Law Firms Sanctioned $31,000 for AI-Generated Fake Citations in Court Brief
Two law firms, K&L Gates and Ellis George, were sanctioned $31,000 after submitting a court brief containing at least nine fabricated legal citations generated by AI systems without verification. Judge Michael Wilner discovered that at least two of the 27 cited authorities did not exist and several quotations were fabricated, nearly leading him to include the false materials in a judicial order.
What happened
A plaintiff's legal representative in a civil lawsuit against State Farm used AI to generate an outline for a supplemental brief that contained bogus AI-generated research and citations.
Ellis George sent this outline with fabricated research to K&L Gates, which added the information to a brief filed in the case. The brief contained at least nine incorrect citations out of 27 total: at least two authorities cited did not exist at all, and several quotations attributed to judicial opinions were fabricated and did not accurately represent the materials.
No attorney or staff member at either firm apparently cite-checked or reviewed the research before filing. Judge Michael Wilner discovered the fake citations when he looked up the authorities in the brief, nearly leading him to include the bogus materials in a judicial order.
Reported impact
Judge Wilner said the AI use "affirmatively misled" him, as he was initially persuaded by the false citations and had to verify them independently.
The judge noted it was "scary" that the fabricated citations almost resulted in including them in a judicial order.
Index analysis
The lawyer who created the outline admitted to using Google Gemini, as well as AI legal research tools in Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel.
Judge Wilner stated that "no reasonably competent attorney should out-source research and writing" to AI, particularly without verification of accuracy.
Governance controls
Judge Wilner issued an Order to Show Cause after finding the fabricated citations, resulting in lawyers giving sworn statements confirming their use of AI.
Judge Wilner imposed $31,000 in sanctions against the two law firms involved in the filing.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.