Solicitor filed documents riddled with fake cases and fabricated citations while defending himself
An immigration lawyer has become the first in the UK to be struck off for using AI.
Abhishek Kumar has been banned from the legal profession after submitting AI-generated documents to defend himself at a tribunal on a separate matter.
Kumar, a foreign registered lawyer at Kim’s Law and Rivington Solicitors, was facing claims that he had illegally employed a failed asylum seeker who had overstayed their visa.
At the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT), Kumar filed AI-generated legal documents that were strewn with errors.
He has become the first British lawyer to be struck off for using AI. The SDT ruled his use of the technology risked undermining trust in the legal profession.
The ruling comes as the legal profession grapples with how to use AI, a technology that has the potential to deliver significant savings for the industry, but which also has a tendency to generate errors.
In a landmark ruling in June last year, a junior barrister was severely reprimanded for issuing documents filled with AI errors, including entirely fake cases.
The case, referred to as the Ayinde case, saw the court issue a clear warning that lawyers face severe consequences for misusing AI.
In the ruling, the judge said: “There are serious implications for the administration of justice and public confidence in the justice system if artificial intelligence is misused.”
Britain’s legal watchdogs have since issued guidance on using AI, making it clear that lawyers will be held responsible for any errors caused by the technology.
Industry regulators have also raised privacy concerns about lawyers feeding confidential documents into publicly available models, including ChatGPT.
Pinsent Masons, the corporate law firm, reported itself in May to the Solicitors Regulation Authority after making AI errors.
At the same time, law firms are investing heavily in AI and using the technology widely.
Kumar faced the tribunal after he was found to have hired a former client to work as an administrative assistant at Kim’s Law.
The individual, who was classed as a visa overstayer, was paid on a cash-in-hand basis at the Hounslow law firm. Kumar was aware of the individual’s immigration status, having worked on the case.
After an investigation by the Home Office, he was handed a 12-month community order and told to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.
The conviction saw him brought before the SDT where he faced professional sanctions from the legal industry watchdog.
However, in seeking to defend himself, Kumar’s submissions to the SDT were discovered to be riddled with fake cases and erroneous citations.
He admitted that he’d used AI to write his documents when the errors were flagged.
Kumar was then found to have used AI to draft a second set of documents purporting to correct his initial errors. He admitted using AI again after the mistakes were pointed out.
The tribunal ruled that Kumar should be struck off for both the original offence of employing a visa overstayer and the second offence of using AI.
In his defence, Kumar said his use of AI was a result of recklessness, cognitive exhaustion and serious ill-health rather than any intention to mislead the tribunal.
In a ruling, the SDT said: “The repeated disregard for verifying submissions to the regulator and to the tribunal had serious implications for the administration of justice and public confidence in the legal system.”
Disclaimer
This article is intended for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For advice specific to your situation, please contact our team at T & M Legis for a consultation with our Legal Experts.
