U.S. Judge Sanctions More Attorneys Over Inaccurate AI-Generated Court Filings

A U.S. federal judge fined two attorneys $3,000 on Monday for using artificial intelligence to generate inaccurate information. The lawyers, who were representing MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell in a defamation case, submitted court documents containing fake legal citations produced by AI tools.

According to NPR, Judge Nina Y. Wang of the U.S. District Court in Denver ruled that attorneys Christopher Kachouroff and Jennifer DeMaster violated the court rules by filing a document with more than two dozen mistakes. She ordered them to pay what she described as a “reasonably light sum.”

“Notwithstanding any suggestion to the contrary, this Court derives no joy from sanctioning attorneys who appear before it,” wrote judge Wang in her decision. “Indeed, federal courts rely upon the assistance of attorneys as officers of the court for the efficient and fair administration of justice.”

The erroneous filing was part of the Lindell case, in which a jury found that the businessman and conspiracy theorist had defamed a former employee. Lindell was ordered to pay $2.3 million in damages last month.

The use of AI is not illegal in the United States, but the judge considered that the two lawyers violated a federal rule requiring lawyers to verify the accuracy of their filings and ensure that their claims are grounded in law.

It is not an isolated case. Judges in the U.S. and abroad are increasingly raising concerns about the use of AI in legal proceedings. In May, another U.S. judge fined two law firms $31,000 for fake AI-generated legal citations.

And just a few weeks ago, the UK courts warned British lawyers against using AI technology such as ChatGPT for its fake-generated citations. The warning came after a lawyer submitted 18 false cases in an £89 million lawsuit—an act that may lead to criminal charges.