Judge scolds barrister for using ‘made-up cases’ in her court arguments
A High Court judge has condemned a team of lawyers for basing arguments on five cases which turned out to be ‘made-up’.
Barrister Sarah Forey was instructed by solicitors at Haringey Law Centre to act for a homeless man who was claiming priority housing from Haringey Council in London.
Ms Forey cited a number of cases – examples of previous legal rulings used to support an argument – in written submissions to the High Court.
Lawyers for the council said they could not find five of the cases, suggesting the only explanation would be that Ms Forey used Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools.
They asked for clarification from Haringey Law Centre, who dismissed the issue as ‘cosmetic errors’ and said any problems were ‘easily explained’.
Haringey Law Centre lawyer Sunnelah Hussain suggested the council lawyers raised the matter ‘as technicalities to avoid undertaking really serious legal research’.
The presiding judge, Mr Justice Ritchie, blasted Haringey Law Centre’s response as ‘grossly unprofessional’.
In his ruling on the case, he said the solicitors and Ms Forey had shown ‘appalling professional misbehaviour’.
He said he was unable to reach a verdict on whether they did use AI ‘because Ms Forey was not sworn in and was not cross examined’.
But he accused them of ‘misleading the Court’ by submitting ‘fake cases’ and then trying to ‘finesse them into being “minor citation errors”‘.
The judge also dismissed Ms Forey’s claim that the error arose from filing and photocopying mistakes, saying: ‘I do not accept that it is possible to photocopy a non-existent case and tabulate it.’
He said the team had presented a ‘reasonable and fair’ case, suggesting they would have had a strong chance to win if they hadn’t used the fake cases.
Mr Justice Ritchie continued: ‘The submission was a good one. The medical evidence was strong. The ground was potentially good. Why put a fake case in?
‘On the balance of probabilities, I consider that it would have been negligent for this barrister, if she used AI and did not check it, to put that text into her pleading.’
The judge ordered his ruling to be sent Bar Standards Board and the Solicitors Regulation Authority, saying Ms Forey and Haringey Law Centres should self-report to the watchdogs.
The case was settled in favour of the homeless man, Frederick Ayinde, but ordered Ms Forey’s team to pay wasted court costs.
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