Lawyer fined for citing non-existent legal precedents generated by AI
A lawyer in Belo Horizonte was fined by a judge after presenting false legal precedents attributed to Brazilian courts in a traffic accident case. The judge found the lawyer had cited decisions from the Superior Court of Justice and the state court that never existed, and referred the matter to the Brazilian Bar Association.
What happened
A lawyer in Belo Horizonte cited two non-existent legal decisions—supposedly from the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) and the Tribunal de Justiça de Minas Gerais (TJMG)—in a traffic accident case involving three vehicles on Avenida Raja Gabaglia.
Judge Flávia de Vasconcellos Lanari identified the false precedents during review of the case and determined they had been fabricated using artificial intelligence.
Reported impact
The lawyer was fined R$ 990 for bad faith litigation and the case was referred to the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB-MG) for disciplinary action.
Although the judge ruled in favor of the lawyer's client (finding the defendant driver not responsible for the collision), the use of false citations undermined the integrity of the legal proceedings.
Index analysis
The judge noted that the use of artificial intelligence in legal documents requires continuous human supervision, stating that lawyers have heightened responsibility because they understand law and know how to research legitimate sources.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.