A Canadian lawyer has been suspended for six months after using fake legal citations generated by ChatGPT in court documents, leading to findings of professional misconduct.
The Law Society of Ontario’s discipline tribunal suspended lawyer Mary Hyun-Sook Lee, who practises as Jisuh Lee, after determining that she relied on artificial intelligence-generated case law that was either fabricated or unrelated to the legal issues in a family and estate dispute.
The tribunal also directed Lee to complete remedial training during her suspension and pay C$10,000 in costs, ruling that she failed to adequately represent her client and misled the court through inaccurate legal submissions.
The disciplinary action followed proceedings at the Ontario Superior Court, where Justice Fred Myers questioned the authenticity of several legal authorities referenced in Lee’s written arguments.
When asked to provide copies of the cited cases, Lee was unable to do so, prompting the judge to independently verify the references.
The court found that some of the cases did not exist in any legal database, while others were unrelated to the matter before the court or contradicted the legal arguments they were cited to support.
Justice Myers also raised concerns that artificial intelligence may have been used in preparing the submissions. Lee reportedly stated that her office did not normally rely on such tools but would need to confirm whether her clerk had used them.
The tribunal concluded that her actions fell below the professional standards expected of lawyers, stating that she relied on AI-generated legal authorities without verifying their accuracy before presenting them in court.
Legal practitioner Tom Macintosh Zheng described the case as the first known instance in Canada where a lawyer has been suspended specifically for the misuse of artificial intelligence in court filings rather than receiving a lesser disciplinary sanction.
He noted that the decision reflects growing concerns within the legal profession about the dangers of submitting unverified AI-generated information in judicial proceedings.
Justice Myers stressed that lawyers have a professional obligation to carefully review and confirm every legal authority they rely on, emphasizing that non-existent or misleading citations have no place in court.
Separate civil contempt proceedings involving Lee are still pending, with the court appointing an independent lawyer to assist in the matter due to procedural concerns.
