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Regulation Tracker / Canada

The Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Court Proceedings (consolidated civil, family and criminal practice directions)

Ontario Superior Court of Justice · Ontario

last revised 2026-02-12last verified 2026-09-041 versioncountry page →

Practice direction / noteIn forceVerification dutyCertificationRecord-keeping

map categories:Duty to verify AI outputDisclosure of AI use in filingsSelf-represented litigantsSanctions for AI misuse

Announced 12 February 2026 and added to the Ontario Superior Court's consolidated civil, family and criminal practice directions. The directions require all legal information obtained with AI assistance to be verified against trusted and authoritative sources, require authorities to be hyperlinked to publicly accessible sites such as CanLII, and set out the consequences of misuse.

Applies to
lawyers, litigants, parties
Effective
See version history
Current version
Consolidated practice directions, AI section added · 12 Feb 2026
Last verified
04 Sept 2026
Official text
www.ontariocourts.ca/scj/news/new-practice-directions-on-the-responsib…

What the document requires

  • AI-generated references may include incorrect or fictitious authorities; all AI-assisted legal information must be verified against trusted and authoritative sources.
  • Authorities must be hyperlinked to publicly accessible sites such as CanLII, with paragraph-level references.
  • Counsel must comply with the factum authenticity certification in r. 4.06.1(2.1) of the Rules of Civil Procedure.
  • Misuse may result in cost orders, dismissal of a hearing, contempt proceedings, public reprimand or referral to the Law Society of Ontario.

Version history

VersionDateWhat changedSource
Consolidated practice directions, AI section addedcurrent2026-02-12AI section added to the consolidated civil, family and criminal provincial practice directions; civil direction last updated 17 March 2026.official

Sources

Cite this record

SafeLegalAI Legal AI Regulation Tracker, "The Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Court Proceedings (consolidated civil, family and criminal practice directions)" (Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Consolidated practice directions, AI section added, 2026-02-12), safelegalai.com/regulation/canada/ca-on-scj-practice-directions-ai (accessed 2026-09-04). Data: CC BY 4.0.

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