A California judge has fined two law firms $31,000 for submitting a legal brief containing false and AI-generated citations without disclosure. Judge Michael Wilner discovered the errors after looking up cited cases that didn’t exist, calling it a serious breach of legal responsibility.
The brief was initially drafted using Google Gemini and AI tools in Westlaw, then passed to another firm, K&L Gates, which included the faulty content without verifying it. Wilner condemned the lack of fact-checking and warned that outsourcing legal research to AI without oversight is unacceptable.
This follows similar incidents where lawyers mistakenly relied on AI tools like ChatGPT, submitting fictitious legal references in court filings.
Source: The Verge
