The use of AI in legal research- A Papua New Guinean Case

By Andrew Kidu and Aminah Salmang

A Papua New Guinean lawyer was recently cited for potential professional misconduct after the Court submissions she filed  were found to have cited false case law authorities.

About the case

The case in question is OS No. 279 of 2024 Peter Gilmai v. Abel Tol & Ors. This case involved an employee of the National Housing Corporation who was seeking declaratory relief in the form of reinstatement and quashing of his suspension of employment without pay. The Court determined that, concerning the substantive matter, obtaining a successful application for leave to apply for judicial review under Order 16 of the National Court Rules is mandatory before seeking the nature of the orders sought by the Plaintiff. The Court concluded that, as the Plaintiff had failed to do this, the current proceedings were an abuse of the process. Hence, the Plaintiff’s application was dismissed as an abuse of process.

The Court’s findings

While reviewing the written submissions filed by the Defendants’ lawyer in this matter, the Court  noted that four case authorities relied on for the principles supporting her clients’ position were completely fake. The Defendant’s lawyer later admitted to the Court that she had used the AI tool Chat GPT in her legal research. The Court then made further orders for a copy of the Court’s decision to be made available to the Papua New Guinea Law Society for an investigation to be conducted to determine whether disciplinary action should be taken against the lawyer and for the lawyer to appear before the Court and show cause as to why she should not be cited for contempt of the Court.

This is the first documented legal case in Papua New Guinea that touches on the use of AI tools in legal research. The reliance on information provided by such AI tools has now been highlighted in a way that legal practitioners in Papua New Guinea have been put on notice that reliance can be misplaced and have serious consequences, using this particular case as an example. The Court also cited cases in other jurisdictions which had dealt with the issue of AI tools being used in legal proceedings and noted that it was a trend not confined to Papua New Guinea.

In conclusion: the use of AI tools

The use of AI tools in this day and age cannot be avoided; however, it is of utmost importance that sources cited in information generated by such means are fact-checked for their authenticity and reliability prior to inclusion in the drafting of legal advice and of Court documents.