Chilean Supreme Court sanctions lawyer for AI-generated fake citations
A Chilean lawyer was sanctioned by the Supreme Court for submitting fabricated academic citations generated by a chatbot in a legal brief. The Court suspended her from practice for one month and fined her approximately CLP 350,000-357,530 for violating procedural good faith, finding she failed to verify the authenticity of sources.
What happened
A lawyer submitted a cassation appeal to the Chilean Supreme Court containing citations attributed to professors Juan Andrés Orrego Acuña and Jean Pierre Matus, claiming they were from publications titled 'Tratado de protección al consumidor, 2023' and 'Responsabilidad civil y consumo, 2021' respectively.
The opposing counsel questioned the citations, leading to verification that the referenced publications do not exist and the citations were generated by a chatbot. The lawyer acknowledged in her defense that errors may have been incorporated during preparation of the written brief and stated there was no intent to deceive the tribunal or falsely attribute opinions to academics.
Reported impact
The Supreme Court's Third Chamber unanimously found the lawyer violated the principle of procedural good faith and demonstrated a lack of professionalism incompatible with the standards required of attorneys litigating before the judiciary.
Index analysis
The Court determined that procedural good faith requires verification of the authenticity of information presented to tribunals, a duty the lawyer failed to fulfill.
Governance controls
The Supreme Court suspended the lawyer from practicing law for one month and imposed a fine of five Monthly Tax Units (UTM), approximately CLP 350,000 to CLP 357,530.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.