Appellate and Complex Litigation Blog

Earlier this month, Judge Kurt Odenwald on behalf of the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District penned Missouri’s first appellate dismissal and award of sanctions for a brief that cited bogus cases generated by artificial intelligence—a phenomenon commonly referred to as “Artificial Intelligence Hallucinations.” Kruse v. Karlen, Case No. ED111172 (Mo. App. E.D. Feb 13, 2024). Below we discuss what happened in the case, how it illustrates the remarkable limitations of AI, and the risk of trying to work inside the legal system without a lawyer.

In Bradley v. Village of University Park, 2023 WL 1488351 (7th Cir. Feb. 3, 2023), the Seventh Circuit found that the defendants waived an issue by conceding it in a prior appeal. In so finding, the court clarified the difference between conceding an issue for purposes of an appeal and waiving the issue outright so that it could not be disputed on remand. 

The importance of following the rules and requirements related to appeals—though daunting and often confusing for attorneys who do not focus in this area—is something appellate practitioners frequently discuss with each other. One of those requirements involves preserving errors for review. In most cases, before you can accuse a trial court of committing an error, you must give that court an opportunity to correct the error. An appellate court nearly always will reject an attempt to “sandbag” the trial court.

In Allen v. Missouri Baptist Medical Center, 2022 IL App (5th) 210263, the Fifth District of the Illinois Appellate Court reversed a circuit court and ordered the dismissal of a suit alleging medical negligence and wrongful death against a Missouri-based hospital.

A misconception of many Illinois lawyers—perhaps even some appellate practitioners—is that any trial court ruling concerning proper venue is subject to interlocutory appeal.