A Scottish sheriff, Sheriff John MacRitchie of the Sheriffdom of Tayside, Central and Fife, sitting at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court, has issued a firm warning on the use of artificial intelligence in legal proceedings after a landlord relied on fabricated case law and statutory references generated by AI in a civil claim.
The case involved landlords David and Lesley Meek, who sought to recover around £5,857 in alleged rent arrears from former tenants. However, the court found that key legal authorities cited in their submissions could not be verified in any official legal database and did not exist in Scots law.
Among the references presented was a supposed “Interest on Debts (Scotland) Act 1985”, along with additional case law citations that the court confirmed were not real.
In his written judgment, Sheriff MacRitchie dismissed the claim and made a clear finding on the reliability of the materials submitted, stating:
“entirely fictitious legal authorities”
The sheriff stressed that the issue was not necessarily the use of AI itself, but the failure to verify its output before submitting it to the court. He noted that litigants-whether legally represented or not-carry full responsibility for ensuring that legal arguments and authorities are accurate and properly grounded in law.
The court further determined that the dispute had been brought in the wrong forum, stating it should have been raised before a specialist housing tribunal rather than the sheriff court, weakening the basis of the claim.
While Sheriff MacRitchie did not find the landlords in contempt of court, he warned that continued reliance on unverified or fabricated material could lead to more serious consequences in future cases.
The ruling has drawn attention due to its wider implications for legal practice, particularly the risks associated with generative AI producing so-called “hallucinated” citations-plausible but entirely incorrect legal references.
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Legal commentators say the decision reinforces a growing judicial expectation across jurisdictions that all authorities must be independently verified before submission, underscoring that responsibility for accuracy remains firmly human, not technological.
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