Federal judge threatens law firm with sanctions after lawyers used fabricated ChatGPT citations in Alabama court case

The state of Alabama paid a law firm to defend its prison system, only to have that firm use fake, AI-created citations in the legal case. The case came in reaction to a prisoner filing a lawsuit against the prison system, which argued that his safety was not protected.

According to the Guardian, inmate Frankie Johnson, who was being held at the William E Donaldson prison just outside Birmingham, Alabama, says that he was stabbed "at least nine times" when he was in is housing unit after he was handcuffed to a desk in March of 2020 and then stabbed by a prisoner five times, as well as November later that year when he was handcuffed and brought out to the prison yard, where another inmate stabbed with an ice pick "five to six" times as officers watched.

After the events, he filed a lawsuit in 2021 against the Alabama prison system. The state took the case to the law firm Butler Snow for legal defense in the case, however, the law firm is now facing sanctions by a judge for using AI-generated cases in legal filings. The AI cases submitted in the court documents are included in around 100 instances where courts have discovered false AI-generated information submitted by lawyers, or "AI hallucinations."

Just last year, one lawyer was suspended from practicing law in the federal Middle District of Florida after he was found to have used AI-generated cases in legal filings. Earlier this year, one law firm in California was ordered by a judge to pay $30,000 because the firm had included AI-generated research in a brief submitted to the court.

Earlier last week, US district judge Anna Manasco said, as a result of Johnson's case handled by Butler Snow, that she was considering a wide range of sanctions against the law firm. Matthew Reeves, attorney at Butler Snow, used ChatGPT to insert false citations in the filing when the court was going through deposition and discovery in the case.

“I was aware of the limitations on use [of AI], and in these two instances I did not comply with policy,” Reeves told the court, attempting to take full responsibility. “I would hope your honor would not punish my colleagues.”

Reeves had cited the case law generated by AI in order to get Johnson deposed quickly in the case when his attorneys opposed dates that were proposed by Alabama. Each citation was entirely fabricated.