EPIC FAIL

 No, the title of the post does not relate to the admittedly heartbreaking loss of the Miami Heat Saturday night. Although it pains us to say it, the Heat courageously battled back from multiple Celtic double-digit leads on Saturday night before a packed Biscayne Boulevard arena packed with white-shirt-wearing fans making their first showing at a Heat game this year, paying triple the price of a ticket, and pretending to be loyal fans.  

Props to J Butler who was ice with three seconds left, nailing three free throws to put your Miami Heat up by one. Alas, you have to box out under the boards, or the opposing team will scoop up a missed shot and tap it in for the win, which is just what happened. 

Game 7 is Monday. We might, just might be in Beantown with a ticket, wearing Green. 

The title of our post refers to the article making the rounds where a lawyer used ChatGBT to write a response to a motion. The bot, feeling a bit frisky, created fake case names and cites that the lawyer used in the motion. The other side, not being as lazy as the author of the brief, actually tried to pull the cases, and alerted the court they did not exist. One case centered around a fictitious 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decision, so the district judge went so far as to call the clerk of the 111th Ciruit to ask whether the case existed. It did not. 

The only defense the lawyer who wrote the bot brief had was that he apparently asked the bot if the cases he cited were real. And the bot replied that they were. Which brings us to this new maxim of law- "Never trust a bot with whom which you haven't shared your fee. "

What kind of lawyer cites cases that s/he doesn't bother to read? 

There's lots of articles on this mishap, here's one you can check out. 

 Southern District of New York Judge Kevin Castel said in an order. Lawyer Steven Schwartz claimed it was his first time using ChatGPT for a case, and he “was unaware of the possibility that its content could be false.” Schwartz, who will face a sanctions hearing next month, said in an affidavit that he “greatly regrets having utilized generative artificial intelligence to supplement the legal research” and “will never do so in the future without absolute verification.” In his affidavit, he included screenshots of ChatGPT swearing the fake cases were real and even cited real legal databases the lawsuits were supposedly stored in.

Mr. Schwartz, who has practiced law in New York for three decades, told Judge P. Kevin Castel that he had no intent to deceive the court or the airline. Mr. Schwartz said that he had never used ChatGPT, and “therefore was unaware of the possibility that its content could be false.”

He had, he told Judge Castel, even asked the program to verify that the cases were real.

It had said yes.

The NY Times covers it here. 

Rumpole notes that the bot had it's AI fingers crossed behind its back. 

VOIRE DIRE IN SEAN TAYLOR MURDER

Jury selection continues in the case of the second defendant to go to trial in the murder of  UM/Redskins football star Sean Taylor. Reid Ruben and Marie Mato for the State, Bob Bararr for the defense. Judge Murphy presiding.



In case you missed it and haven't been reading the comments to yesterday's post, the heat got beat last night. The wheels may well be coming off that band wagon so many of have hopped on.

Go to DOM's federal blog and read about what Judge Gleeson, EDNY, did. Gleeson is clearly the finest district court judge in the nation, with all due respect to the wonderful Judge Richard Kopf,  District Court Judge in Nebraska, and author of the second best legal blog in the nation: Hercules and the Umpire.


NEW HIT COP-COMEDY MOVIE STARTS MONDAY:
Here's the scene: Hip South Beach. Late at night turns into early morning. A couple of cops making the rounds of the clubs that are closing stumble upon a bachelorette party and are mistaken for strippers by the partying gals. The cops play along and take the girls for a spin on the beach on their ATV. Staring Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, and Jonah Hill. 

Oh wait. It's a real criminal case and it's going to trial Monday after voire dire this week. Officer "funny face" on the right (Derek Kuilan) faces charges of DUI serious bodily injury (he hit and injured two people on the beach during his joyride with the bride on his ATV) reckless driving, and criminal stupidity (enhanced to a felony for wearing a badge while posing for a picture). Evan Hoffman for the defense. 

Truth is indeed stranger than fiction.

SAO VOWS TO APPEAL DECISION IN CONNELLY CASE:
Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle (D-on vacation) vowed to appeal the decision of the 3rd DCA reversing and discharging disgrace former FBI agent John Connelly. The state will first seek an en banc (literally "Does anyone else think Leslie is right?") hearing of all of the judges of the 3rd DCA. Assuming a negative outcome at the 3rd, the state will seek certiorari with the Florida Supreme Court. In our expert opinion, appellate litigation could delay the resolution well beyond a year and up to two years. We have no idea if Connelly will be  released during this time, although we think that legally it is technically possible. Stay tuned. 


Air travel back from LA  may well keep us silent for the weekend.  

See You In Court.

HEAT LOSE AGAIN

The no talent, no heart, no hustle, cry babies Miami Heat got spanked at home last night. Again. Won't be very long until the arena is empty, and Judge Colodny is sitting by herself and all you front running die hard Heat fans will conveniently find something else to do.  You can read about the 112-95 drubbing here. 

DOM reports that the White House is vetting Magistrate Judge Robin Rosenbaum  Rosenberg for the Ft. Pierce District Court slot that Judge Will Thomas was originally nominated for. 
One door closes, another one opens. 

Super Bowl: We're working on our picks, including our fabled lock-no loss coin toss pick. 
The way we see the game, Seattle has a great, not a good, but a great for the ages defense. Their special teams stats are off the charts amazing. For instance, they have given up a total of approximately 75 yards in punt returns, for the entire season. Many teams give up more than that in a game. 
But the question is whether in this day and age with the current rules, can a great defense stop a great offense in one game? 

Tune in for the answer. 

UPDATE: Amanda Knox, the American college student convicted of murder in Italy, was convicted again today by an Italian Appellate court of two judges and six jurors. Knox is currently back in the US after she was released when  her conviction was overturned by Italy's highest court. Knox is subject to an extradition request by Italy. The NY Times story is here. 

See You In Court. 

3RD DCA PCA'S TAKE TWO. (HEAT LOSE...HEAT GET BEAT.)

An excellent analysis of the recent spate of 3rd DCA PCAs caused us to re-think our prior criticism of the FIU/Kendall-Courthouse ensconced judges: 

 Anonymous said... While PCA opinions are short, if you actually read them you will learn the following: of the 29 criminal PCAs, six of them are Anders briefs (if you don't know what an Anders brief is, you should stop reading this blog and start reading the South Florida Lawyers blog); 17 of the criminal PCAs are denials of post conviction relief, 15 of which are pro se. Of the six remaining PCAs, 2 are plenary appeals from adult felony court and four are from juvenile court. Friday, May 24, 2013 3:13:00 PM 


Leaping to the defense of his former colleagues was the former CJ of the 3rd DCA:

 Juan Ramirez, Jr. said... If you think the Third District writes PCAs for such a questionable reason as to avoid Supreme Court review, you should check out Marshall v. State, 45 So. 3d 470 (Fla. 3d DCA 2010), in which the en banc court divided 6 to 4, with a concurrence and a dissent, in a developing area of the law (Crawford v. Washington). Of course, I would never suggest my former colleagues would resort to such a questionable practice. I am sure the panel had good reasons for not writing. Friday, May 24, 2013 8:17:00 AM 

 For those of you that do not know, Judge Ramirez left the bench for a much more honourable profession: blogger. His blog is here.

IF YOU CAN'T STAND THE HEAT....GO WATCH EM GET BEAT:
The Heat got beat, which makes our weekend complete. 
We watched  the Heat get Beat Friday night from a very nice box, far removed from the white shirted hoi-polloi -many of whom read this blog and have loved their precious Heat with every ounce of their being ever since the geographically challenged Lebron spit on Cleveland and decided to take his "talents" to South Beach (we just chuckle every time we imagine that carpetbagging phony finding out that the Arena was not on SOBE). 

The Heat's home court advantage disappeared as LBJ's two late turnovers (choke..choke) sealed his spoiled team's fate. 

And all you Heat fans, who are so devoted to this team (so you tell us repeatedly), can you explain to us why everyone was bolting for the exits with about 3 seconds left and your team only down by three? It's not because Miami Heat fans are bandwagon jumping front running phonies is it? 

With a hat-tip to @davidovalle305 who is enjoying the long weekend (and his non-paid furlough from the Herald) in Jamaica, here is an excellent description from an eyewitness to a shooting:

A long holiday weekend marks "di" start of summer. Have fun and "me" see you Tuesday, ready for trial. 

MAVS/HEAT GAME 6

So here we are, game six in Miami. The home town hoopsters, everyone's preseason pick to sweep the playoffs and get King James crowned, are now a mere 48 minutes away from ignominious defeat.

In order to see and celebrate this moment of infamy in the Magic City, we are safely ensconced in a luxury suite.

See You In Court tomorrow.

Post Script:

And so it ends not with a bang, but a whimper. A real team beats a bunch of high priced prima donnas.

For those of you who kept asking us what we say now about the Heat?

Here now is our answer:

We think they're a bunch of losers with no heart.

Lebron James championship series stats: 10 games (4 last year, 6 this year). Record: 2-8. 7 points in 4th quarter of last game. 1 for 2 from three point range.

Superstar?

Ha!

p=gk;ps=mqc;

CAN'T STAND THE HEAT?

Then get out of Dallas.

The local hoopsters dropped their second in a row in Dallas Thursday night and now limp home to Miami down 3-2 in the series. The MAVS storm Miami needing one of two to wrap up their first NBA Championship.

Lebron James, coming off a horrendous 8 points in game 4 (none in the fourth quarter) followed that up going 1 for 4 in the fourth quarter and scoring only two points when his team needed him most.

For those of you who continually bombard us with emails and comments about what we think of the Heat, here is our answer: 5 games into this championship series the best team money can buy finds themselves down 3-2. The best player money can buy disappears in the fourth quarter while his counterpart on the MAVS makes shots and wins games while playing through a broken finger and the flu.

What do we think of the Heat? Give us a well coached team manned by players with heart and guts any day over this band of spoiled prima donnas.

Enjoy the weekend. See You In Court.

mqc/jk