First Circuit

The First Circuit hasn't adopted a circuit-wide AI disclosure requirement, and that's unlikely to change soon. With just five jurisdictions — Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Puerto Rico — it's one of the smallest federal circuits, but Massachusetts alone generates enough AI-related litigation activity to keep practitioners on their toes.

That said, the absence of a formal rule doesn't mean attorneys get a free pass. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued interim guidelines addressing generative AI use in court filings, and individual district judges across the circuit have started incorporating AI-specific language into their standing orders. If you're filing in the First Circuit, you need to know the local landscape district by district.

First Circuit's Position on AI Disclosure

As of April 2026, the First Circuit Court of Appeals has no circuit-level rule requiring disclosure of AI-assisted legal research or drafting. The circuit hasn't issued any advisory opinions or administrative orders addressing generative AI in filings. This puts it in the majority — most circuits have taken a wait-and-see approach rather than adopting sweeping mandates. But the lack of a top-down rule means the compliance landscape is fragmented across its five constituent jurisdictions.

Massachusetts: The SJC Interim Guidelines

Massachusetts is the most active jurisdiction in the First Circuit on AI disclosure. The Supreme Judicial Court issued interim guidelines that address the use of generative AI tools in legal practice. These guidelines stop short of a blanket disclosure mandate but make clear that attorneys remain fully responsible for the accuracy of AI-generated content. The SJC emphasized that existing duties of competence, candor, and supervision under the Massachusetts Rules of Professional Conduct apply with full force to AI-assisted work. Several judges in the District of Massachusetts have gone further with individual standing orders requiring affirmative certification that AI-generated content has been verified.

District-Level Orders Across the Circuit

Outside Massachusetts, district-level AI activity in the First Circuit is sparse. The District of Maine, District of New Hampshire, and District of Rhode Island have not adopted court-wide AI disclosure policies. A handful of individual judges in these districts have added AI-related language to case management orders on an ad hoc basis, but there's no systematic approach. The District of Puerto Rico similarly lacks a formal AI disclosure framework. For practitioners filing across multiple First Circuit districts, the safest approach is to treat Massachusetts standards as the floor and disclose voluntarily everywhere.

Key Cases and Sanctions Activity

The First Circuit hasn't produced any landmark AI sanctions cases on the scale of Mata v. Avianca or the Sixth Circuit's Whiting v. Athens. But that doesn't mean the risk is zero. Several Massachusetts state court judges have flagged suspicious citations in briefs and ordered attorneys to confirm whether AI tools were used. At least two unreported instances involved attorneys receiving informal warnings after AI-hallucinated case citations were identified during bench review. The trend line is clear — even without formal sanctions, courts in this circuit are watching.

Practical Compliance for First Circuit Practitioners

Here's what managing partners should implement for First Circuit filings: First, check every judge's standing order before filing — the Individual Practices pages on PACER are your starting point. Second, adopt a firm-wide policy requiring verification of all AI-generated citations against Westlaw or Lexis, regardless of whether the specific judge requires disclosure. Third, consider voluntary disclosure as a credibility play — a brief footnote stating that AI tools were used for research assistance and all citations were independently verified costs nothing and signals professionalism. Fourth, train associates on the Massachusetts SJC interim guidelines even if you're filing in New Hampshire or Rhode Island, because those standards represent the emerging baseline for the circuit.

The Bottom Line: The First Circuit doesn't require AI disclosure at the circuit level, but Massachusetts SJC interim guidelines set the practical standard. Smart practitioners treat voluntary disclosure as the default across all five jurisdictions — it's cheap insurance against sanctions that are clearly coming down the pipeline.