Can Australian lawyers use ChatGPT?

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Daily wrap  

 
For today’s headline story see the first link in the “Editor’s Picks” section below

• Lisa Wilkinson told Ten boss she worried about losing Sydney home if network didn’t cover her legal fees | Australian media | The Guardian
   

  • More documents have been uploaded to the online court file for the Lehrmann defamation proceedings. This includes:
     

    • the email file note referred to in the above article - see page 1256 here; and
       

    • an affidavit by the lawyer that signed off on Lisa Wilkinson’s Logies speech which sets out why she signed off on the Logies speech - see para 37 here.
       

• Higgins’ demand to Lisa: drop lawyer or I’m out [The Australian paywall]
   

  • “Brittany Higgins told Network Ten she would not assist Lisa Wilkinson’s high profile silk, Sue Chrysanthou SC, in defending Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation action against Wilkinson.”
     

• Hundreds more immigration detainees could be released in sequel to NZYQ high court ruling | Australian immigration and asylum | The Guardian
   

  • Albanese government asks High Court to take on case of Iranian man refusing to cooperate with authorities
     

• Antoinette Lattouf loses bid to force ABC to produce emails calling for her dismissal
   

• War crimes reports rife with ‘speculation’, Ben Roberts-Smith’s lawyer tells court | Ben Roberts-Smith | The Guardian
   

  • Will Ben Roberts-Smith's failed defamation case stand? His lawyers argue the facts don't add up
     

• Former LNP candidate faces court accused of giving false address to electoral commission
   

• Government refused to abandon appeal over $2.7m payout to mortgage fraud victims that could have 'destroyed' them
   

• CCC inquiry into WA ombudsman hears he spent just 36 days in the office over the course of a year
   

• Bitcoin: Australian Federal Police officer William Wheatley to fight crypto fortune theft allegations | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site
   

• Pratt love child ‘was paid from family trust’ [The Australian paywall]
   

  • “In the resumption of a fight between the billionaire Pratt siblings and half-sister Paula Hitchcock, a court has heard claims she received three payments from cardboard king Richard Pratt.”

Editor’s picks

• ChatGPT is not a paralegal: the professional implications for lawyers in using ChatGPT — Australian Public Law - Brenda Tronson, Level 22 Chambers.
  

• DPP v Khan - ACT Supreme Court
   

  • [39] - The offender tendered a number of personal references. They include a character reference from the offender’s brother and from his mother. The terms of the reference from his brother strongly suggest that it was written with the assistance of a large language model program, such as ChatGPT… Read as a whole, the use of language within the document is consistent with an artificial intelligence generated document. Two particular aspects of the document stood out. The first is the manner in which the author’s relationship with the offender is introduced…
     

• Who’s winning the three big cases of the year? The lawyers, of course [AFR paywall]
   

• The Wigs: Back for 2024! - Judge Newlinds and criticisms of the Director of Public Prosecutions on Apple Podcasts
   

• The Callover: Reflections on Life in the Law with Walter Sofronoff KC on Apple Podcasts
   

• A sample chapter of Law in Context, 5th ed (2023) Stephen Bottomley and Simon Bronitt has been made available online - Chapter 3: First Nations Peoples, Law and Injustice
   

• Event - The High Court revised special leave process – What does it mean for the advocate? - 21 Feb 2024 (in person only) - The Hon Michelle Gordon AC (Justice of the High Court of Australia) and Rowena Orr KC (Solicitor-General of Victoria)
   

• 15 February - "Eulogy for the Hon. Andrew Rogers AO KC", delivered by Chief Justice Andrew Bell
   

• When New Zealand was part of New South Wales - Anne Twomey (Constitutional Clarion) - YouTube
   

• New DPP appointed for five-year team – Proctor
   

  • “Todd Fuller KC will start a five-year term as Queensland’s Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on Monday, 19 February.

    Mr Fuller was appointed Crown Prosecutor in 1989 and has served as full-time Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions since 2016.”
     

• Concern at camera use in DFV cases – Proctor
   

  • “Concerns about the use of body-worn cameras (BWC) by police in domestic and family violence (DFV) responses have been laid bare by an Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) report.”

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