From the Docket

Reading on legal AI, ethics, and the all-in-one shift.

Substantive analysis from a working litigator. New essays every other week.

How DDEAS prevents the Mata v. Avianca scenario

The Mata v. Avianca sanctions happened because four specific defenses were missing. Here's exactly what they were, and how the DDEAS framework was designed to make that scenario structurally impossible.

Chris Waters · June 9, 2026 · 8 min read

ABA Formal Opinion 512: The lawyer's new duties in the AI era

In July 2024 the ABA issued Formal Opinion 512 — the most consequential ethics guidance of the AI era. It identifies six distinct duties every lawyer using generative AI now owes. Here's what each one requires, and what it means in practice.

Chris Waters · June 9, 2026 · 10 min read

Mata v. Avianca: What every lawyer needs to know about AI hallucinations

In May 2023, attorney Steven Schwartz filed a routine personal injury brief citing six federal cases that did not exist. ChatGPT had fabricated all of them. What followed became the canonical cautionary tale of generative AI in legal practice.

Chris Waters · June 9, 2026 · 9 min read

Park v. Kim and the Second Circuit's AI warning shot

A year after Mata, a federal appeals court referred counsel for discipline over an AI-fabricated citation. The message from the bench is getting louder.

Chris Waters · May 21, 2026 · 7 min read

State bar AI guidance: A 50-state survey

From California to Florida, state bars are issuing their own generative-AI guidance — and the patchwork matters for any firm practicing across jurisdictions.

Chris Waters · April 23, 2026 · 11 min read

Why bolt-on AI doesn't solve the hallucination problem

Adding a chat box to legacy practice software doesn't make it defensible. The problem isn't the model — it's everything around it.

Chris Waters · April 9, 2026 · 7 min read

The true cost of the modern legal tech stack

Most firms run on 15 different vendors. The hidden cost isn't the subscriptions — it's the integration, the password sprawl, and the data trapped in silos that don't talk to each other.

Chris Waters · March 26, 2026 · 8 min read

What practice management software got wrong about AI

The last generation of legal software optimized for storage and billing. AI rewards a different architecture entirely — and retrofits rarely catch up.

Chris Waters · March 12, 2026 · 7 min read

Why a litigator built the platform litigators need

Twenty-five years of California litigation taught me what's broken about legal software. Then generative AI arrived, and the gap got wider. Here's why I built Discover Docket — and who it's for.

Chris Waters · February 12, 2026 · 6 min read

JILL vs. the generic chatbot: A litigator's guide

A general-purpose chatbot doesn't know your case file, your jurisdiction, or your judge. The difference isn't tone — it's grounding, and it's everything.

Chris Waters · January 29, 2026 · 6 min read

The case for ethical AI in litigation

Ethics in legal AI isn't a marketing posture — it's a structural requirement. Either the record is defensible or it isn't.

Chris Waters · January 15, 2026 · 7 min read

Modern solo practice: Notes from 25 years

What changes, what doesn't, and what a quarter-century of solo and small-firm litigation teaches you about leverage, judgment, and the work that actually matters.

Chris Waters · January 1, 2026 · 9 min read