California Senate passes bill regulating AI use by attorneys and arbitrators

Issue 53

In January 2026, the California Senate passed Senate Bill (“SB”) 574, which would regulate attorney and arbitrator AI use.[i]  The bill is reportedly one of the first state legislature efforts to regulate the use of AI by lawyers.[ii]

SB 574 would add or modify three sections of California code. First, the bill would add a section to the Business and Professions Code outlining several duties of attorneys using generative AI while practicing law, including:

•  Ensuring that confidential, identifying, and other nonpublic information is not entered into a public generative artificial intelligence system (notably, SB 574 does not define the meaning of “public generative artificial intelligence system”);
•  Ensuring that AI use does not unlawfully discriminate against or disparately impact individuals or communities based on any classification protected under state or federal law;
•  Taking reasonable steps to verify the accuracy of AI-generated materials, correcting AI errors, and removing biased, offensive, and harmful AI-generated content; and
•  Considering whether to disclose generative AI use when AI is used to create content for the public.[iii]

Second, SB 574 would amend California’s Code of Civil Procedure to require that attorneys’ court filings “shall not contain any citations that the attorney responsible for submitting the pleading has not personally read and verified, including any citation provided by generative artificial intelligence.”[iv]

Third, SB 574 would add a section to the Code of Civil Procedure addressing AI use by arbitrators.[v] The bill would add language to the code prohibiting arbitrators from delegating their decision-making to AI or replacing their independent analysis with AI, or relying on AI-generated information outside the record without making disclosures to the parties and permitting the parties to reasonably comment on the AI use.[vi]

As the next step, SB 574 has been ordered to the California Assembly.[vii]

Thanks for being here.

Jennifer Ballard
Good Journey Consulting

P.S. If you are considering how to use AI in your law practice, check out my new on-demand CLE, How to Pick the Best AI Tools for Your Law Practice.

[i] Sara Merken, California Senate passes bill regulating lawyers' use of AI, Reuters (Jan. 30, 2026 10:20 PDT), https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/california-senate-passes-bill-regulating-lawyers-use-ai-2026-01-30/.

[ii] Id.

[iii] S.B. 574 2025-2026 Reg. Sess. (Cal. 2025).

[iv] Id.

[v] Id.

[vi] Id.

[vii] Id.