Red Tape Bonfire
A small newsletter on legaltech
Google thinks that the Federal Rules of Evidence are the latest release by famous country band Motion in Limine.
— Edith Beerdsen (@edithbeerdsen.bsky.social) 2025-04-15T20:23:34.078Z
BTW, this isn’t AI slop on Google’s part, there really is an album called Federal Rules of Evidence [YouTube | Apple Music]
AI
European Commission leaders are strongly hinting at revisions to the EU AI Act to ‘reduce administrative burdens’ and perhaps cut reporting obligations,in the hopes of fostering innovation on the continent
From the Financial Times [$]: NATO has acquired an AI-enhanced weapons system that uses GenAI from U.S.-based company Palantir
Thomson Reuters has released its 2025 Generative AI in Professional Services Report, which includes the finding that 78% of law firm respondents believe that GenAI tools will become central to their workflows “within the next 5 years” [LawSites summary | Report download page]
Also, according to a Thomson Reuters press release, a new contract signed by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts will give access to Westlaw CoCounsel to all federal courts and federal public defenders
Fabrication Follies
Bevins v. Colgate-Palmolive Co. et al [Law.com ($) | Docket | Memorandum]
Lauren Rochon-Eidsvig and Heidi Rochon Hafer v. JGB Collateral, LLC (Tex. Ct. of Appeals) [Law.com ($) | Order]
Iron Tax, Accounting & Financial Solutions, LLC v. Story Law Firm, P.L.L.C. (see Footnote 2 of order) [Docket | Order]
P.R. Soccer League NFP, Corp. v. Federacion Puertorriquena de Futbol (new filing) [Docket | Opinion and Order]
Data Privacy
Confirmation of last week’s ‘rumors’ regarding the GDPR from Politico: “Europe's most famous technology law, the GDPR, is next on the hit list as the European Union pushes ahead with its regulatory killing spree to slash laws it reckons are weighing down its businesses”
From 404 Media [$]: “LAPD Publishes Crime Footage It Got From a Waymo Driverless Car”
Instacart is being sued by shoppers under Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act for how it handles facial scans of shoppers [Law.com ($)]
Miscellaneous
Community colleges have been hit by a flood of “bot students” who enroll in virtual courses and submit AI-generated work to collect state and federal student aid money
The New Jersey Supreme Court has adopted a new requirement for a one-credit CLE on technology-related subjects, but declined to adopt the duty of technology competence from the ABA Model Rules (so far added by 40 states) [LawSites | NJ Courts notice]
Long Reads
Bommarito, Michael James and Bommarito, Jillian and Katz, Daniel Martin, The KL3M Data Project: Copyright-Clean Training Resources for Large Language Models (April 10, 2025). Available at SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5211933