AI in Victorian Courts: What Lawyers Need to Stop, Start, and Tighten
Artificial intelligence is now a compliance risk in Victoria. The Legal Services Board and Commissioner has warned that improper use of generative tools in court documents is drawing regulatory action, costs orders, and changes to practising conditions.
The message is simple: use your judgement. Don't outsource it to a model.
Two recent Federal Court signals you can't ignore
In one matter, a solicitor known as "Mr Dayal" filed a list and summary of authorities that did not exist and admitted he didn't check them. The regulator varied his practising certificate: he can't act as a principal, can't handle trust money, and must work under supervision for two years.
In another case, Justice Bernard Murphy accepted that an inexperienced junior used AI to prepare citations for a native title claim. The firm apologised and was ordered to pay costs. The court noted the likely use of generative AI, which can "fabricate" or "hallucinate" citations.
What regulators and courts expect
The Office of the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner has flagged improper AI use as a key risk. As the Board put it: "Unlike a professionally trained lawyer, AI can't exercise superior judgement or provide ethical and confidential services."
Guidelines from the Supreme Court of Victoria and the County Court make it clear: you can't blindly generate citations, footnotes, affidavits, or witness statements with AI. Caroline Counsel, family law specialist and chair of family law at the Victorian Law Institute, summed it up well: AI behaves like "a really keen intern that wants to please" and can produce hallucinations that look convincing but are made up.
- Expect reprimands, mandatory education, and, in serious cases, prosecution before VCAT for professional misconduct.
- Costs orders are on the table if your filings waste the court's time.
- Supervised practice and restrictions on roles/trust money handling are real consequences.
Practical safeguards to implement now
- Set policy boundaries: ban AI-generated affidavits, witness statements, and citations. Require source verification for any AI-assisted research.
- Verification protocol: confirm every authority on AustLII, Jade, Lexis or Westlaw. Open the case, match the citation, judge, date, pinpoint, and quoted passage. No match = don't file.
- Human-in-the-loop: a qualified lawyer must review all AI-assisted work product end-to-end before it leaves the building.
- Confidentiality controls: don't paste privileged or client-identifying data into public models. Use enterprise tools with enforceable privacy terms or keep sensitive drafting offline.
- Disclosure: follow each court's AI guidance. If disclosure of AI assistance is required, do it.
- Tool governance: whitelist approved tools, disable generative features in research tools for citation generation, and log usage.
- Audit trail: save prompts, outputs, and your verification notes with the file. If challenged, you'll have evidence of diligence.
- Train your team: teach prompt discipline, citation checking, and model limits. Start with short internal playbooks and regular spot checks. For structured upskilling, see prompt engineering and verification workflows.
Pre-filing checklist
- Every citation opens on an authoritative database and matches the quoted text.
- Pinpoints, party names, medium neutral citations, and dates are confirmed.
- Quoted passages are double-checked against the primary source.
- Any AI assistance is disclosed if the court requires it.
- Confidential and privileged material was not entered into public models.
- Prompts, outputs, and verification notes are saved to the matter.
Bottom line
AI can speed up drafting and research, but it cannot replace legal judgement. If you use it, you own the output-every line, every citation, every quote. Treat AI like an eager intern: useful, fast, and prone to confident errors. Your duty to the court doesn't change.
For current guidance and risk updates, see the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner and the Supreme Court of Victoria.
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