY AND CLIENT: Enough Is Enough: Florida Supreme Court Amends Rules to Combat AI Misuse
Jason Holder—Senior Attorney
Much like their sister jurisdictions, Florida’s courts have seen an alarming increase in the citation of nonexistent caselaw stemming from the use of generative artificial intelligence by both attorneys and pro se litigants. See, e.g., Goya v. Hayashida, 418 So. 3d 652, 655 (Fla. 4th DCA 2025) (Party’s brief cites cases “for the proposition that a party claiming inherited property must provide documents of transfer or other formal proof of inheritance. These cases do not exist, and no cases stand for that proposition or various other contentions in her brief.”); Russell v. Mells, 426 So. 3d 913, 921 (Fla. 2d DCA 2025) (holding that attorney “fundamentally abdicated” duty to the court and client by submitting a filing without verifying that the three cases cited said what was claimed and referring the matter to the Florida Bar “to proceed as it deems appropriate”); Hessert v. Hessert, No. 6D2026-0121, 2026 Fla. App. LEXIS 2188, at *1-2 (6th DCA Mar. 20, 2026) (“[T]he petition filed by Petitioner cites to thirteen cases. Only four of the cited cases both exist and are cited for legal propositions that the cited cases actually represent. Five of the cited cases do not exist. Four of the cited cases are cited for legal propositions that the cited cases do not actually represent.”); Young v. AP, No. 25-CA-352, 2025 Fla. Cir. LEXIS 2476, at *30-32 (Aug. 29, 2025) (hallucinated cases found in motion for leave to amend); Rodriguez v. Baylis, No. 2025-CA-004973-O, 2025 Fla. Cir. LEXIS 2738, at *3-4 (Sept. 10, 2025) (pro se plaintiff appeared to have included artificial intelligence research and an AI platform hallucinated case that did not exist, but concluding that party “made an honest and genuine mistake as a pro se or self-represented litigant without the resources of a licensed attorney lacking any malice or bad faith”). As explained by one judge, “[c]hatbots are going to get better, and that's going to make these problems worse. The question now must be how to address them on the front end.” Gouveia v. Meridian Fin. Invs., LLC, No. 4D2025-0843, 2026 Fla. App. LEXIS 2306, at *8, 15 Fla. L. Weekly D 600 (4th DCA Mar. 25, 2026) (Lott, J., concurring).
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