#lawfedi — Public Fediverse posts

In one of my 1782 cases, the D. Del. recently denied a motion to vacate when the documents were sought for use in prospective Italian patent infringement litigation. The courts will not allow "fishing," but when you have a basis to bring a foreign claim and you seek evidence needed to plead the case, Section 1782 can be a lifesaver.

#1782 #lawfedi

https://lettersblogatory.com/2026/09/07/case-of-the-day-in-re-biogen/

#LegalEthics Tidbit: Can I partner with an ABS if my state doesn’t allow them?

An Alternative Business Structure (ABS) is essentially a law firm owned in part by non-lawyers, which is a no-no in most states but not in AZ. SC does not allow ABS structures, but an AZ ABS wanted to find a SC lawyer to take SC lawyer cases. The deal would be that the ABS finds the clients, then gets local counsel to do most, if not ... (cont.)

https://www.scbar.org/for-lawyers/quicklinks/legal-resources/ethics-advisory-opinions/ethics-advisory-opinion-25-02/
#law #lawfedi

#LegalEthics Tidbit: Should I get sanctioned for #AI hallucinations if I clean up my own mess before anyone else has noticed?

A MS lawyer was ordered to show cause why he should not be sanctioned for hallucinated citations in a brief to a federal court. In response, the lawyer stated that he practices alone so his client, “acting in the capacity of paralegal,” drafted the brief, and the lawyer did not properly review the citations. The lawyer ... (cont.)

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.alnd.198470/gov.uscourts.alnd.198470.36.0.pdf
#law #lawfedi

The latest Lawyer Ex Machina is out: Cities are fleeing Flock; NY bans classroom AI use for elementary and middle schoolers; and a Chilean lawyers breaks a court's electronic system by filing over 38,000 documents in 3 days (h/t to Damien Charlotin) #lawfedi #lawlibrarians #legaltech https://buttondown.com/LawyerExMachina/archive/de-flocking/

#LegalEthics Tidbit: If I tell my client to lie to the court and she refuses, have I engaged in deceptive conduct?

A VA lawyer told his client their case would benefit from a continuance, so he advised her to feign an illness and lie to the court about it in order to get a continuance. The lawyer advised her also to lie to her doctor: “say ‘I’ve been pooping my butt off and I’ve been throwing up… and they’ll give you some nausea ... (cont.)

https://vsb.org/Site/Site/news/summary/20251223-ayers.aspx
#law #lawfedi

#LegalEthics Tidbit: How can I make my #AI hallucinations sanctions worse, without even using #AI again?

A FL lawyer submitted a cert. petition to the District Court of Appeal that “cited a non-existent case allegedly from this Court and cited other cases that do not support this proposition.” In response to an order to show cause the lawyer acknowledged that “his normal process is to have artificial intelligence (“AI”) software research ... (cont.)

https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/10945803/jmor-properties-llc-v-artist-alley-townhomes-llc/?type=o&type=o&q=JMOR+PROPERTIES%2C+LLC%2C+Petitioner%2C+v.+ARTIST+ALLEY+TOWNHOMES%2C+LLC%2C+SAM+KIRZNER%2C+and&order_by=score+desc&stat_Published=on
#law #lawfedi

RE: https://mastodon.social/@heidilifeldman/117209346171417433

In the thread at the quoted post, I focused on the status of the litigation against Trump/USPS unconstitutionally taking over the process of ballots being mailed to voters who vote from home (e.g, voters who use absentee ballots or vote-by-mail ballots). Bottom line, Trump DoJ sure is acting like they know the Roberts Six will find a way to ok this on procedural grounds, leaving the merits of the case unaddressed.

But let’s suppose for a moment that this doesn’t happen. 1/ #LawFedi

Ok, take a deep breath everyone. I’m going to try to explain what is going on in California v. Trump/League of Women Voters v. Trump, the combined cases being heard by Judge Indira Talwani in the Massachusetts District Court, challenging Trump and USPS efforts to take over vote-from-home and disrupt the general election. 1/ #LawFedi

#LegalEthics Tidbit: Is #AI misuse driving up the nuisance (and settlement) value of cases?

A MS mother filed a pro se federal court complaint alleging that a school district failed to provide an education suited to the needs of her disabled child. She used “AI programs to generate an excessive number of overlong motions and thereby drive up the costs of defending this case for defendants … giving the appearance that she may be ... (cont.)

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.msnd.49798/gov.uscourts.msnd.49798.179.0.pdf
#law #lawfedi

#LegalEthics Tidbit: Should I save money by letting #AI assert my discovery objections for me?

In a workers’ compensation dispute in CA federal court between a worker and an insurance company, the insurance company submitted discovery objections and a privilege log, and the worker moved to compel further responses. The court observed that it “cannot overstate how gravely concerned it is by the rambling and often inapplicable objections ... (cont.)

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.456545/gov.uscourts.cand.456545.31.0.pdf
#law #lawfedi

#LegalEthics Tidbit: Can I intimidate an adverse witness by invoking their immigration status?

Because we live in the worst timeline, the PA Bar received a spate of inquiries “related to attorneys questioning and invoking the immigration status of participants in legal proceedings.” The genesis of at least some of these inquires appears to have been an incident in 2025 when several defense attorneys threatened to report a ... (cont.)

https://www.pabar.org/Members/catalogs/Ethics%20Opinions/Formal/F2026-200.pdf
#law #lawfedi

👀

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/benglass_morgan-and-morgan-arbitration-briefs-are-activity-7493693183617384448-As1I

#LawFedi #PersonalInjury

#LegalEthics Tidbit: Can I tell the jury my witnesses will be “trustworthy and reliable” before they even testify?

In an IN criminal case, the prosecutor’s opening statement ended with: “[T]hat's the case, folks, in a nutshell. Now, you're going to hear from the State's witnesses. You're going to find that they're trustworthy and reliable.” Defense counsel objected that this was improper vouching, but the court overruled the objection.

... (cont.)

https://public.courts.in.gov/Decisions/api/Document/Opinion?Id=oWn7kvzhOnKATBSnN43t5HSXXc8GY_qNG_WN0TyGs5zd_IxE_bRL9PUW2OPkEgLu0
#law #lawfedi

#LegalEthics Tidbit: Do I still get sanctioned If #AI screws up my brief after I already did the legal research myself (I swear, I really did!)?

A CT lawyer “used LexisNexis to conduct the legal research necessary to draft his” appeal briefs, then “he verified the accuracy of the quotations and citations in the initial rough drafts using the Shepard's Citations Service on LexisNexis.” So far so good. But then he “copied and pasted those ... (cont.)

https://appellateinquiry.jud.ct.gov/DocumentDisplayer.aspx?AppId=2&DocId=nlP%2fFpeQxOD1iTMftvdSPw%3d%3d
#law #lawfedi

FTC and 22 state attorneys general allege Amazon concealed unfair charges in its digital advertising auction pricing

#lawfedi #consumerprotection #ftc #amazon

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/08/ftc-states-sue-amazon-over-secret-ad-surcharge-scheme

#LegalEthics Tidbit: Succession planning isn’t just for death and illness

The MT Supreme Court has adopted a new rule – Rule 34: Administrator Planning – to its Rules for Lawyer Disciplinary Enforcement. Rule 34 requires each lawyer in private practice to designate both an Interim Administrator, another attorney who can be appointed to protect client rights in case the lawyer suddenly can’t practice anymore; and a “Person

https://juddocumentservice.mt.gov/getDocByCTrackId?DocId=577550
#law #lawfedi

#LegalEthics Tidbit: Is relying on #AI basically the same as relying on a junior associate for Rule 11 purposes?

Plaintiff’s counsel in a TN federal court litigation filed a document containing hallucinated quotations and misleading citations, which were generated by #AI. The Court assessed a Rule 11 sanction towards the “low end,” involving a public reprimand and a $1,500 fine, due to several mitigating factors (such as taking sole ... (cont.)

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.tnmd.91557/gov.uscourts.tnmd.91557.330.0.pdf
#law #lawfedi

Lawyer Ex Machina returns for the 2026-2027 academic year! Post mortems over OpenAI's agents hacking Hugging Face, a woman has her criminal contempt upheld for submitting deepfake evidence, a TikTok user goes off on a doctor who wore Meta smart glasses to a medical consult, and more #lawfedi #lawlibrarians #legaltech https://buttondown.com/LawyerExMachina/archive/welcome-class-of-2029/

I just cited to the American Practical Navigator by Nathanial Bowditch in a Daubert Reply, and I feel like I’m building some solid maritime law geek credentials.

#law #lawfedi #MaritimeLaw

There's a lot going on in the comments to Colorado's proposed regulations relating to the Automated Descison-Making Technology Act and Chatbot Safety Act.

#AI #consumerprotection #lawfedi

https://comments.coag.gov/s/colorado-automated-decision-making

#LegalEthics Tidbit: Do I get credit from the court for sort-of halfway-almost verifying my #AI citations?

A CT lawyer submitted a brief with all real cases, but that also included erroneous pinpoint citations, fake case quotes and misrepresentations of the law. On a show cause order, he explained that he wrote the brief himself, then ran it through Claude, ChatGPT and Open Law “for suggestions on arguments and ... (cont.)

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ctd.169303/gov.uscourts.ctd.169303.43.0.pdf
#law #lawfedi

#LegalEthics Tidbit: If trial counsel is mistakenly listed on the docket as appellate counsel, can he ignore the appellate court’s orders?

After his first appointed trial counsel withdrew, an IA criminal defendant filed what was liberally construed as a pro se appeal from a pretrial order. Later, successor trial counsel was appointed. Successor counsel was also acknowledged by the appellate court clerk as counsel for the pending ... (cont.)

https://www.iowacourts.gov/iowa-courts/supreme-court/supreme-court-opinions/case/25-1787
#law #lawfedi

Today, federal District Court Judge Indira Talwani issued a 14 day emergency stay on USPS preparing to implement or implementing its now final rule attempting to control how states mail out ballots to vote-from-home voters. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mad.298449/gov.uscourts.mad.298449.218.0_1.pdf 1/ #LawFedi

#LegalEthics Tidbit: Do the ethics rules require me to notice and call out my opponent’s #AI hallucinations?

The VA bar is considering proposed Legal Ethics Opinion 1902, entitled “DUTIES WHEN OPPOSING COUNSEL FAILS TO REVIEW AND CORRECT GENERATIVE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) OUTPUTS.” The opinion states that while most ethics guidance about AI has concerned AI users, there also needs to be a discussion about “ethical duties for ... (cont.)

https://vsb.org/common/Uploaded%20files/docs/20260527-leo-1902-proposed.pdf
#law #lawfedi

#LegalEthics Tidbit: Can a court just decide that my conflict waivers are not in my clients’ interests?

Plaintiffs Driver and Passenger were in a car hit by a defendant UPS driver. Both Plaintiffs Driver and Passenger hired the same NY lawyer to file claims against the UPS driver, and the UPS driver counterclaimed alleging that Plaintiff Driver was a fault. In the ... (cont.)

ttps://law.justia.com/cases/new-york/other-courts/2026/2026-ny-slip-op-50314-u.html
#law #lawfedi

Monday, the Roberts Six vacated a Massachusetts District Court judge’s preliminary injunction against Trump’s to federalize control of state voting rolls and the mailed ballots process. Yesterday, plaintiffs in other lawsuits took action to get new injunctions in place. Today, the plaintiffs in the Mass District Court case have moved for such a new injunction, in light of the Trump regime, via USPS, taking definitive steps to operationalize Trump’s plan. 4/ #LawFedi

New activity today in legal efforts to prevent Trump from unlawfully interfering with mail-in voting.

A reminder of what Trump is attempting: he’s trying to use the USPS to control who gets absentee/mail-in ballots. This is to throttle vote-from-home, which for many people has meant requesting a ballot be mailed to them, which they then complete and return by hand or mail. Trump is trying to limit who receives ballots by mail. 1/ #LawFedi

#LegalEthics Tidbit: Can I create a conflict of interest by falsely declaring I represent my opponent?

The majority owner of a CA car dealership fired the manager, who was also a minority owner. When the manager kept coming to work and refused to leave, the dealership initiated a trespass action against him. The manager hired a lawyer to represent him in the trespass proceedings. Meanwhile, the dealership was also in hot water with ... (cont.)

https://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/nonpub/B346575.PDF
#law #lawfedi

Turns out sending words on stationary is effective in getting people to fold.

The threat of litigation —not actual litigation—is enough to terrify people.

That’s the bigger takeaway.

#LawFedi #IANAL #Cease_and_desist

Today, all the plaintiffs suing to stop Trump from unlawfully interfering with mail-in voting have sought to amend their complaints in response to the ruling yesterday from the Roberts Six that lifted the temporary injunction previously in effect. 1/ #LawFedi

RE: https://scicomm.xyz/@dantheclamman/116954518144682511

We’re going to need some legal word smithing on the order of the #GPL and the #CreativeCommons licenses to make a false statement an offence in as many ways and jurisdictions as possible (any ideas, #lawFedi folks?), some #EXIF and #ID3v2 and #PNG and comparable metadata tags for carrying legal statements attesting to non-use of media synthesis (mislabelled as #genAI by GPT vendors and NPU/TPU manufacturers), some apps to interview and educate the user about media provenance and add those tags iff applicable, and some #Fediverse and web browser add-ons to filter out media lacking them unless verifiably produced before a given date.

In yet another action against the #ruleoflaw #Trump to limit sharing #classified info with #Congress after #leak on #Iran #bombing damage. Why it matters: The "Battle Damage Assessment" leak outraged Trump and top U.S. officials, who said it was incomplete and that its release was aimed at undercutting Trump's claims that Iran's nuclear sites had been #obliterated #democracy #constitution #politics #president #power #corruption #lawfedi The #leak could have come from any number of parts of govt

Hi all! I studied computer science with a focus on RTOS and FP/PL, but I graduated law school earlier this year. I practice at a boutique firm that primarily handles IP cases. I foilboard and I play way too many rhythm games in and out of the arcade.

I contribute to open source projects where I can, and I write up my experience in my digital garden which I’ve been maintaining for 2 years now. It’s also a good place to find usage tips for projects/tools that you might want to use.

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My passion for tech also includes privacy, and I’m an advocate for minimizing your digital footprint. GenAI is a scam and its purveyors are causing real harm while they sell it as hard as they can.

Follow me for: #selfhosting #digitalgardening #privacy #lawfedi #section230 #copyright #patents #rustlang #gleam #haskell #RSS #neovim #NixOS #zotero #tmux #alacritty #linux #egpu #qemu #arch #archlinux #GNOME #watches #watchmaking #obsidian #obsidianmd #thunderbird #fpv #mechkeys #mechkeeb #mechanicalkeyboard #matrix #signal #fido2 #passkeys #dancerushstardom

I reckon Copilot+ PC is going to be a product that an entire class of professional just simply can't purchase or use for work. Thinking of #attorneys, #accountants, etc.

Surely the "features" will be able to be disabled, but can anyone reasonably trust that?

#lawfedi @law

Dismaying but not surprising--George Mason Law (renamed Antonin Scalia Law) built connections to Justices that gave litigants access. School provided Justices with luxury vacations "with a little teaching thrown in," urged them to take vacations at the ranches of litigants & allowed professors to file amicus briefs to SCOTUS as Justices were co-teaching with them. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/30/us/supreme-court-scalia-law-school.html #LawFedi #GeorgeMason #SCOTUS #LegalEthics