Worker Fined After Lawyer Used AI to Create Fake Legal Citation in Brazilian Court
A worker was fined R$ 1,200 by a Brazilian labor court after his lawyer used AI to generate a false citation to a non-existent court ruling. The court found the worker engaged in bad-faith litigation by presenting AI-generated content designed to challenge a medical examination, rejecting arguments that AI use in legal documents is a legitimate practice.
What happened
A worker's lawyer used an AI system to create a false citation to a non-existent ruling by the Tribunal Superior do Trabalho (TST) in a labor case at the Vara do Trabalho de AraçuaÃ. The fake citation was presented in a motion to contest the results of a medical examination ordered in the case.
Reported impact
The worker was ordered to pay a fine of R$ 1,200 to the opposing party. The fine was to be deducted from any amounts the worker received in the case.
Index analysis
The Nona Turma of the Tribunal Regional do Trabalho de Minas Gerais (TRT-MG) unanimously confirmed the penalty, finding that the worker engaged in bad-faith litigation. The court ruled the issue was not a simple error in the ruling number but the creation of non-existent content designed to benefit the worker and mislead the court.
The worker argued the citation error was a material mistake without intent to deceive and contended that using AI to draft legal documents is a legitimate practice. The court rejected these arguments, stating that use of AI tools does not exempt parties from responsibility for content presented to the judiciary.
Governance controls
The court found the worker violated the duty of procedural good faith under articles 793-B, sections II and V of the Brazilian Labor Code (CLT), constituting bad-faith litigation. The relator stated that judicial proceedings require integrity, a fundamental principle that was clearly violated.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.