Is this legal advice?
No. These notes are general information about using AI in legal work in Australia. They are not advice on a matter, a client or a court.
Citation check
Check every citation an AI tool gives you
Take each citation out of the draft, open the primary source, and remove anything you cannot find.
- List them
Take each case, statute and article out of the draft and list it. Do this before you edit the prose around it.
- Open the primary source
Open the judgment, the authorised report, or the legislation register. A second summary is not the source.
- Match the pinpoint
Confirm the name, the year, the citation and the page or paragraph. A real case with the wrong pinpoint is still wrong.
- Read the passage
Read the passage the draft relies on. A real case that says the opposite is a worse error than a citation you cannot find.
- Check that it is still good law
Check later treatment to the standard you would use without an AI tool. If you cannot find the source, take the citation out.
Sources
Questions
Who can read a note I save?
Only the account that saved it. A note on this public page is different: anyone can read it. Your own notes are not published.
What should I leave out of a saved note?
Leave out a client’s name, a file number and other personal information unless you mean to store it on this account.