Four lawyers sanctioned for AI-generated fake citations in Mississippi civil case
Four lawyers were sanctioned by a federal judge in Mississippi for citing fabricated legal cases in court filings after using an AI-powered legal drafting program. The trial was canceled, all four lawyers were removed from the case, and two were barred from the court for two years and fined.
What happened
Four lawyers in a civil breach of contract case in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi were sanctioned by Senior U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock after they cited nonexistent legal cases in their court filings.
Kathleen M. Wilson, representing Tom Withers III, used an AI-powered legal drafting program called First Drafts to write a motion that contained citations to two cases that do not exist. During a January hearing, Wilson and opposing counsel Kathryn Y. Williams acknowledged that they had not verified the authenticity of the cases they cited.
Reported impact
The trial was canceled and all four lawyers were removed from the case. Kathleen M. Wilson and Kathryn Y. Williams were each barred for two years from appearing in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi. Wilson was fined $2,500 and Williams was fined $3,500.
Index analysis
Judge Aycock noted that the four lawyers violated Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure by certifying that the information in their filings was factual when it was not. The judge observed that the case presented an unusual scenario with attorneys for both litigants engaging in similar sanctionable conduct.
Governance controls
The disciplinary actions by the federal court demonstrate judicial enforcement of legal procedural rules against the use of unverified AI-generated content in court filings.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.