Judge rules both sides in lawsuit misused AI, disqualifies lawyers
The court said local counsel failed to verify briefs with fabricated citations and fined both sides’ attorneys $1,000 each.
- On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Sharion Aycock disqualified four lawyers from a Mississippi breach of contract case, ruling they violated Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure by submitting filings containing fake legal citations generated by artificial intelligence.
- Attorneys Kathleen M. Wilson and Kathryn Y. Williams drafted submissions using AI tools, while local counsel Shauncey Hunter Ridgeway and Mark McClinton failed to review the documents before filing, effectively serving as rubberstamps for the unverified research.
- Aycock fined the drafting attorneys $2,500 and $3,500, respectively, and barred both from appearing in her court for two years; local counsel Ridgeway and McClinton each received $1,000 fines for failing their duties as sponsoring resident attorneys.
- Following the ruling, the court canceled the scheduled trial proceedings. Ridgeway and McClinton self-reported to the Mississippi Bar, with the judge noting their actions were careless but not undertaken in bad faith.
- This case illustrates growing risks of unverified AI usage in the legal field. Aycock wrote: "In an era of rampant unverified AI usage within the legal field, this case presents a prime example of the risk associated with serving as a rubberstamp when acting as local counsel.
10 Articles
10 Articles
Lawyers barred for AI-generated citations to fake cases
A federal judge in Mississippi has punished all four lawyers on opposing sides in a civil trial and canceled the proceedings after some of them, relying on artificial intelligence, cited fake legal cases in court filings. Two of the lawyers have been barred for two years from appearing in the U.S. District Court for the […]
Judge Sanctions 4 Lawyers Over AI Citations
A federal judge in Mississippi sanctioned four attorneys Tuesday after discovering that lawyers on both sides of a lawsuit filed court briefs containing citations to legal cases that did not exist. U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock issued the order June 8 in a contract dispute between Louisiana attorney Tom Withers III and the City of Aberdeen, Mississippi. The judge found that attorneys representing both parties submitted legal filings contain…
Nonexistent Case Citations on Both Sides + "Rubberstamp[ing]" by "Local Counsel"
In Withers v. City of Aberdeen, decided yesterday by Judge Sharion Aycock (N.D. Miss.), both sides had filed briefs containing citations to nonexistent cases; the briefs were drafted by out-of-state counsel, each of whom had local counsel (as the rules generally require). Withers was represented by Wilson with Ridgeway as local counsel; the City was represented by Williams with McClinton as local counsel. I focus here just on the sanctions impos…
Lawyers Sanctioned Over AI Use on Both Sides in Federal Case
A Mississippi federal judge sanctioned attorneys on both sides of a contract breach case for failing to prevent AI hallucinations in legal filings, including banning attorneys from entering appearances in that court for two years.
Judge rules both sides in lawsuit misused AI, disqualifies lawyers
A federal judge in Mississippi has disqualified the attorneys on both sides of a contract dispute after finding that their failure to verify AI-generated research led to fabricated legal citations in court filings.
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