Artificial intelligence can help legal teams organize information and generate first drafts. It can also produce a convincing citation to a case that does not exist. Florida’s courts have now addressed that risk in a statewide rule.
In 2026, the Florida Supreme Court amended Rule 2.515 to make clear that the person signing a filing represents that the legal authorities identified in it exist and are accurately cited. The amendment also expressly addresses sanctions for inconsistent representations, subject to the required process. The change took effect June 15, 2026.
For lawyers and paralegals, the practical lesson is not to abandon technology. It is to treat every citation as a research task. Open the actual opinion. Confirm the court, year, reporter or docket number, quotation, and whether the proposition is still good law. Check pinpoint citations rather than assuming that a summary is accurate.
A simple office safeguard is a pre-filing citation review: one person drafts, another verifies the authorities, and the supervising attorney approves the final filing. A search-result snippet or AI answer is not a substitute for the underlying decision.
The rule applies beyond AI-generated material. A citation copied from an old motion, a secondary article, or a colleague’s draft deserves the same verification. Accuracy is part of the filing process, not an optional technology policy.
Lord Knows Legal provides general educational information, not legal advice. Rules and procedures may change; consult official sources and qualified counsel for specific matters.
