North Carolina: AI rules for lawyers

What this means for lawyers

The State Bar's 2024 Formal Ethics Opinion 1 says lawyers may use AI (including generative AI) if they are competent with the tool, keep client information secure, vet third-party vendors, and independently supervise and verify the output.

Signing a pleading based on AI output carries the same Rule 3.1 and Rule 11 responsibility as any other pleading; the lawyer cannot rely on the tool.

In the federal Western District of North Carolina, filing any document is a deemed certification that facts, law, citations and quotations are accurate, with human verification. The earlier separate AI certificate was superseded on 29 July 2026.

In Cabarrus County Superior Court (District 25), AI used to create, alter or analyse evidence must be disclosed (generally 90 days before trial), but AI used only to draft advocacy documents need not be. AI-generated factual summaries or timelines served in discovery as factual assertions must be disclosed.

As at 31 October 2026.

Telling the court and the client

• Tell the courtVaries by court

  Court disclosure: depends. No statewide rule was found; Cabarrus County Superior Court requires disclosure of AI affecting evidence but not AI used only for drafting advocacy; the W.D.N.C. no longer requires a separate AI certificate but treats every filing as a certification of accuracy. Client disclosure/consent: depends. Generally not needed for ordinary tasks such as legal research; delegating substantive tasks to AI is likened to outsourcing and requires the client's advance informed consent.

  Artificial Intelligence, Local Orders, and the Courts

  Revised Administrative Order 25-09

  Standing Order In Re: Use of Artificial Intelligence

  2024 Formal Ethics Opinion 1
• Tell the clientVaries

  Same basis and sources as above.