A New Brunswick lawyer has been sanctioned for misusing AI in a brief he submitted to provincial court. Denis Sawyer did not contest the complaint of professional misconduct and was fined $10,000.
This was Law Society of New Brunswick’s first complaint about AI use
Oliver Pearson · CBC News
· Posted: Sep 03, 2026 4:28 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago
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Lawyer Denis Sawyer admitted to professional conduct after not checking the citations provided by AI for a court document. (Denis Sawyer/LinkedIn)
A New Brunswick lawyer has been sanctioned for misusing generative artificial intelligence in a brief he submitted to the New Brunswick provincial court last year.
Denis Sawyer appeared Thursday before a panel of the New Brunswick Law Society’s discipline committee, where he did not contest the complaint of professional misconduct.
Sawyer will have to pay a $10,000 fine and $2,000 in costs to the law society.
The case is the first of its kind for the law society.
Sawyer was charged with submitting fictitious citations to the provincial court and using AI in an incompetent manner.
The notice of complaint that included the charges said all 12 citations in a brief Sawyer submitted on April 29,
This story was brought to Nouzie by RSS. The original post can be found on https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/nb-lawyer-admits-ai-misuse-court-brief-9.7331508?cmp=rss
