Texas (457th Judicial District: Montgomery County): Standing Order on Use of Generative A…

What the order requires

Judge Vincenzo J. Santini of the 457th District Court (Montgomery County) signed a Standing Order on Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence on April 1, 2026. Its premise is that the duty “rests with the lawyer/litigant, not the robot.”

The court “ORDERS any attorney or self-represented litigant that chooses to use Generative AI in their work product, research, or drafting must include the following verification in bold in their pleadings.” The verification is sworn “under penalties of perjury,” names the generative AI programs used, and represents that the filer has “reviewed the entire pleading” and that it “contains no misstatements of law, misrepresentations of legal holdings, nor improper citations.” It also verifies that the pleading “contains no sensitive, confidential information from any person involved,” and that no attached evidence “was created, edited, enhanced, or altered using Generative AI.” A pleading that omits the verification “will not be considered by the Court.”

Prohibitions beyond the filing

Attorneys and self-represented litigants are prohibited from:

• entering “any sensitive, confidential information of any person involved in the case into a Generative AI program”;
• using generative AI “to create or edit/enhance/alter evidence to be admitted in any contested hearing (oral or submission) or trial”;
• using “an interpreter that relies on voice recognition AI programs” to translate documents offered as evidence or during live interpretation;
• using “an expert that relies on generative AI programs in their methodology and work product in forming opinions to be admitted as evidence.”

Consequences

After a “duly noticed show cause hearing,” the court “will consider all possible sanctions available under the law,” including “death penalty sanctions.” Because of “the potential to use Generative AI to cut corners while billing clients,” the court may order attorneys “to produce to the Court all invoices and time logs pertaining to the pleading in question.” The order cites Chapter 10 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 13, and Penal Code sections 37.02 and 37.09.

Related orders

The same order was signed for the 284th District Court and County Court at Law No. 6 on April 1, 2026, and for Probate Court No. 1 on April 2, 2026, which later rescinded it. The district courts of the 25th and 2nd 25th Judicial Districts use a closely similar standing order with the same verification text.

Primary source

Standing Order on Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence, 457th District Court, April 1, 2026 (PDF, Montgomery County)