A rather dull case in London grabbed media attention after it emerged that a witness was being coached in real time via smart glasses.
A Lithuanian man, Laimonas Jakštys, and his firm, UAB Business Enterprise, went to court to prove that they owned and controlled Oneta Limited, and Jakštys was seeking reinstatement as a director of Oneta.
Jakštys gave evidence through a Lithuanian interpreter, and Insolvency and Companies Court judge Agnello KC was quick to understand that something was off – Jakštys seemed to pause before replying to questions.
According to Legal Futures, the first to report the story, Sarah Walker, counsel for the defendants, soon informed the judge that she could hear an interference coming from around Mr Jakštys, who was then asked to remove his glasses before continuing with cross-examination.
"After a few further questions, when the interpreter was in the process of translating a question, Mr Jakštys' mobile phone started broadcasting out loud with the voice of someone talking," the judge said.
The man agreed to have his phone and metadata checked. The checkup proved he made calls during the testimony, but Mr. Jakštys denied using smart glasses and said the calls to someone named “abra kadabra” were actually calls to his taxi driver to inform them that he didn't know what time the court would end.
But that didn't convince the judge, who believed it was a call connected to the man's smart glasses.
"When asked about this, his explanation was that he thought it was ChatGPT, which caused the voice to be heard from his mobile phone once his smart glasses had been removed. That lacks any credibility," she said.
Judge Agnello rejected Mr. Jakštys' claims and ordered him to pay the defendants' legal costs.
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