AI is here to make our lives easier, right?
While Artificial intelligence is all the rage right now, we have been utilising it for decades in GPS, Google predictive text and creating computerized chess opponents surpassing even the best grandmasters.
Beyond these early applications, AI has become increasingly proficient and finds itself as a useful tool in many workplaces, including in the legal profession. However, as useful as AI may be, it cannot replace a lawyer and cannot provide legal advice. As well, it can often times provide the wrong advice or provide fictitious reasoning. Recently, an Ontario lawyer found themselves in trouble when they, themselves, relied upon AI to support a legal argument before the court, where the AI results produced fake case law. As a consequent, that lawyer faced a contempt of court proceeding as a result of misleading the court (see Ko v Li, 2025 ONSC 2766).
Where’s the problem with AI?
AI is designed to seem intelligent, but it’s only a product of the data that it’s fed. Picture a supercomputer that reads the entirety of the internet. The supercomputer then spits back facts and information that it learned from reading the whole internet. Now you can imagine where the problems start to arise. Not everything on the internet is true, and AI can’t always tell the difference.
If you were to teach a robot that Elvis Presley was still alive for example, or that Canada had become the 51st state, and fed it enough data to align with that view, it would have no hesitation repeating that as the truth. It also may not know enough to do the research to confirm whether that is truly accurate, or just junk data.
A lawyer relying on AI may rely on information that is simply incorrect. Imagine, for example, researching the limitation period on when you can bring a claim, in other words how long you have to sue someone. You search for your query, and instantly an AI search result tells you that you have 5 years to make your claim.
Here’s the problem: in most cases in Ontario, that is incorrect. With a few narrow exceptions, the Limitations Act in Ontario allows plaintiffs 2 years to bring about their claim, not 5. The AI may not have specified that it was looking at a different jurisdiction, and you may not have mentioned that you’re in Ontario or have known that it mattered. Or, just as likely, the AI result was fabricated, based on bad data, and you may not have known enough to know the difference.
Is AI Hallucinating?
AI may get things wrong, but, perhaps the greater worry, is when AI makes things up. Since AI is not true intelligence, it populates phrases or ideas from other places. These phrases and ideas sometimes create something with no basis, including legal precedent. False, misleading, and nonsensical AI fabrications are called “hallucinations”.
According to a recent CBC news article, fake cases are a growing problem, and judges are not pleased. When a case goes before the Court, lawyers will submit their documents, including the cases that they are relying upon to make their point. If a fake case is relied on and goes unchecked, courts have the potential to create new law based on fabricated information.
The problem exists not only in Canada, but also in the US and around the world. In the words of one California special master (who can issue certain legal rulings), “I read their brief, was persuaded (or at least intrigued) by the authorities that they cited, and looked up the decisions to learn more about them – only to find that they didn’t exist. That’s scary.”
In a recent case from BCcalled Zhang v. Chen, 2024 BCSC 285, one party had sought special costs against another’s lawyer when they found that the other lawyer had inserted two AI hallucinations (fake cases) into their brief which cost their own lawyer time and money to investigate.
Those two cases were withdrawn prior to the hearing, and counsel admitted that they had improperly relied on Chat GPT to their detriment. The Court did not award special costs but noted that “citing fake cases in court filings and other materials handed up to the court is an abuse of process, and is tantamount to making a false statement to the court. Unchecked, it can lead to a miscarriage of justice.”
The Importance of Proper Legal Advice
If you’re curious about a minor medical issue, you may turn to ‘Doctor Google.’ But you also know that the internet cannot remove your appendix, fix your broken arm, prescribe a necessary antibiotic, or offer any true form of remedy. When you search the internet for crucial information, you need to do so with incredible scrutiny.
Legal advice is much the same. The internet cannot provide legal advice, and it is ill-equipped to do so. For instance, we provide basic legal information on our blog, but none of it is legal advice tailored to your specific circumstances. Legal advice differs from legal information and requires a trained lawyer licensed in you jurisdiction with expertise in the subject matter.
Our lawyers are retained by our trusted clients because of our experience, who we are, what we know, and how we can help. We help by bringing our extensive knowledge and expertise to every file and using those skills to advocate for you so that you can receive the best possible outcome. Don’t simply rely upon a machine to advise you of your legal rights. Instead, seek out one of our highly skilled legal advocates for support. Contact us today to learn more about our services.