BAR RULES PROPOSED · VERIFICATION AND FIRM PROCEDURES

California: the State Bar wants firm-level AI procedures you can actually demonstrate

Q: California: the State Bar wants firm-level AI procedures you can actually demonstrate

California Rule of Court 10.430 governs the courts , not you. There is no disclosure or certification obligation on filers, and there never has been. The pressure in California comes from the State Bar instead: proposed amendments to six Rules of Professional Conduct, whose second public comment closed 6 August 2026 and which are not yet adopted, would require independent verification of every AI output and would require managerial lawyers to establish procedures governing AI use across the firm. If those rules pass, a firm needs a demonstrable procedure rather than a policy document. Receipts are the procedure, running per matter, with a firm-level roll-up that never exposes a word of client work.

Where this stands today

California Rule of Court 10.430 governs the courts, not you. There is no disclosure or certification obligation on filers, and there never has been. The pressure in California comes from the State Bar instead: proposed amendments to six Rules of Professional Conduct, whose second public comment closed 6 August 2026 and which are not yet adopted, would require independent verification of every AI output and would require managerial lawyers to establish procedures governing AI use across the firm.

The words that matter

proposed Rule 5.1 would require managerial lawyers “to establish procedures governing AI use”

What a record gives you

If those rules pass, a firm needs a demonstrable procedure rather than a policy document. Receipts are the procedure, running per matter, with a firm-level roll-up that never exposes a word of client work.

Regulayer makes the record. Software on your own machine that signs, at the moment you finish, which tool you declared, which checks you ran and who reviewed the work. Your client, your insurer or the court checks it in seconds, free, with no account and no access to a word of your file.

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Sources

State Bar of California, proposed amendments to the Rules of Professional Conduct related to artificial intelligence
COPRAC approved the first proposals on 13 March 2026, comment closing 4 May 2026, then approved modified proposals on 12 June 2026 for a second round closing 6 August 2026. Rules 1.1, 1.4, 1.6, 3.3, 5.1 and 5.3. Not adopted.

Checked 2 September 2026. Rules change: the authority itself governs, and this page is not legal advice.

When it is challenged

Opposing counsel looks at a sealed record and says: so what. What you say back →, in evidence-law terms, with the certification template.