They’re a dynamic judicial duo, making things happen rather than just waiting for fixes that may take many years to materialize, and Montgomery County District Court Judges Vince Santini (457th) and Kristin Bays (284th), make a great team in presenting solutions to problems that our county is facing in regards to our need for additional courts, as well as a criminal justice center, that has the capabilities to handle other county offices being spread out, often operating in dilapidated facilities that needed updating years ago. Then there is the use of Artificial Intelligence in regards to court filings, a relatively new phenomena in the judicial system, that costs court officials massive amounts of time and money in reviewing documentation that is essentially flawed, bloated, and contains mistakes even to the point of noting case law that does not exist. Both Judges, after seeing numerous examples of A.I. influenced documentation took action to curb the practice before it gets out of hand.
Almost two years ago, Judges Santini and Bays, looked at the court system in Montgomery County and saw a shattered system of courts here and there, located all over downtown Conroe, and at the same time, lacking space for additional courts for a county our size. And it wasn’t just the courts, but other entities, such as the tax office and county clerks offices just to name a few, that needed updating with new offices for safer ways to operate when the movement of funds or prisoners is involved. It was then that Santini and Bays formed a small committee of colleagues, putting together a convincing presentation, hitting influential civic groups all over the county, with the argument that action needed to be taken, and the longer it takes to act, the more expensive it would be in the future. And it was just recently that the Montgomery County Commissioners Court voted to begin the planning phase on a Criminal Justice Center, and this month formally approved new courts for the county. The building process should take approximately one year in regards to orchestrating the blueprints for a new building, with an additional 3-4 years for project completion, but at least the process is at a beginning.
A judge’s life in Montgomery County is never easy, and for a county the size of ours, they are basically overworked, with caseloads for each court several times more than a similar county sized entity. The Commissioners Court was presented with a list of court requests by Judges Bays and Tracy Gilbert (418th) on June 11th, including new district courts for multiple civil, family, and criminal cases, county courts (felony), and a new probate court. After initial approval of all the courts during the open session, due to cost and location concerns the CC in executive session narrowed the approved courts list to new district courts for civil and family, a new county court at law and a probate court. Commissioners voted 4-1 for the new court’s approval. As for the new courts, with approvals likely in 2027, they could be in place by 2029.
One issue that is affecting judges is the use of Artificial Intelligence in regards to filings for court proceedings, which is a rather new phenomenon involving the courts. Judges do a tremendous amount of reading and researching into documents that are submitted to their chambers, and lawyers and litigants are using A.I. in submitting work, which at first glance appears to be thorough and accurate; but when read by judges they find references to laws and case law that is wrong or simply does not exist, and it’s lost time that judicial officials cannot recover. The A.I. faults in presenting false information with confidence, or outright just making stuff up are called ‘hallucinations,’ and the new technology is frustrating judges, who some see the sub-standard work as an affront to attorneys’ honesty in dealing with clients, and with self-represented parties causing more harm than good in regards to their cases.
It was Judge Santini and Bays who started creating a document to put lawyers and self-represented litigants on notice in reference to the use of A.I. in their work, and especially when submitting to their courts. Other Judges in Montgomery County are now adopting the rules, and there has been interest from other judicial officials from outside Montgomery County who are experiencing the same problem.
Both Santini and Bays have taken it upon themselves to issue new rules to attorneys or self-represented litigants when dealing with their courts in reference to filings. The ‘Standing Order on Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence,’ puts the onus on those presenting pleadings to the courts that the duty of care lies with the lawyers or litigants and ‘Not the Robot,’ seeing as ‘Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) takes no such oath.’
The draft of the A.I. Standing Orders, combats an issue with the new technology that may never be worthy of standing in for human input in drafting pleadings for the courts. And with judges having to read and understand arguments presented, only to find that the A.I. programs have grossly mismanaged facts, outright misquoting or inventing case law. The realization leaves judges bewildered with documents that are downright confusing and riddled with holes.
“It is unfortunate in the filing of the pleadings,” said Judge Bays. “We were receiving these very long, voluminous documents, with law offices cranking them out in just a few hours.”
Judge Santini showed concern for the phenomena being passed on to higher appeals courts in as little as two years.
“The misquoting of case law has the possibility to reach the Ninth Court of Appeals in Beaumont which handles Montgomery County cases,” said Judge Santini, in reference to judges potentially missing the A.I. hallucinations. “The judges there might in time be miscited in case law that does not even exist. It’s a real problem.”
Violations of the standing order include sanctions on attorneys or self-represented litigants, include ‘death penalty sanctions,’ or case altering penalties imposed on a party for flagrant litigation misconduct, that can include striking pleadings, dismissing claims with prejudice, or entering a default judgment ending the case for the offender. Additionally, for attorneys, possible inquiries including client billing may be ordered, as well as the Court reporting violations of the standing orders to the appropriate authorities. It is a document with teeth, and so far, oversight from the State has been lacking; but Judges Santini and Bays are elected officials that don’t wait around for things to happen, they somehow will them into existence.
“We’ve done this several times,” said Judge Bays in reference to doing the right thing, along with Santini’s nod. “We see a problem, and we try to do something about it.”
The new standing orders are being received well with local judges, with the goal to create a consistency between the courts, putting local attorneys on notice of judicial awareness in regards to the practice. And for self-represented litigants who feel that A.I. can be their substitute for a lawyer via the use of ChatGPT, the sanctions may make the aim too expensive and harmful for their case to proceed.