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REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration
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As more courts weigh in on lawyers’ use of artificial intelligence, a federal judge in Manhattan chided a law firm for citing results generated by an artificial intelligence program to help justify its bid for attorney fees, Sara Merken reports.
Lawyers at the Cuddy Law Firm had told U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer in a court filing that they used feedback from OpenAI’s ChatGPT as a “cross-check” to back up other billing rate data included in their fee request. Engelmayer in his ruling on the fee request said the firm’s “invocation of ChatGPT as support for its aggressive fee bid is utterly and unusually unpersuasive.”
Over the past year, lawyers have been sanctioned and admonished for inadvertently including fictitious case citations generated by new AI tools like ChatGPT in legal briefs. In this case, however, the lawyers explicitly cited their use of AI for research.
A handful of judges and courts have crafted rules and guidelines on lawyers’ use of AI as the technology spreads, and others are forming committees to examine the issue.
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- The American Bar Association declined to grant full approval to JD-Next, rejecting a proposal to put the alternative law school admissions program on par with the LSAT and the GRE. The ABA’s legal education arm instead approved a recommendation from its standards committee that the JD-Next program should not yet be deemed a “valid and reliable” predictor of an applicant’s law school grades.
- Major U.S. firms jumped into Elon Musk’s fight in the 9th Circuit to block a new California content moderation law. Wiley Rein represents the U.S. Chamber in an amicus brief backing X Corp’s argument that that the new law runs afoul of free-speech rights. Hogan Lovells filed a brief for the Washington Legal Foundation. Former Davis Wright partner Robert Corn-Revere, now chief counsel to a nonprofit free speech advocacy group, also filed a brief supporting the social media network.
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That is the amount the DOJ team tasked with rooting out corporate crime secured in penalties in 2023, its lowest tally in at least eight years, new data shows. The unit last year resolved eight corporate investigations, working with other overseas regulators. While that was one more settlement than the team attained in 2022, total fines plunged 68%, falling below $1 billion for the first time since at least 2015, according to a Reuters analysis of data from the agency’s annual report. The fall was partly due to a pandemic trial backlog that has diverted resources from settlement negotiations.
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“Just because there was a tragedy, it doesn’t mean that a crime was committed.”
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—Defense attorney Jason Bowles, delivering an opening statement in the criminal trial of his client Hannah Gutierrez. New Mexico state prosecutors contend that Gutierrez, who was the chief weapons handler on the set of the film “Rust,” was responsible for the 2021 fatal shooting of the film’s cinematographer. Gutierrez, charged with involuntary manslaughter, is accused of bringing live rounds on set, an act strictly forbidden for nearly a century. She has pleaded not guilty. Actor Alec Baldwin, who pointed the firearm, has denied responsibility and said the gun fired without him pulling the trigger. Gutierrez’s lawyers told the jury that Baldwin broke basic gun safety rules.
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- In the 8th Circuit, Missouri will urge a panel to overturn a judge’s decision blocking the state from enforcing a state law that declared several federal gun laws “invalid.” The Biden administration sued to bar enforcement of the 2021 state law, called the Second Amendment Preservation Act. Last year, U.S. District Judge Brian Wimes in Jefferson City, Missouri, said the measure violates the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, which holds that federal laws take priority over conflicting state laws.
- Google lawyers from Paul Weiss and other firms will ask U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, to reschedule the DOJ’s digital ads antitrust trial. Brinkema earlier this month set a Sept. 9 trial date in the case, which was lodged by DOJ and a group of states. Karen Dunn and Bill Isaacson of Paul Weiss, who are lead trial counsel defending Google, said the date conflicts with one of their cases in Delaware federal court.
- The FTC and attorneys for Meta will meet in D.C. federal court before U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who wants to talk about scheduling matters in the agency’s antitrust suit over the market for personal social networking. FTC lead trial counsel Daniel Matheson said this week that a 2024 trial date would be practicable, but Meta’s lawyers said “it is unlikely that a case of this size and complexity can be prepared for trial by the end of 2024.” Teams from Kellogg Hansen, Davis Polk and WilmerHale are defending Meta.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- A Texas judge ruled that a Houston-area school district did not violate a newly enacted state law when it punished a Black student for refusing to change his hairstyle. The case involved a student who wears his dreadlocks braided on top of his head. Barbers Hill Independent School District claimed the 18-year-old’s hairstyle violated its dress code. It suspended him in August and sent him to an off-site disciplinary program for the entire school year.
- Hospital operations giant HCA lost a bid to dismiss a proposed antitrust class action in North Carolina federal court accusing it of scheming to restrict competition and artificially drive up costs for health plans. The ruling will allow a prospective class of North Carolina health plans to move ahead with claims against HCA, the country’s largest U.S. for-profit hospital system.
- Family Dollar and its parent company Dollar Tree are facing new allegations by a pair of shoppers who said in a proposed class action that the discount chain stores sold contaminated or damaged products. The new lawsuit, filed by Hagens Berman and other firms, comes even as the companies attempt to finalize the settlement of a separate multidistrict litigation over claims that rats contaminated products at some stores. Dollar Tree declined to comment on the new suit but said it is committed to product safety.
- NBCUniversal lost a bid to defeat a trademark lawsuit over its use of the iconic DeLorean from “Back to the Future” on merchandise and tie-ins for the film series. NBCU failed to convince U.S. District Judge David Carter that it did not infringe DeLorean Motor Co’s trademarks, paving the way for a trial on the trademark claims. Carter also ruled that DeLorean lacked standing to claim that NBCU broke its 1989 contract with the carmaker.
- Mastercard is facing a new lawsuit by a technology startup that has accused the payments giant of stymying its efforts to build a “universal” digital wallet for consumers that can work across different mobile device platforms. Massachusetts-based OV Loop filed the lawsuit in Boston federal court on Tuesday, seeking more than $75 million in damages under U.S. antitrust law.
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Although Florida’s insurance market continues to face ongoing challenges, Florida lawmakers have taken steps over the past 18 months to put the insurance industry in a better position than it was in during the last decade. Consumers are now starting to see the impact of the once-in-a-generation tort and insurance market reforms that were adopted in 2022 and 2023, write Fred Karlinsky, Timothy Stanfield and Christian Brito of Greenberg Traurig. Here are five trends in Florida’s property insurance market to keep an eye on in 2024.
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