Teising avoids fines for AI-generated fakes in defamation lawsuit against Wabash Township
Judge warns former trustee that next time would be different. Meanwhile, hearing gets delayed as Teising, representing herself, surprises court with last-minute changes to original complaint.
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JUDGE WARNS TEISING OVER AI ‘CLERICAL ERROR;’ MOTION TO DISMISS HEARING PUT ON HOLD AS FORMER TRUSTEE FILES REVISED COMPLAINT
Jennifer Teising, left to represent herself in a lawsuit over backpay and claims of defamation after her 2022 ouster as Wabash Township trustee, avoided fines Friday, though a judge warned her that sanctions would follow if she failed to check for fake or faulty legal citations churned out by AI tools in the future.
Meanwhile, Judge Sean Persin pushed a hearing on Wabash Township’s motion to dismiss the case – scheduled for Friday afternoon – into December.
That came after finding out Teising just that morning had filed an amended complaint in her effort to get as much as $820,000 in backpay and damages she said were caused by a wide conspiracy to smear her by making claims that led to criminal charges.
“Why did you wait until today to file this?” Persin asked Teising during a half-hour hearing that dealt largely with issues surrounding the former township trustee’s attempt to represent herself after her initial attorney withdrew in August.
Teising, now going by her middle name Rae, said she’d been dealing with the township’s call for sanctions against her, filed earlier this week, as she was looking to update the original complaint to include township officials, past and present, as individuals as well as in their official capacities.
“Of course,” Teising said, “I certainly was not prepared to be my own attorney when (the initial attorney) filed the first complaint.”
Friday’s hearing had been set to consider Wabash Township’s argument that Teising’s complaint came beyond the statute of limitations, among other legal shortfalls.
Instead, the hearing largely focused on the township’s claims that Teising had wasted the court’s time with AI-generated legal briefs accompanied by sloppy fact-checking.
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