{"id":379845,"date":"2025-12-31T17:49:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T17:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/379845\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T17:49:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T17:49:15","slug":"ai-use-in-canadian-courtrooms-carries-risk-of-errors-penalties-lawyers-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/379845\/","title":{"rendered":"AI use in Canadian courtrooms carries risk of errors, penalties: lawyers – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the past, if a client who usually preferred to communicate via short emails suddenly sent a lengthy message akin to a legal memo, Ron Shulman would suspect they\u2019d received help from a family member or partner. Now, the Toronto family lawyer asks clients if they\u2019ve used artificial intelligence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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And most of the time, he says, the answer is yes.<\/p>\n

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Almost every week, his firm receives messages written or driven by AI, a shift Shulman says he noticed in the last several months.<\/p>\n

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While AI can effectively summarize information or organize notes, some clients seem to be relying on it \u201cas some sort of a super intelligence,\u201d using it to decide how to proceed in their case, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat forms a significant problem,\u201d since AI isn\u2019t always accurate and often agrees with whoever is using it, Shulman said in a recent interview.<\/p>\n

Some people are now also using AI to represent themselves in court without a lawyer, which can delay proceedings and escalate legal costs for others as parties wade through reams of AI-generated materials, he said.<\/p>\n

As AI infiltrates more and more aspects of daily life, it is increasingly making its way into the courts and legal system.<\/p>\n

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Materials created with platforms such as ChatGPT have been submitted in courts, tribunals and boards across Canada and the United States in the last few years, at times landing lawyers or those navigating the justice system on their own in hot water over so-called \u201challucinations\u201d \u2013 references that are incorrect or simply made up.<\/p>\n

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In one notable case, a Toronto lawyer is facing a criminal contempt of court proceeding after including cases invented by ChatGPT in her submissions earlier this year, then denying it when questioned by the presiding judge. In a letter to the court months later, the lawyer said she misrepresented what happened out of \u201cfear of the potential consequences and sheer embarrassment.\u201d<\/p>\n

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AI hallucinations can come with a financial cost as well as a reputational one.<\/p>\n

In the fall, a Quebec court imposed a $5,000 sanction on a man who turned to generative AI to help prepare his filings after parting ways with his counsel. Not long after, Alberta\u2019s top court ordered additional costs of $500 against a woman whose submissions included three fake authorities, warning that self-represented litigants could expect \u201cmore substantial penalties\u201d in the future if they didn\u2019t abide by the court\u2019s guidance on AI.<\/p>\n

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Courts and professional bodies in several provinces have issued guidelines on the use of AI, with some \u2013 including the Federal Court \u2013 requiring that people declare when they have used generative models.<\/p>\n

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Some lawyers who have used or encountered AI in their work say it can be a helpful tool if deployed judiciously, but when used improperly, it can compromise privacy, bog down communication, erode trust and rack up legal costs, even when no financial penalties are imposed.<\/p>\n

Ksenia Tchern McCallum, a Toronto immigration lawyer licensed to practice in both Canada and the U.S., said she\u2019s seeing more people come in with research or even completed applications done with AI that they then want her to review.<\/p>\n

At other times, clients are using AI to \u201cfact check\u201d her, running documents she\u2019s prepared through a platform, potentially exposing their personal information as well as undermining their confidence in her work, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can put a lot of strain on client relations because if I\u2019m instructing my client to do something and they\u2019re second-guessing me or telling me, \u2018Well, I don\u2019t think I need to or why do I need to do this?\u2019 and they\u2019re fighting back \u2026 then how am I supposed to represent you and your best interest?\u201d McCallum said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAI can scout the internet and tell you typically what\u2019s part of this process, but my experience and my knowledge of what works and doesn\u2019t work in these processes is what the AI is not going to be able to catch.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Online forums for those dealing with immigration issues also encourage people to use AI to prepare filings and save on legal fees, she said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey submit that material, and then the court\u2019s like, \u2018OK, we see that you used AI, you didn\u2019t disclose it. But not only did you not disclose it, you\u2019re actually referring to cases that don\u2019t exist, you refer to pathways that don\u2019t exist, you\u2019re citing law that\u2019s not relevant,\u201d McCallum said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are actually getting costs awarded against them because they\u2019re coming to court self-represented, thinking that AI is going to draft these beautiful factums for them, but without knowing that this is not what\u2019s supposed to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Trying to save money through AI can sometimes have the opposite outcome, said Shulman, the family lawyer.<\/p>\n

A client recently sent over five or six pages of AI-written material on exclusive possession \u2013 the right of a married couple to stay in the matrimonial home \u2013 essentially directing the firm to include it in court submissions, he said. The problem? The client wasn\u2019t married, so it didn\u2019t apply.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve just spent half an hour \u2026 \u00a0of fees to read something (when) it\u2019s no good to start with,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Shulman said he now has a basic disclaimer he gives clients, letting them know he has to read everything they send. He also encourages clients to ask him to explain legal concepts rather than turning to AI \u2014 or at least let him show them how to use AI more effectively.<\/p>\n

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There is an appetite for this kind of guidance and information, said Jennifer Leitch, executive director of the National Self-Represented Litigants Project, an organization that advocates and develops resources for self-represented litigants.<\/p>\n

The organization held a webinar last month to help those without a lawyer use AI appropriately and safely in their cases, drawing some 200 people, she said, adding more sessions are planned for the new year.<\/p>\n

Leitch said she views it almost as a form of harm reduction: \u201cPeople are going to use it, so let\u2019s use it responsibly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her advice includes checking any cases referenced by AI to make sure they exist and are quoted correctly, looking up the court\u2019s guidance on AI and making sure to stay within the length limits for filings.<\/p>\n

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AI has the potential to improve access to justice by allowing people to tap into a wealth of information and assistance in organizing their case, but currently it\u2019s \u201ca bit of a Wild West,\u201d particularly when it comes to reliability, Leitch said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFor lawyers in law firms, there\u2019s amazing AI programs that help with practice management, research, drafting, but they\u2019re all sort of behind paywalls,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the stuff that\u2019s out there open source is \u2026 \u00a0less reliable, you run those risks of hallucination and mistakes, etc., that aren\u2019t there in the programs behind the paywalls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Law firms will need to use some form of AI in order to be competitive, said Nainesh Kotak, a personal injury and long-term disability lawyer based in the Toronto area.<\/p>\n

The key is having lawyers review and correct what AI produces, as well as ensuring compliance with privacy and data security rules and professional regulations, he said.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, he said, AI is a tool, and it can\u2019t replace legal judgment, ethical obligations and human understanding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the past, if a client who usually preferred to communicate via short emails suddenly sent a lengthy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,64,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-379845","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-tech","14":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}