Why A Kenyan High Court Rejected An AI-generated Court Filing

A judge of the High Court of Kenya has struck out a Notice of Motion application after determining that the submitted documents were generated by a computer and failed to meet basic procedural requirements.

In a ruling delivered virtually, Justice Bahati Mwamuye said the application filed by Nayan Mansukhlal Savla against the Commission on Administrative Justice and the Kenya Psychiatric Association did not comply with the Civil Procedure Rules at the Milimani Law Courts, according to local media Capital FM Kenya.

The court found that the Notice of Motion did not meet Order 51 Rule 13 of the Civil Procedure Rules of Kenya (2010), which requires a specific notice statement to appear at the foot of every motion application. The supporting affidavit was also found to be defective for not complying with Order 19, Rules 4 and 5.

Justice Mwamuye said both the motion and the affidavit appeared to be machine-generated, raising broader concerns about the use of artificial intelligence in legal filings.

“Computer-generated documents or outputs of ‘artificial intelligence’ cannot be a proper substitute for human-drawn documents,” the judge said. “A party must draw and file their documents on their own accord and by their own hand or through their legal representatives.”

While the judge noted that the defects were largely technical, he ruled they were serious enough to warrant striking out the application. However, the petitioner was allowed to file a fresh application and affidavit that meet the required legal standards