Angus Macinnis

Judges have become ‘human filters’ as AI in Australian courts reaches ‘unsustainable phase’, chief justice says Stephen Gageler warns the speed of AI’s development could be outstripping people’s ability to ‘comprehend its potential risks and rewards’

Gageler CJ describes #auslaw judges as "human filters" of AI generated legal argument, a description which could also be attached to legal (and other) academics: www.theguardian.com/law/2025/nov... ping @drjoemcintyre.bsky.social

Nice oil-rich country you have here - be a pity if something bad happened to it . .

Justice Legislation Amendment (Vicarious Liability for Child Abuse) Bill 2025

I am not sure plaintiff lawyers are going to like the Victorian "anti Bird v DP" legislation - if it applied, the one High Court judge who would have extended vicarious liability would still have found against DP: www.legislation.vic.gov.au/bills/justic... #auslaw

WA Govt introduces Bill responding to Bishop Bird v DP - "religious practitioners" retrospectively deemed to be employees, but only if (a) ordained (or similar) and (b) in receipt of cash or non-cash benefits: www.parliament.wa.gov.au/parliament/b... #auslaw

If you had that much cash you would probably still need to launder the cash though, yes?

But think about all the One Nation primary votes* they'll win back (*every one of which would have flowed back on 2PP anyway)

Too thick to drink, and too thin to plough, yes?

Kim Kardashian Says She Screamed at ChatGPT After It "Made" Her Fail Law School Tests Kim Kardashian admitted that she used ChatGPT for "legal advice," causing her to fail tests in her quest to become an attorney.

Excellent news here - if my law students won't listen to me telling them that using ChatGPT to do their work is a bad idea, now I can say, "even Kim Kardashian agrees with me" (although that might not be the flex I think it is . . .) futurism.com/artificial-i...

In which Hunter Biden gives the reply in Arkell v Pressdram without even knowing that he was giving the reply in Arkell v Pressdram

Is there ever going to be an interviewer who pushes back and tells him that immigrants seeking asylum is different than insane asylums?

Minority representation on TV causes outrage There has been widespread support for prominent Reform MP Sarah Pochin after she complained about the over-representation of minorities on television. Said one angry viewer, "She's right. Every time you turn on the telly there's another Reform MP being interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg." She added, "I respect their way of life and their strange customs, but Reform MPs comprise only 0.7 percent of the House of Commons. Yet Nigel Farage is on Question Time more than Fiona Bruce." "I'm not prejudiced. Some of my best friends are swivel-eyed loons, but enough is enough. There are too many people with angry red faces on television.”

Gotta love Private Eye.
Always cuts through the crap.

ACT closes 'legal loophole' making institutions more liable for child sexual abuse Survivors and lawyers welcome the nation-leading legislation, with legal action against churches, sporting groups and others to be affected.

ACT becomes first Australian jurisdiction to retrospectively extend liability to volunteers (but only for child abuse): www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10... #auslaw

The most pressing task for this afternoon is working out how to convince my trivia team that our team name tonight should be "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got East Wing" . . .

18 Lawyers Caught Using AI Explain Why They Did It Lawyers blame IT, family emergencies, their own poor judgment, their assistants, illness, and more.

Via @headnote.bsky.social, a fascinating article about the various excuses American lawyers made when they got busted filing cases with hallucinated citations: www.404media.co/18-lawyers-c... #auslaw

Thank you, sir!

Perhaps he's (not so) secretly working on a carbon reduction scheme based on . . . cap and trade?

I have heard stories (which I always thought were apocryphal) about parties who were seeking special leave to appeal to the High Court trying to commission articles about their cases trying to pump up the importance of the point

Not that there is any shortage of reasons to love @bandcamp.com, but getting a note from the artist when a new CD arrives is surely not the worst part

Probs because it’s either that or “adult contemporary” which is a category which has its own problems - I don’t think blues and roots is really a good fit

The late, great Gurrumul’s music is getting the classical treatment on a new posthumous album Seven years after his death, a new posthumous Gurrumul album titled Banbirrngu – The Orchestral Sessions will revisit the famed Yolŋu artist's rich musical legacy.

www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09...

I was looking for a good example of "the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable" and looky here, it is Andrew Hastie vs Judith Sloan: www.instagram.com/p/DO7oKUkEdS...

I was wondering whether there might be some tariff-based chaos - I would not be at all surprised if the Vis question this year includes an issue about whether it is buyer or seller who has to cop a tariff whack

This year's Jessup question is out and it is tasty - Art 62 intervention, indigenous consultation in resource development near sacred sites, extradition in the context of double jeopardy, and foreign state immunity for State-owned corporations: www.ilsa.org/Jessup/Jessu... #auslaw

'He was the captain of the scheme': A-League sentencing hearing begins Lewis was paid A$10,000 to deliberately get a yellow card in December 2023.

"He was the captain of the team, and he was the captain of the scheme" - dear me, you spend your life looking for poetry in nature without realising that that it was hiding in the Local Court all this time: www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/clayto... #auslaw

I like the idea of restorative justice, but I am not sure that I would go to a CLE on AI and ethics by someone who had been rumbled for handing up hallucinated submissions . . . #auslaw

A white groodle lounges on a balcony in the sunshine

The sunseeker

Decision here: classic.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sino... (application to bring unfair dismissal claim a mere 919 days out of time rejected by FWC) #auslaw

Corporate appellant named "Invest with Phoenix Pty Ltd" crashes and burns on appeal: www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/199... #auslaw

At this point he might be doing it himself - freedom is another word for nothing left to lose

Often in litigation there are wheels within wheels and fires within fires - but not often are there hats within hats to go back for . . .