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NY Part 161

New York court rule 22 NYCRR Part 161 ("Use of Artificial Intelligence Technology") takes effect June 1, 2026 and applies across all Unified Court System courts, civil and criminal. Second Seat is built to help you meet it.

What the rule requires​

The core obligation is the one lawyers already have, made explicit for AI-assisted work:

  • The attorney must independently ensure that no filed or served paper contains fabricated or fictitious cases, statutes, or other material — regardless of what tool produced the draft.
  • Your signature certifies that you performed that review.
  • The rule does not require you to disclose that AI was used.
  • Individual judges may add their own requirements, so check the parts for the judge you're in front of.
This is information, not legal advice

Second Seat does not make you compliant with Part 161. It is a tool that helps you verify citations quickly and produce a record of that review. The professional judgment — and the signature — remain yours.

For the primary sources, see the official NY Courts rule and the NYSBA summary.

How Second Seat helps​

Second Seat runs three checks on every case-law citation — existence, quote / pin-cite support, and jurisdiction — and you can run them two ways:

  1. The Citation Verifier (/verify) — paste a draft or a filed paper and get a per-citation report.
  2. In chat — paste your text and ask "check these citations." Second Seat runs the same verifier and reports the verdicts. Citations that appear in Second Seat's own answers are also verified automatically.

When you're ready to memorialize that review, generate a Part 161 Certification Report.

Reminders in the app​

So the obligation stays visible without getting in your way, Second Seat surfaces a few light-touch reminders — each a prompt to verify, never a claim that you're compliant:

  • A dismissible banner at the top of chat: "NY Part 161: independently verify citations before filing," with Learn more and Verify links. Dismiss it and it stays dismissed.
  • A footer chip shown only on answers that actually contain a citation: "NY Part 161: independently verify these citations before filing."
  • On iOS, an always-visible Part 161 button on the Chats screen (a check-seal icon) that opens this explainer, so it's reachable even after you dismiss the banner.