Karen#1
Well-known member
[Boies Schiller partner John Kucera]
According to the 2nd Appellate District’s website, the appeals court has denied the motion from Boies Schiller partner John Kucera to accept a corrected brief after AI-generated errors were found in a filing from the law firm on behalf of the Danny Masterson victims.
This is in the civil lawsuit brought in 2019 by the Jane Doe victims against Masterson, Scientology, and church leader David Miscavige alleging years of harassment since the women came forward to the LAPD in 2016.
The lawsuit was on hold during Masterson’s two criminal trials, the second of which ended with his conviction on two counts of forcible rape that now have him serving 30 years to life in the Men’s Colony state prison in San Luis Obispo County.
After Masterson’s criminal case was concluded, the civil lawsuit got going again and Scientology tried to gut it with an anti-SLAPP motion that was denied by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Upinder Kalra. Scientology appealed that decision.
During the appeal process, Scientology said it had found what it suspected were AI-generated errors in the “respondent’s brief” submitted by Boies Schiller attorneys on behalf of the Jane Doe plaintiffs.
Kucera admitted that the citation errors were caused by the use of AI tools, and he accepted responsibility. He also filed a motion with the proposed replacement brief with those errors removed.
Scientology opposed the motion, asking the court not only to reject the corrected brief, but also to sanction the Boies Schiller attorneys and even to suspend them from the case.
The court initially set a December 9 hearing on the merits, and both sides said they wanted to present oral arguments.
But then on Friday, the court took the hearing off the calendar and denied Kucera’s motion, rejecting the corrected brief.
Kucera had tried to convince the court that the fault for the AI debacle was his alone, and that the Jane Doe plaintiffs should not be punished by not allowing the errors to be fixed.
We have said previously that Scientology’s appeal of this particular issue seemed weak, and appeared mostly to be a time-wasting maneuver. The Jane Does, particularly after Masterson’s conviction and imprisonment, seemed to be in a strong position in this lawsuit.
Will they still prevail if the court has to rely on their brief that contains AI-generated errors? On the merits, we have to believe that they still have a strong chance of winning.
But there’s no doubt this is a regrettable setback for their case. We’ll let you know when the court puts a new hearing date on the calendar.
Court rejects brief from Danny Masterson victims intended to fix Boies Schiller AI blunder
According to the 2nd Appellate District’s website, the appeals court has denied the motion from Boies Schiller partner John Kucera to accept a corrected brief after AI-generated errors were found in a filing from the law firm on behalf of the Danny Masterson victims.
tonyortega.substack.com
