This is not a good boom. As a matter of fact, it’s a very *bad* boom. A couple of lawyers thought they could pull a fast one. The judge was not amused. She was very much not amused. The lawyers paid for it. Others should take note and learn from it. With appreciation for Business Insider:
Judges are getting tired of cleaning up the AI slop oozing into their courtrooms. The latest example of their patience wearing thin can be found in Mississippi, where a federal judge brought the hammer down earlier this week on attorneys on both sides of a lawsuit after they admitted to submitting court filings containing bogus citations generated by AI.
Wait, what? How can someone be a lawyer and not review the information for a case before it goes to court? They should check their information before going before a judge. AI is not very smart yet. There have been articles all over the news about how it’s faulty, but they didn’t check it. That shows arrogance or stupidity, and both will bring them down. What were they thinking, or were they just being lazy?
In a sharply worded sanctions order issued Monday, US District Judge Sharion Aycock removed all four lawyers from the case, barred two from practicing before the court for two years, and imposed a combined $8,000 in fines. The US District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi “is yet again ‘burdened with addressing AI hallucinations in court filings,'” Aycock wrote in the 23-page order, adding, “This case presents the Court with an unusual scenario—attorneys for both litigants engaged in similar sanctionable conduct.”
Ouch! They just got laid out! We can bet they’ll be a lot more careful in the future. What the judge did was not a small thing. That was one helluva slap. But they deserved it. It’s called due diligence, kiddies. Or competence. They should have confirmed everything before they walked in. But the line about AI hallucinations landed hard. That’s new. It doesn’t seem to have come up before. Well, make that hasn’t come up in US News before.
The order reflects a growing frustration among US judges with lawyers who file court briefs with AI-generated errors, a legal expert told Business Insider. “Neither of them verified the legal authority output by AI before filing their briefs,” Aycock wrote. The judge continued, “Their acts of relying on AI output without verification alone supports a finding that they acted in bad faith.” All four lawyers said they only learned that AI-hallucinated court cases were cited in their filings after the judge brought the issue to their attention late last year, according to Aycock’s order, which said the lawyers apologized and “expressed embarrassment.”
BOOM. Just as mentioned in the title, lawyers were wiped out by the judge for their lack of attention and failure to review. Due diligence was actually the correct phrase. How could they not know about AI Hallucinations when it was brought to their attention previously? These aren’t exactly good lawyers if they missed that. All FOUR lawyers. Anyone who has one of them for a case should make sure they take extra time to confirm sources before walking into court, or find a different lawyer altogether. This is mind-boggling.
By the way, the title picture is the judge laying into the lawyers for this specific case. See you soon!
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