#LegalEthics Tidbit: Can a judge get in trouble for lecturing a defendant about #Juneteenth?
A judge was suspended 18 mos. without pay by the OH Supreme Court after being charged with dozens of violations of the judicial and lawyer ethical codes, including improperly sending criminal defendants to jail for non-payment of fines and court costs.
In one case, a defendant pled guilty to driving with a suspended license and was ... (cont.)
#LegalEthics Tidbit: How can I be in contempt for using #AI to fake evidence when the Court didn’t order me not to fake evidence?
In the midst of a KY divorce case, the Mother submitted medical records showing she took her children to urgent care. Father attempted to subpoena the medical records from the provider, but the provider claimed it had no records, and Father filed a motion accusing Mother of using #AI to generate ... (cont.)
Yesterday, the Rhode Island Supreme Court caught up with the ABA and most other states by adding the duty of technology competence to their rule 1.1. This was obviously prompted by #ArtificialIntelligence, because the court used the opportunity to issue two sets of guidelines on the use of #AI for lawyers and judges. Each guide goes section by section through the relevant ethics rules for lawyers and judges.
... (cont.)
#LegalEthics Tidbit #FathersDay edition: Can I get my dad out of trouble for misusing #AI by calling the judge’s chambers?
Dad and daughter lawyers were co-counsel in a CT federal court case. Dad had already been sanctioned $500 by a different judge in the same court for submitting a memo with hallucinated citations, but he did it again in this case, submitting another brief with AI-generated fake case law that he did not review prior to filing...(cont.)
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ctd.154098/gov.uscourts.ctd.154098.93.0.pdf
#law #lawfedi
#LegalEthics Tidbit #FathersDay edition: Are my dad’s former client conflicts imputed to me?
In 2025, a lawyer appeared in a bankruptcy proceeding on behalf of a debtor. Two creditors moved to disqualify him on the grounds that the lawyer’s father (a partner at the same firm) had previously represented them in various matters, including their own bankruptcy matters between 1997 and 2001, plus there was some sort of continuing attorney client ... (cont.)
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.gasb.345690/gov.uscourts.gasb.345690.43.0.pdf
#law #lawfedi
#LegalEthics Tidbit: Should the judge be recused if he questions my lawyer’s mental health?
A FL lawyer in a divorce matter informed the court of her unavailability during a certain date range. The judge noticed that the lawyer’s assertions of unavailability contradicted statements she had made in other cases about her availability, so he ordered her to provide a list of all her active cases in the court. The lawyer responded that she could not ... (cont.)
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/fl-district-court-of-appeal/117977137.html
#law #lawfedi
#LegalEthics Tidbit: Can my #AI platform hallucinate my opponent’s arguments?
A pro se litigant in PA federal court submitted a brief in opposition to a motion to dismiss that cited several cases for the opposite proposition for which they stood. This may or may not have indicated improper #AI use, but what convinced the court the litigant was using #AI was that her brief included lengthy responses to arguments the opposing party ... (cont.)
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.pamd.147828/gov.uscourts.pamd.147828.37.0.pdf
#law
#LegalEthics Tidbit: If both sides are misusing #AI, can the judge disqualify ALL the lawyers from the case?
A party sued a municipality over a contract dispute in MS federal court. In connection with two motions, each side submitted fabricated case citations. Nobody noticed their own or their opponent’s hallucinations until the court issued a show cause order. The Court sanctioned and disqualified every attorney in the case as follows: ... (cont.)
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.msnd.50181/gov.uscourts.msnd.50181.123.0.pdf
#law #lawfedi
#LegalEThics Tidbit: If the non-lawyer marketing bros in Florida tell me their client referral system is ethically compliant, can I trust them?
An OH lawyer signed up for some “pay as you go” referral companies in FL. The FL companies purchased police reports to identify accident victims, and then non-lawyer marketers directly solicited those victims on the phone. The non-lawyer marketers then ... (cont.)
“If he can’t intimidate me, he’ll go after the mother of our children,” #Newsom said. “Donald Trump picked the wrong target. We have nothing to hide.”
Newsom said #Trump “can subpoena my records, you can investigate me, you can harass me, put my name on every & any enemies list you have, but leave my wife & family out of your personal vendetta.”
David Kluft
Nonilex