Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal, based in West Palm Beach, has ordered a lawyer to explain why she should not be sanctioned after judges said her filings showed the marks of unclear generative content they called “AI slop.”

The panel did not find invented case law or factual errors of the kind associated with AI “hallucinations.” The criticism focused on scattershot arguments, prose that was hard to follow and the absence of independent professional judgment. The dispute arises from a family-law case.

Attorney Jaclyn Soroka was given ten days to respond. Reuters reported that she was taking the ruling seriously. The court said it would also consider referring her to the state bar.

The judges stressed that it did not ultimately matter whether the text was generated by artificial intelligence, assisted by it or produced another way. Lawyers remain responsible for the clarity, accuracy and relevance of every filing they sign and submit.

No final sanction has been imposed. The order seeks an explanation; the process continues. Use of AI was not established in the order as a proven fact, but as a possible source of writing the court found inadequate.

The warning adds to a wider set of US court interventions over filings produced with language models. This article does not state that the lawyer has already been punished.

Image: former Palm Beach County Courthouse, now a history museum, 13 June 2021 / Sharon Hahn Darlin / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. Not the Fourth District Court of Appeal. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: Appeals court warns about ‘AI slop’ in filings, weighs punishing lawyer | Reuters; Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal.