Referral to the LPCC for the citation of fake cases
17 October 2025
The ability of SAET to rely upon the accuracy of submissions made by legal practitioners is fundamental to the administration of justice. Furthermore, SAET must protect its processes from abuse.
Today I have referred the conduct of a lawyer to the Legal Profession Conduct Commissioner (LPCC). The reason for the referral was the inclusion in written submissions of three fake cases which, it was argued, were SAET authorities for various issues under the Return to Work Act 2014. Such conduct is the first that I have been made aware of where a legal practitioner has misled SAET by citing non-existent authorities. The legal profession should be aware that SAET will not tolerate such conduct, and practitioners can expect similar referrals to the LPCC in similar circumstances.
Legal practitioners must not knowingly or recklessly mislead a court or tribunal. A legal practitioner must inform the court or tribunal of any binding authority relevant to the case to be decided. A legal practitioner must correct any misleading statement made to a court or tribunal. The citing of a fictious authority for a proposition of law is an anathema to these principles.
It is opportune to remind litigants and their representatives about the dangers associated with the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence, whether that be open-source large language models or closed models. Many courts and tribunals in Australia and overseas have commented on “hallucinations” where Gen-AI has coherently and plausibly made confident assertions about the law, which have turned out to be untrue. Whilst part of that has been misrepresenting real authorities or citing real authorities that have no relevance to the case, more worryingly is the creation of fictious authorities and fake ratio. Put simply, Gen-AI cannot currently be trusted to provide accurate information. Moreover, legal practitioners should be aware that reliance on Gen-AI may lead to the degradation of essential and necessary legal skills required to practice.
The Honourable Justice Steven Dolphin
President