Generative AI can accelerate legal work, but it does not change who is responsible for a court filing. Use this checklist before filing any paper that may contain AI-assisted research, drafting, revision, or analysis.
It is a practical starting point, not a substitute for the requirements applicable to a particular matter.
Quick Rule
Do not file an AI-assisted document until a qualified human has independently verified every legal authority, quotation, factual assertion, record citation, and representation about the proceeding against an authoritative source.
If any item cannot be checked, stop and resolve it before filing.
1. Confirm Permitted Use
- Identify the AI tools used and the portions of the filing they may have affected.
- Confirm the use complies with client instructions, protective orders, confidentiality duties, firm policy, and applicable law.
- Check local rules, standing orders, judge-specific practices, and filing instructions for AI restrictions or disclosure requirements.
- Confirm no protected information was entered into an unapproved system.
2. Verify Authorities and Quotations
- Open and read every cited authority in an authoritative source.
- Confirm each citation identifies the correct authority and current version.
- Confirm that each authority supports the precise proposition for which it is cited.
- Check precedential status, subsequent history, negative treatment, and applicable citation limits.
- Compare every quotation and pinpoint citation against the original source and surrounding context.
- Confirm parentheticals, paraphrases, and descriptions accurately characterize the source.
3. Verify Facts and the Record
- Trace every material factual assertion to the record or another permissible source.
- Open and verify every record citation, exhibit reference, transcript page, docket entry, and date.
- Check names, entities, amounts, calculations, timelines, tables, and summaries.
- Distinguish allegations, evidence, findings, holdings, inferences, and argument.
4. Review and Approve the Final Filing
- Have a qualified human independently review the final version.
- Check the requested relief, legal standard, jurisdiction, deadlines, service representations, and procedural history.
- Check for placeholders, invented citations, inconsistent names, unsupported cross-references, and omitted controlling authority.
- Verify appendices, exhibits, certificates, signature blocks, and proposed orders.
- Complete any required AI-use disclosures or certifications.
- Obtain informed approval from the signing lawyer and responsible supervising, local, or sponsoring counsel.
Ready to File
- Every authority, quotation, fact, and record citation has been independently verified.
- The final version has not changed since verification.
- Applicable AI rules, client restrictions, and disclosure duties have been satisfied.
- The signing lawyer can accurately explain how the filing was prepared and checked.
- The team preserved a concise record of who reviewed what and when.
If an Error Is Discovered After Filing
- Stop using the affected material and notify responsible lawyers immediately.
- Independently determine the error's full scope and preserve relevant records.
- Assess duties to the client, court, opposing counsel, insurer, firm, and disciplinary authorities.
- Correct material errors promptly and candidly using the required procedure.
- Review other filings or matters that may have used the same workflow.
Candor after discovery can materially affect the court's response. Recent sanctions orders show that concealment, blame shifting, and repeated inaccuracies can be more damaging than the original mistake.
Bottom Line
AI assistance does not reduce the duty of inquiry attached to a court filing. Independent verification, meaningful supervision, signer approval, and prompt candor remain essential.
For examples of how courts are applying those principles, see Oregon Supreme Court's First AI Hallucination Sanctions Show What Courts Punish Most and Clearon's AI Litigation Practice Tracker.