Incidents / Reliability and hallucination A court, a regulator or the organization itself has stated the core facts, or the record cites a court or regulator source.
Morgan & Morgan lawyers sanctioned for AI-generated fake case citations Morgan & Morgan law firm filed a legal brief in a case against Walmart that cited nine cases, eight of which were entirely fictional and generated by an AI chatbot. The firm acknowledged the error and apologized, with a lawyer sanctioned by a judge for relying solely on artificial intelligence without proper verification.
25 February 2025 · Morgan & Morgan · Reliability and hallucination
25 February 2025
Drafted by Raidu Incident Detection , an automated system.
Quick facts
Category Reliability and hallucination
Country United States
Source Reuters
Date 25 February 2025
Drafted by Raidu Incident Detection What happened Morgan & Morgan law firm filed a legal brief in a case against Walmart that cited nine cases, eight of which were completely fictional.
A lawyer at the firm relied solely on an AI chatbot to generate the case citations without verifying them.
Reported impact The firm acknowledged the error and apologized.
A judge sanctioned the lawyer and removed them from the case.
Classification
Category Reliability and hallucination
Industry Government, security and defence
Country United States
Harm status Actual harm
Intent Unintentional
Timing Unknown
Harm types Reputational
Harmed Business
Failure modes Hallucination, Fabricated citation, Overreliance
Consequences Litigation, Public apology
AI systems ChatGPT Sources and evidence This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.
Reuters
Judge fines lawyers in Walmart lawsuit over fake, AI-generated cases
25 February 2025
Legal Newsline
AI woes: Judge boots Morgan & Morgan lawyer for citing nonexistent cases
25 February 2025
news.bloomberglaw.com
Morgan & Morgan Lawyers Fined for 'Hallucinated' AI Citations
25 February 2025
LawSites
Federal Judge Sanctions Morgan & Morgan Attorneys for AI-Generated Fake Cases in Court Filing
25 February 2025
SunSentinel
John Morgan: ""One of our lawyers relied solely on AI and f***ed up." Columnist Scott Maxwell has the story on a case where fictional cases were cited
25 February 2025
Tampa Bay Times
Morgan & Morgan lawyers cite 8 fictional cases, thanks to a chatbot | Column
25 February 2025
Washington Times
Lawyer booted from case after submitting AI-generated bogus brief
26 February 2025