Sydney’s Judge Judy takes aim at ‘imaginary’ AI judgment

2 weeks ago 3

NSW District Court defamation gun Judith Gibson has become the latest judge to encounter legal documents generated by AI.

In this case, it involved a plaintiff representing themselves and a document citing a “wholly imaginary judgment” said to have been authored by Gibson.

NSW District Court Judge Judith Gibson, photographed during an interview with the Herald in 2015.

“He cites a similarly false case name for a judgment in another court which he claims reflects the same imaginary principle of law,” Gibson wrote.

In her diplomatic turn of phrase, Gibson observed it was courts like hers that encountered many of the cases where unrepresented litigants were leaning on AI, but the policy of courts situated higher up the food chain was not to refer to the decisions of “inferior courts” (a term of art, not a sledge). A missed opportunity for shared wisdom on tackling this scourge, one might think.

Gibson’s sharp wit and clarity of thought is going to be missed – she is set to retire from the bench next month, with a farewell ceremony on October 3.

NSW Chief Justice Andrew Bell has also belled the cat – as it were – about the dangers of AI.

In a speech last week, Bell said the “dilemma of Gen AI producing hallucinations is no longer limited to self-represented litigants, and now lawyers have been disciplined in most jurisdictions, including Australia, for relying on hallucinated AI content”.

He predicted deepfake “evidence” would present “significant forensic challenges to courts” and the legal profession, and noted there was already a YouTube video in circulation purporting to show two NSW Supreme Court judges speaking in American accents. Words had “literally been put into their mouths”, he said.

The multitasking legal eagle

Now to Queensland, where a lawyer has been rapped over the knuckles for giving free legal assistance to a defendant in court – while in the same courtroom on her own drug driving charge.

Kylie Anne Ward appeared before Southport Magistrates Court in October 2022 and pleaded guilty to driving while cannabis was in her system. She was ordered to pay a $450 fine and disqualified from driving for three months. It was her second drug-driving offence.

While awaiting her sentence, Ward spotted a defendant appearing on public nuisance charges and volunteered to represent him.

The Legal Services Commissioner said this might have been commendable in another context, but in this case it warranted disciplinary action.

The Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal ruled that her actions amounted to unsatisfactory professional conduct, but not the more serious professional misconduct.

“A solicitor acting for a party in a criminal proceeding and then being sentenced in respect of a criminal charge, even if minor, by the same magistrate in short proximity to the first matter being dealt with may tend to diminish the public confidence in the administration of justice,” the tribunal said in a decision last month.

Ward had already apologised to the chief magistrate in a letter. The decision noted she had “no history of disciplinary proceedings”.

The tribunal ordered that she be publicly reprimanded for this conduct, and for failing to notify the Queensland Law Society of a charge or conviction in a specific timeframe.

Ward was ordered to attend an ethics course – at her own expense.

Canberra celebs keep coming

One week after the Midwinter Ball, and Parliament House was still in the thrall of celebrities. The media class’s best and brightest descended on the capital on Tuesday to school the prime minister and new-ish Communications Minister Anika Wells on the eternal value of free-to-air television.

The three network chiefs, Nine’s Matt Stanton, Seven’s Jeff Howard and Ten’s Beverley McGarvey, arrived at Parliament House with their crop of stars in tow to explain, once again, how commercial free-to-air television was the gift that keeps on giving.

The selected politician-friendly network talent included The Block’s Scott Cam, A Current Affair’s Allison Langdon, Sunrise’s Matt Shirvington, and I’m A Celebrity’s Julia Morris.

With a ban of gambling ads still undecided two years later, the ongoing revenue menace of global streaming services and a comatose regional media industry, there was plenty of serious intent behind the dazzling smiles.

The ALP operatives back in the thick of it

John-Paul Blandthorn was a high-flying executive at Labor-aligned lobbying firm Hawker Britton until July last year – when suddenly he wasn’t.

Blandthorn, the brother of Victorian Labor minister Lizzie Blandthorn, left the firm hurriedly, in unexplained circumstances. And his profile was wiped from the firm’s website with an alacrity that would have made Joseph Stalin proud.

But in December, Hawker Britton performed an almighty reverse ferret and forked out $350,000 to Blandthorn in a Federal Court legal settlement, part of which included an agreement to note that Blandthorn had resigned from the firm. It also released him to work with Hawker Britton clients in the future.

Now he is putting that to good use teaming up with longtime Labor operative Andrew Landeryou to establish HC Public, a lobbying shop which is an offshoot of Hall Chadwick chartered accounting firm.

From left, HC Public chairman Mark Darras, Anthony Albanese, HC Public executive director Andrew Landeryou and HC Public chief executive John-Paul Blandthorn at the John Curtin Oration.

Blandhorn is chief executive, Landeryou is executive director and National Disability Insurance Agency board director Mark Darras is the chair. They are all listed as stakeholders in the lobbyists’ register.

Clients listed in the register are Metacognition and, as of Monday, Western United Football Club, which needs all the help it can get as its owners fight a Federal Court wind-up order.

Wasting no time, the team has already scored the sine qua non of lobbyists – a selfie with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, which was taken in July at the John Curtin Oration, an event the firm sponsored.

Landeryou has a long political pedigree in Labor right circles. The widower of ex-Labor senator Kimberley Kitching, who tragically died in 2022, had a role in founding the Rip Up the Bike Lanes ticket in the City of Melbourne elections, which helped Melbourne Lord Mayor Nick Reece get elected.

As the HC Public website states: “He has been described as a ‘muse’ and ‘confidant’ to political leaders and has, according to media reports, played an active role in selecting candidates and shaping policy.”

“According to media reports”? Well, you could always fact-check it with the boss!

Landeryou told CBD: “It’s not the only thing I am doing, but it is definitely the most interesting.”