A man who tried to overturn thousands of dollars in legal costs has had his case thrown out after the Supreme Court found he relied on a fake legal citation ‘hallucinated’ by artificial intelligence.
Jon Jovanovic was ordered to pay $3,987.58 after losing three Hobart City Council parking appeals before three different magistrates in 2019.
He did not challenge the parking convictions, but in June 2024 sought to review the costs orders, about five years after they were made.
Such reviews must normally be filed within 21 days, meaning he needed the Supreme Court’s permission to proceed so far past the deadline.
Jovanovic, who represented himself, told the court he was a disabled motorist with several ailments, including a heart condition and chronic kidney disease.
Chief Justice Christopher Shanahan was not persuaded, finding Jovanovic had not adequately explained the delay, let alone shown the “exceptional circumstances” required by law.
But it was his use of AI that drew the court’s particular concern.
Jovanovic cited a case called ‘Tait v State of Tasmania [2022] TASSX 34 [38]’ to argue costs should bear a rational relationship to the seriousness of an offence.
The problem was the case did not exist. The court described it as a hallucination generated by AI.
The chief justice said “considerable effort” went into checking whether the citation was real or affected by a typo. It was neither.
At the hearing, Jovanovic conceded the submissions were AI-generated and apologised.
The chief justice accepted the apology, but warned the practice had the “potential to mislead the court”.
“It is unacceptable that any litigant, whether represented or not, rely upon such so-called legal authorities for an argument before the court,” he said.
