CALIFORNIA – The Court of Appeal’s Second District issued a unanimous ruling Friday that serves as both a legal precedent and stark warning to California attorneys: personally verify every citation, regardless of its source. The decision came in what should have been a routine employment law appeal, but became a cautionary tale about artificial intelligence’s infiltration into legal practice.
The three-judge panel affirmed a Los Angeles County trial court’s summary judgment in favor of defendants Jose Luis Nazar and Land of the Free LP in a wage-and-hour dispute with former employee Sylvia Noland. The underlying case centered on Noland’s claims that Nazar failed to properly compensate her as a leasing agent and sales representative for two commercial properties.
The trial court had dismissed the suit on multiple grounds, finding that Noland was an independent contractor exempt from wage-and-hour protections and that a disputed $60,000 commission was properly withheld because the underlying transaction never closed.
