Incident Tracker / United States (state)
Dewald v. Massachusetts Mutual Life Ins. Co. (AI avatar at oral argument), App. Div. 1st Dept.
·New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department·US-STATEWarningunverified
Before New York's Appellate Division, First Department, self-represented appellant Jerome Dewald played an AI-generated avatar posing as his lawyer at his 26 March 2025 oral argument. The panel halted the video within seconds and he admitted it was AI-generated. He was verbally rebuked and allowed to continue in person; no sanction issued.
- Court
- New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department
- Date
- 2025-03-26
- Who used the AI
- Not recorded
- AI tool
- AI-generated video avatar (tool not named)
- Conduct
- A self-represented appellant obtained leave to play a prerecorded video for his oral argument, then played a generative-AI avatar of a fictional lawyer. The presiding justice stopped the video within seconds; the appellant admitted the presenter was AI-generated and was permitted to continue his argument in person.
- Outcome
- Warning
- Penalty
- No monetary penalty recorded
- Regulatory outcome
- No separate regulatory disposition recorded
- Status
- Unverified — pending primary-source confirmation
- Last checked
- 2026-09-04
Primary sources for this incident
Related regulation records for this incident
No related regulation record has been linked to this incident yet.
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Cite this record
SafeLegalAI Global Legal AI Incident Tracker, “Dewald v. Massachusetts Mutual Life Ins. Co. (AI avatar at oral argument), App. Div. 1st Dept.”, safelegalai.com/tracker/dewald-ai-avatar (accessed 2026-10-07). Data: CC BY 4.0.