Four Cherokee County Superior Court judges have signed a standing order requiring anyone who uses artificial intelligence to prepare a court filing to say so, certify that the citations are accurate, and name the tool they used. The order, made public this week, covers every criminal and civil case in the Blue Ridge Judicial Circuit, and it arrives just months after a Clayton County prosecutor’s AI-generated fake case citations upended a Georgia murder appeal.
According to WSB-TV, the court said mistake, lack of technical expertise, or time constraints will not be accepted as good-faith excuses for noncompliance. The same order states plainly that using artificial intelligence does not relieve attorneys or self-represented litigants of their ethical or professional obligations. The standing order will be filed separately in each case as notice of the new requirements, and the Cherokee County Clerk of Courts confirmed the mandate took effect this week, published Monday, citing Georgia’s civil practice code under OCGA ยงยง 9-11-1 et seq. and 9-15-14.
Noncompliance carries real teeth. The court can strike a filing outright, impose sanctions, order the payment of attorney fees, or refer an attorney for disciplinary action, according to the same reporting.
The Case That Set Off the Alarm
The catalyst traces back to Clayton County, where Hannah Payne was convicted in December 2023 of murdering 62-year-old Kenneth Herring. Payne had seen Herring leave the scene of a minor traffic accident in May 2019, followed him, and then shot and killed him, according to FOX 5 Atlanta. She was sentenced to life in prison plus 13 years…