D.N.J.: General Pretrial and Trial Procedures, Section I.B (Use of Generative Artificial…
Hon. Evelyn Padin · U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey
Verified May 8, 2026
- Citation
- General Pretrial and Trial Procedures, Section I.B (Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence) (Hon. Evelyn Padin, D.N.J.)
- Order date
- November 13, 2023
Summary
Use of any GAI (e.g., OpenAI's ChatGPT or Google's Bard) in any court filings requires a mandatory disclosure and certification.
What does the order require?
- Use of any GAI (e.g., OpenAI's ChatGPT or Google's Bard) in any court filings requires a mandatory disclosure and certification.
- The disclosure must (1) identify the GAI program, (2) identify the portion of the filing drafted by GAI, and (3) certify that the GAI work product was diligently reviewed by a human being for accuracy and applicability.
- Failure to comply may result in sanctions, such as the filing being stricken, and/or a referral to a bar disciplinary committee.
- Where the rules for the Third Circuit or the District of New Jersey conflict with any of the preferences in this document, the rules of the Third Circuit and the District of New Jersey control.
Practice areas: federal civil
What the rule requires
Section I.B of Judge Padin’s General Pretrial and Trial Procedures imposes a three-part disclosure-and-certification regime for any use of generative AI in court filings. The certification must identify the GAI program, identify the portion of the filing drafted by GAI, and attest that the GAI work product was diligently reviewed by a human being for accuracy and applicability. The rule’s compliance section authorizes both filing-strike and bar-discipline-referral as remedies.
Two practical features distinguish Padin’s regime from the strict-disclosure pole of the federal trial-court bench. First, the rule appears as Section I.B of an integrated General Pretrial and Trial Procedures document, not as a freestanding standing order, so it travels alongside other chambers practices like ex parte communication rules and conferral expectations. Second, the order expressly cedes to Third Circuit and D.N.J. local rules where those conflict, which keeps the chambers rule subordinate to the broader district framework rather than carving out a chambers-only exception.
The rule’s scope is “generative AI” specifically, with ChatGPT and Google Bard named as examples. It applies to attorneys, parties, and pro se litigants alike.
R&G data corrections
R&G’s tracker dates this entry 2023-11-13. The operative document on the D.N.J. site is the General Pretrial and Trial Procedures, marked “Revised: April 9, 2026” on its face. The 2023-11-13 date is consistent with the adoption-era capture in R&G’s tracker; the version that controls is the most-recent revision posted at chambers, currently 2026-04-09. We retain the 2023-11-13 date as the canonical adoption date for tracker purposes; the rule’s content has remained the same in substance.
Quotable language
“The use of any GAI (e.g., OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Bard) in any court filings requires a mandatory disclosure/certification that: (1) identifies the GAI program; (2) identifies the portion of the filing drafted by GAI; and (3) certifies that the GAI work product was diligently reviewed by a human being for accuracy and applicability.”
“A failure to comply with this requirement may result in sanctions, such as the filing being stricken, and/or a referral to a bar disciplinary committee.”
Primary source
General Pretrial and Trial Procedures (Padin, J.), njd.uscourts.gov