AI

 Good cold Tuesday morning as all eyes in the nation are on South Florida as we dig out and struggle from under 50-degree bitter cold. We are tough. We are hardy. We will get through this like a calendar call in Hialeah with a judge an hour late. We will survive. 

If like us, you live for Miami-Dade Court administrative orders, then Monday was a day you will not soon forget. It reminds all of us that AI stands for more than Asinine. 

There's a new administrative order requiring all parties to include the following certification on all motions (this in addition to the already required certifications:  "I certify that nothing in this motion mentions global warming or climate change"  [The DeSantis certification];  "I certify that nothing in this motion speaks favorably of the rights of immigrants, trans people, or veganism"  [The 2026 Life in America certification]; and of course the "I hereby certify that nothing in this motion makes any reference to diversity, equity and inclusion other than to rightfully ridicule such ideas" [The DEI certification]).

The filing shall include a statement substantially in the following form: "Generative artificial intelligence was used in the preparation of this filing. The undersigned certifies that all factual assertions, legal authority, and citations have been independently reviewed and verified for accuracy and accepts full responsibility for the contents of this filing." 

We are not making this up.  Sometimes judges just make life for a legal blogger so very easy. 

First- if you are a lawyer and you are using AI to write motions and are not carefully checking each citation AI is giving you, shame on you. Do your job which is more than creating IG posts. 

Second, why? 

If a lawyer cites a case to the court that does not exist, then they get what they deserve. They should lose and be roundly shammed. 

So what is going on here? You have come to the right place for the answers you will not get anywhere else. 

As usual it is our civil brothers and sisters who are driving this train wreck. Rumor is that in filing the hundreds of boilerplate motions seeking legal fees from insurance companies, the civil firms are using paralegals and AI in the place of a real lawyer. Then, poor civil judges are wading through the motions, seeing cases they don't recognize, and discovering that the cite is fake. Then, at the five-minute motion hearing the lawyers are blaming AI, and as Sy Gaer might have said, are muttering mea culpa and that it's "A sad and tragic mistake that will not happen again" (of course Sy would never have used AI). 

But until now the civil judges were powerless, something akin to them getting the check at lunch at Joes- a very uncomfortable feeling for them.  They could find that the lawyer violated Bar rules for candor towards the court and to prepare for hearings, but they could not impose a fine, and ahhh therein lied the rub, because what's a good civil case without the threat of sanctions? 

So now, our civil friends have to sign the pleading with the certification and when a fake AI case slips through, your favourite civil robe wearer can do what makes them happiest (because in civil court they cannot impose a max sentence after trial), they can impose Sanction$ !!!

So pull up your motions to suppress and dismiss and continue and rules to show cause and include the certification on every motion and thank your civil friends for once again making the practice of law even harder than it should be. 

And don't forget to add to all your criminal motions the Victim Certification "I hereby certify that I fully understand the victim wants the max!" 

Here is the Admin Order. 

Administrative Order No. 26-04 Disclosure of Use of Generative AI by Anonymous PbHV4H