"Plaintiff's use of AI affirmatively misled me.… That's scary. It almost led to the scarier outcome (from my perspective) of including those bogus materials in a judicial order." — Special Master Michael R. Wilner
Fake AI Citations Bite BigLaw
Law firms Ellis George and K&L Gates must pay $31,100 in costs for submitting a brief in Lacey v. State Farm riddled with erroneous AI-generated case citations and quotations. Special Master and former federal judge Michael R. Wilner discovered the errors and offered some pointed remarks in his order.
This coverage dispute arose after former Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey claimed State Farm refused to reimburse $2.1 million in defense fees tied to a protest-related lawsuit. During discovery Wilner ordered supplemental briefs on a privilege issue.
A lawyer at Ellis George used Generative AI to prepare an outline that contained citations. K&L Gates incorporated these citations into the filing without verifying them. Wilner found that nine of 27 citations contained errors, including two nonexistent authorities. He also found erroneous quotations.
Wilner rebuked the firms, writing "No reasonably competent attorney should outsource research and writing to this technology — particularly without any attempt to verify the accuracy of that material." In his order, he struck the briefs, quashed any further discovery on the privilege issue, and ordered the two law firms representing Lacey to pay $31,100 in reported costs to the defense.
Wilner declined to punish the plaintiff or individual lawyers but called the incident "a collective debacle." Concerned that fake citations almost made it into his order, he stated that "[s]trong deterrence is needed to make sure that attorneys don't succumb to this easy shortcut."
The Upshot
The order adds to a growing list of court filings with unverified GenAI output. Even large firms with ample resources are not immune. In this case, collaborating across two different law firms may have exacerbated the problem.
Neil J. Squillante founded TopLaw and serves as its publisher. As a young litigator working on a high-profile trial, Neil witnessed the discrepancy between what happened in the courtroom and what the media reported. Neil created TopLaw to provide fellow lawyers and law firm personnel with reliable information. Many consider TopLaw newsletters the only ones they need. Previously, Neil practiced commercial litigation at Am Law 100 firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher. He received his J.D. from UCLA School of Law and his B.A. from Duke University. At UCLA, Neil served as a Managing Editor of UCLA Law Review.
