Portner

  A judge has accused a barrister and solicitor of “appalling professional misbehaviour” in relation to the citation of five fake cases in a statement of facts and trying to dismiss these as “minor citation errors”. It was suggested in the judgment that the fake cases may have been referenced due to the barrister using artificial intelligence. Partner Alex Williams reviews the case of Ayinde, R v The London Borough of Haringey and discusses the use of AI in legal research and drafting. Judgment in Ayinde The case involved judicial review proceedings in which the barrister for the claimant, Sarah Forey, lodged written submissions that referred to five cases that did not exist. When asked by the defendant’s solicitors to provide copies of the judgments, the claimant’s solicitors failed to do so, did not admit the cases were made up and said references to them were merely “cosmetic errors” that could be “easily explained”. The judge concluded that this assertion was “a grossly ...