California approved SB 574 on September 30 as Chapter 858. The new provisions begin January 1, 2027. Lawyers may use generative AI as assistance, but may not hand legal practice over to it. Protected inputs must be restricted to the attorney and authorized people under confidentiality obligations. Attorneys must take reasonable steps to verify AI output and correct mistakes, disclose AI use for documents submitted to court, and consider disclosure when AI creates public-facing content. The act separately requires a responsible attorney to personally verify citations in covered court papers, including citations written without AI. The amended filing section excludes disclosures and discovery requests, responses, objections, and motions. It allows sanctions subject to notice, an opportunity to respond, and other stated conditions. Arbitrators cannot delegate any decisionmaking to generative AI. Using AI-generated information outside the record requires advance disclosure and, as far as practical, an opportunity for the parties to comment. A company hiring California lawyers can ask concrete questions before January. Which AI systems receive company information? Who can access it? Which lawyer checks the citations before a filing, and how does the firm disclose AI use to the court? Those answers are more useful than a promise that somebody reviews every draft. This is a law about attorneys and arbitrators, not a general prohibition on company AI use. The discovery exclusion belongs to one court-filing section and does not cancel the separate safeguards for attorneys using AI. Sanctions are possible through the stated process; the act does not make every use of a chatbot automatically punishable. Have counsel assess the matters and workflows that are actually covered. Ask your law firm who can access AI inputs and which attorney personally checks citations before filing. SB-574 Attorneys, arbitrators, judicial officers, and alternative resolution providers. Chapter 858, Statutes of 2026: Final signed Chapter 858, including confidential-input restrictions, court disclosure, personal citation verification, discovery exclusions, sanctions procedures, and arbitrator rules. The approval and filing dates appear above the digest.