AI Legal Malpractice

On April 14, 2026, Magistrate Judge Tim A. Baker of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana issued an order in White v. Walmart (Case No. 25-cv-01120) sanctioning plaintiff's counsel for relying exclusively on artificial intelligence to identify deficiencies in the defendant's discovery responses. The court held that while AI can serve as a useful tool, it cannot substitute for attorney judgment and does not satisfy the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure's requirement that parties meet and confer in good faith before escalating discovery disputes.