No. 42 law firm by head count sanctioned over fake case citations generated by AI
Lawyers from plaintiffs law firm Morgan & Morgan have been sanctioned for a motion that cited eight nonexistent cases, at least some of which were apparently generated by artificial intelligence. (Image from Shutterstock)
Updated: Lawyers from plaintiffs law firm Morgan & Morgan have been sanctioned for a motion that cited eight nonexistent cases, at least some of which were apparently generated by artificial intelligence.
U.S. District Judge Kelly H. Rankin of the District of Wyoming ordered lawyers from Morgan & Morgan and the Goody Law Group to pay a sanction totaling $5,000 in a Feb. 24 order, report Reuters and the Volokh Conspiracy.
In a Feb. 6 order, Rankin had told the lawyers to provide copies of the cited cases, and if they can’t, to show cause why they shouldn’t be sanctioned.
Law360 and Original Jurisdiction had coverage of the show-cause order.
The cases cited by the court had been “hallucinated” by an internal AI platform and were not legitimate, the firms said in a Feb. 10 response to the show-cause order.
“This matter comes with great embarrassment and has prompted discussion and action regarding the training, implementation and future use of artificial intelligence within our firm,” the response said. “This serves as a cautionary tale for our firm and all firms, as we enter this new age of artificial intelligence.”
The law firms’ brief had cited nine cases, but Rankin could locate only one of them. Some of the citations did lead to cases under different names.
The lawyers’ motion also included a description of the governing legal standard that was “peculiar,” Rankin said. The motion correctly cited a federal rule of evidence but then went on to say “Wyoming caselaw reinforces these principles.” To support the assertion about Wyoming caselaw, the motion cited fake federal district court cases.
“Notwithstanding this slight inconsistency, experienced litigators like plaintiffs’ counsel should know that this court is a federal court, and therefore federal procedural law governs evidentiary issues,” Rankin wrote.
Morgan & Morgan is ranked No. 42 in the United States based on firm head count, according to Original Jurisdiction, which cited figures from the American Lawyer. The Goody Law Group appears to be a small firm based in California.
“Moral of the story: Lawyers at large firms can misuse ChatGPT as well as anyone,” wrote Above the Law founder David Lat at Original Jurisdiction.
The case involves a hoverboard sold by Walmart that allegedly exploded and caught fire, according to Law360.
The lawyers who signed the now-withdrawn motion with the alleged fake cites were Rudwin Ayala and T. Michael Morgan of Morgan & Morgan and Taly Goody of the Goody Law Group.
Rankin sanctioned Ayala $3,000 and kicked him off the lawsuit after the lawyer admitted incorporating the hallucinated AI-generated cases in the brief. Morgan and Goody were sanctioned $1,000 each.
The lawyers did not immediately respond to ABA Journal emails seeking comment. Morgan and Goody did not respond to Journal voicemails. A person who answered a call at Morgan & Morgan could not locate Ayala in the directory.
The communications director for Morgan & Morgan emailed the Journal a copy of the show-cause response after it was filed.
Updated Feb. 12 at 8:50 a.m. to report on the response to the show-cause order. Updated Feb. 26 at 8:20 a.m. to report on the sanction imposed.
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