Lawyer ordered to pay client’s opponent $800 after discovery of fake cited case created by Al

A lawyer has been ordered to pay $800 to his client’s opponent in a civil suit after a nonexistent case generated by an artificial intelligence (AI) tool was found in his court documents.

- Christine Tan

Mr Lalwani Anil Mangan of DL Law Corporation said the nonexistent case was originally cited by his junior lawyer, who would have run the case through an AI app.

In an I-page judgment on Sept 29, Assistant Registrar Tan Yu Qing said such improper conduct causes valuable judicial time to be Jost and unnecessary expenditure of resources.

Ms Tan added: “His actions may, in the eyes of the public, cast a shadow over the legitimacy and honour of the legal profession and its role as a custodian of justice in Singapore.”

Mr Lalwani represented claimants Tajudin Gulam Rasul and Mohamed Ghouse Tajudin in their civil suit against Ms Suriaya Haja Mohideen, who was represented by Mr Umar Abdullah Mazeli of Adel Law LLC.

The judgment did not detail much about the civil proceedings, but said the defendant, Ms Suriaya, had applied to set aside a default judgment entered against her for failing to file a notice of intention to contest or not contest the claim.

Lawyers for the claimants filed written submissions on June 1 citing a purported case to support one of their legal arguments.

On July 18, lawyers for the defendant emailed counsel for the claimants and said they were unable to find the cited case. Three days later, counsel for the claimants filed amended written submissions, where the case was replaced.