N.D. Tex.: N.D. Tex. Local Civil Rule 7.2(f): Disclosure of Use of Generative Artificial…

What the rule requires

The Northern District of Texas added Rule 7.2(f), governing disclosure of generative AI use in briefs, to its Local Civil Rules in the edition effective September 3, 2024. The text is unchanged in the current rules, effective September 1, 2026:

(f) Disclosure of Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence.

(1) A brief prepared using generative artificial intelligence must disclose this fact on the first page under the heading “Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence.” If the presiding judge so directs, the party filing the brief must disclose the specific parts prepared using generative artificial intelligence.

(2) “Generative Artificial Intelligence” means a computer tool (whether referred to as “Generative Artificial Intelligence” or by another name) that is capable of generating new content (such as images and text) in response to a submitted prompt (such as a query) by learning from a large reference database of examples.

(3) A party who files a brief that does not contain the disclosure required by subsection (f)(1) of this rule certifies that no part of the brief was prepared using generative artificial intelligence.

How this differs from chambers standing orders

Most federal AI rules surveyed for this tracker are chambers-specific standing orders that bind only the cases assigned to a particular judge. Local Rule 7.2(f) is different: it is a district-wide local rule binding every judge and every brief in the Northern District of Texas. It also takes a different design choice from the disclose-and-certify template: the rule front-loads disclosure to the first page of the brief under a defined heading, and treats absence of the heading as an affirmative certification that no AI was used. The result is structural, not procedural, in the sense that the disclosure is built into the document’s caption rather than appended as a separate certification.

Local Criminal Rule 47.2(e) applies the same disclosure to criminal filings.

The rule displaced Judge Brantley Starr’s chambers-specific “Mandatory Certification Regarding Generative Artificial Intelligence” (May 30, 2023), the first widely publicized federal AI standing order. Judge Starr’s chambers page now states that he “no longer requires a certification on the use of artificial intelligence in light of the Court’s adoption of Local Civil Rule 7.2(f) and Local Criminal Rule 47.2(e).”

Practitioner workflow

Brief templates for N.D. Tex. matters need a “Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence” first-page heading, used or not. Because absence of the heading is treated as a certification of non-use, firms should default to including the heading and disclosing whenever generative AI is used at any stage of brief preparation. The rule does not address generative drafting features now embedded in legal-research platforms (Westlaw GenAI, Lexis Protégé, etc.); practitioners should disclose conservatively when those features were used to draft argument text.

The “if the presiding judge so directs” clause means individual judges retain discretion to require part-by-part disclosure, so check chambers-specific procedures in addition to the local rule.

Scope

District-wide. Applies to all civil briefs filed in the Northern District of Texas (Dallas, Fort Worth, Abilene, Amarillo, Lubbock, San Angelo, and Wichita Falls divisions).

Primary source

• N.D. Tex. Local Civil Rules, effective September 1, 2026 (PDF)
• N.D. Tex. Local Criminal Rules (PDF)