AI “Hallucinations” Can Lead to False Statements in Court Documents, with the Potential for Fines and Other Sanctions
Artificial intelligence, or AI, is everywhere, it seems, even being used in the practice of law. While there may be some legal tasks that AI can be trusted to handle, there have also been myriad problems with the tool. In a number of instances, lawyers have submitted AI-generated documents to a court, only to discover after the fact that those pleadings, briefs or other documents contain inaccurate or misleading information, even included citations to non-existent cases.
In those situations where so-called “AI hallucinations” have produced court documents with citations to fabricated cases, judges have not been sympathetic:
- In Ader v. Ader, a New York state court case, lawyers for the defendant file a brief in opposition to a motion for summary judgment, which contained false citations and fabricated quotations from non-existent cases. Plaintiff’s counsel made the court aware of those bogus cites and quotes and filed a motion for sanctions against defense counsel. In response to that motion, defense attorneys filed additional briefs which contained further fabrications of case law, including references to four cases that did not exist. The court subsequently imposed financial sanctions on the defense attorneys and their client. The court further stated that it made no difference if the legal principles set forth in the fake case was an accurate statement of the law. By failing to check their work, the defense lawyers did “a disservice to the Court and to the profession.”
- In Johnson v. Dunn, a civil lawsuit filed by an inmate in an Alabama prison, the judge initially reprimanded three attorneys representing the prison system for filing pleadings that contained fictitious case citations. Those attorneys were subsequently disqualified by the judge.
- MyPIllow CEO Mike Lindell and his legal team were fined after submitting a legal brief with almost 30 bogus citations (which had been generated by AI).
In virtually every case where AI has hallucinated fake case citations, judges have concluded that the lawyers who used the tool breached their ethical duties regarding representation of their client and commitment to the integrity of the profession.
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