Standing Order — Judge Brantley Starr (N.D. Tex.)
Annotated summary of the first widely-known federal AI standing order — the template that spread to dozens of federal judges.
Judge Brantley Starr's standing order, issued in 2023, was the first widely-known federal AI rule. It required every attorney appearing before him to file a certification either (a) confirming that no portion of a filing was drafted by generative AI, or (b) acknowledging that any AI-drafted portion was checked for accuracy by a human using print reporters or traditional legal databases.
The text of the duty
Stripped to essentials, the order requires two things:
- An explicit certification, signed by the filing attorney.
- Human verification — not AI verification — of any AI-generated content, using a primary authority source.
Why this template spread
Within months, similar orders appeared on dockets across the federal system. The Starr template offered three things that made adoption easy: (1) a clear filer's duty; (2) a bright line on verification methodology (print reporters or traditional databases, not AI re-checks); and (3) a sanctions framework grounded in the certification itself — false certification, not just hallucinated authority, is the violation.
Practical implications
- The certification creates an independent ground for sanctions. Even if no hallucinated citation makes it into the brief, a false certification is itself sanctionable.
- The "print reporters or traditional databases" language is deliberate. AI tools re-checking AI output is not verification.
- Subordinate attorneys' AI use is the supervising attorney's risk. The certification runs to lead counsel.
How this maps to COUNSEL
The Starr order operationalizes the COUNSEL Framework's Competence and Supervision pillars at the docket level. A firm that has implemented COUNSEL-aligned workflows — mandatory primary-source verification, lead-attorney sign-off, written AI-use logs — satisfies the Starr standard without additional process.
Practitioner takeaways
- If you practice federally, assume some version of this rule applies on every docket. Check each judge's standing orders before your first filing.
- Build the certification language into your firm's filing checklist.
- Maintain a contemporaneous log of AI use and verification steps; you may need to produce it.
Judge Starr's current standing orders are available at the link above.
Attribution: This page reproduces public-record material from the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas. Reproduced and annotated by LegalTek.ai for educational purposes. The original document remains the work of the issuing authority.
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