California Courts Must Adopt AI Policies or Ban It Altogether!

California’s Judicial Council just issued a blunt ultimatum. By September 1, every court in the state must either adopt formal policies to contain generative AI or ban generative it altogether. No hedging. No excuses. Just comply or cut it off.

The policy doesn’t flirt with ambiguity. Courts must safeguard confidentiality (i.e. no using “Open Platforms” like Chat GPT, Google Gemini etc.), reject bias (can you say Grok?), verify outputs, and slap disclaimers on anything artificially authored. Treat AI like an intern who is more concerned about making billables than providing accuracy. Useful, but you’d better double-check every word.

This isn’t fear of the future. It’s awareness of the present. Chat and Google AI hallucinations already caused lawyers to cite cases that don’t exist because they’re too damn cheap to pony up a measly hundred bucks for closed model, accurate platforms like Clearbrief. Worse, judges have accepted fake citations and THAT will make the judiciary sweat! And when bureaucracies sweat, they write rules.

Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero launched the AI Task Force in 2024. Now, its work is codified. California becomes the first judicial system in the nation to require every courthouse to take a position on AI. Not philosophically. Operationally.

Roughly five million cases move through these courts each year. That’s five million opportunities for a digital assistant to mangle a fact, misstate a precedent, or quietly inject bias wrapped in confident syntax. The Judicial Council just gave every judge a firewall.

Other states are nervously eyeing the fallout. Illinois, Delaware, and Arizona have made cautious advances. New York is still talking about it. Georgia is pretending this is someone else’s problem. Connecticut is stuck in committee.

Most won’t move until something breaks. Judges are trained to rely on precedent. Legislators are trained to dodge hard decisions. Until a high-profile failure ignites headlines, inertia will win.

California made the first move. Mark my words: The next one won’t come from courage. It’ll come from chaos.

Frederick Shelton is a Legal AI Consultant to law firms, legal MSO's and funds on subjects which include legal AI, ABS models, MSO's and M&A. He can be reached at fs@sheltonsteele.com