The AI certification requirement that we’ve seen courts implement (or at least consider) has been eschewed by another judge, this one familiar to many eDiscovery professionals.
Illinois District Judge Iain D. Johnston who issued the famous lengthy (over 100 pages) order in the DR Distributors case back in 2021, and another pretty lengthy ruling in Hollis v. CEVA Logistics U.S., Inc. last year, has added Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the list of procedures to be followed in cases assigned to him on his Judge Info page here.
More AI certification requirements by another judge? Nope. It says this:
“Some of the Court’s standing orders address the Court’s idiosyncrasies, such as its procedures for filing summary judgment motions. But other standing orders—which are unfortunately necessary—are often terse reminders that all filers need to follow statutes, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and the Local Rules for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The Court believes that a reasonable standing order on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) would fall into the latter category. So here’s this Court’s standing order on AI: Anyone—counsel and unrepresented parties alike—using AI in connection with the filing of a pleading, motion, or paper in this Court or the serving/delivering of a request, response, or objection to discovery must comply with Rule 11(b) and Rule 26(g) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and any other relevant rule, including any applicable ethical rule. See Maura R. Grossman, Paul W. Grimm & Daniel G. Brown, Is Disclosure and Certification of the Use of Generative AI Really Necessary?, 107 Judicature 68 (2023).” {links added}
Not only does Judge Johnston eschew AI certification requirements (like this judge did), but he does so quite briefly! Didn’t know he had it in him! 😀
And he cites the excellent article from Dr. Grossman, Judge Grimm & Dr. Brown linked above (which I previously covered here), which discusses the considerations, confusion created by some AI certification orders, and why reliance on the rules is a better option.
So, what do you think? Do you prefer that judges issue AI certification requirements for their courts regarding the use of AI in filings, or rely on the rules, like Judge Johnston did? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.
Image created using GPT-4’s Image Creator Powered by DALL-E, using the term “human judge wagging his or her finger to robots in the courtroom”.
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