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Judge Sanctions Lawyers Defending Alabama’s Prison System for Using Fake ChatGPT Cases in Filings
JEFFERSON COUNTY, ALABAMA, JUL 24 – Three Alabama prison system lawyers were removed for submitting AI-generated false legal citations in a federal inmate lawsuit, with Butler Snow reviewing 52 cases finding no other issues.
- U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco issued a public reprimand to three Butler Snow attorneys for including fabricated case citations generated by ChatGPT in their court filings.
- The issue emerged when concerns were raised in May about certain case citations, prompting Manasco to investigate and determine that the references were entirely fabricated.
- The lawyers—Matthew Reeves, William Cranford, and William Lunsford—were removed from the case and instructed to distribute copies of the sanctions order to all their clients, judges, and opposing attorneys involved in their other cases.
- Manasco emphasized that creating false legal citations constitutes grave professional wrongdoing warranting a strong penalty, and highlighted Reeves’s conduct as extremely reckless despite prior warnings.
- The ruling highlights courts’ demand for greater accountability amid AI misuse, refers the attorneys to the Alabama State Bar, and notes Alabama has paid the firm over $40 million since 2020.
14 Articles
14 Articles
Lawyers defending Baltimore jail conditions receive public reprimand for AI-generated citations
A federal judge in Alabama this week publicly reprimanded attorneys who had been hired by the state of Maryland to defend conditions at a jail in Baltimore for citing cases that turned out to be made up by the artificial intelligence program ChatGPT.
Associated Press News
Judge sanctions lawyers defending Alabama’s prison system for using fake ChatGPT cases in filings
A federal judge in Alabama reprimanded three lawyers for using ChatGPT to write court filings with “completely made up” case citations. U.S.
Federal judge removes attorneys from Alabama DOC lawsuit after AI fabricated citations
The front of Hugo L Black Courthouse in Birmingham, Alabama on August 15, 2023. A federal judge in Birmingham removed attorneys from a civil rights case involving the Alabama Department of Corrections after one of them used AI to generate fabricated citations in a court filing. (Jemma Stephenson/Alabama Reflector)A federal judge Wednesday reprimanded three attorneys working for the Alabama Department of Corrections and removed them from a civil …
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