We at PC Gamer have covered the disturbing trend of lawyers—who are, on average, supposed to be competent and reasonably well-read, and quite literally where the phrase 'passing the bar' comes from—using AI citations in courtrooms before. But this one's a doozy, because it turns out absolutely everyone involved had the same large language model blindspot.
As spotted by lawyer Rob Freund on X (thanks, 404Media), the case—which Freund accurately dubs a "comedy of AI errors", took place during a dispute between Tom Withers and the city of Aberdeen. Withers was represented by Kathleen M. Wilson (with Shauncey Hunter Ridgeway as local counsel) and Kathryn Y. Williams (with Mark C. McClinton doing the same).
Per this document, both Wilson and Williams were found to be citing AI-hallucinated citations that did not exist: "The attorneys admitted that the hallucinatory citations cited by them, and identified by the Court, resulted from unverified AI use."
A show-cause hearing, essentially a chance for the lawyers to defend themselves, ended mostly in WIlson and Williams hanging their heads in shame: "Each of the attorneys expressed embarrassment and apologized to the Court. They also provided explanations regarding their independent roles in conducting legal research and/or drafting the filings at issue.
"In short, Williams and Wilson, the two out-of-state attorneys, assumed responsibility for drafting the filings at issue on behalf of their respective clients. Williams admitted to using an AI tool to conduct legal research, and Wilson admitted to using generative AI to draft her respective filing. Neither of them verified the legal authority output by AI before filing their briefs."
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