Lawyers Use AI To Write Brief With Fictional Cases, US Judge Finds 30 Mistakes

My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell's lawyers have been pulled up by a federal judge after they were caught using artificial intelligence (AI) to help them write a legal brief in a defamation lawsuit. The brief had 30 defective citations, including misquotes and citations to fictional cases, District Judge Nina Wang said, according to a report in Latin Times.

Judge Wang has ordered attorneys Christopher Kachouroff and Jennifer DeMaster to show cause as to why the court should not sanction the defendants, law firm, and individual attorneys.

"The Court identified nearly thirty defective citations in the Opposition. These defects include but are not limited to misquotes of cited cases; misrepresentations of principles of law associated with cited cases, including discussions of legal principles that simply do not appear within such decisions," Judge Wang wrote.

Both attorneys have also been directed to explain why they shouldn't be referred to disciplinary proceedings for violations of the rules of professional conduct.

In court filings, Mr Kachouroff and Ms DeMaster admitted they accidentally uploaded the draft version of the motion instead of a final version, which had been corrected. However, Judge Wang did not take kindly to the admission by the attorneys.

"Not until this Court asked Mr. Kachouroff directly whether the Opposition was the product of generative artificial intelligence did Mr. Kachouroff admit that he did, in fact, use generative artificial intelligence," she said.

"After further questioning, Mr. Kachouroff admitted that he failed to cite check the authority in the Opposition after such use before filing it with the Court despite understanding his obligations under Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure."

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The filing was submitted in February as part of an ongoing defamation lawsuit between Eric Coomer, a former employee at Dominion Voting Systems, and Mr Lindell, MyPillow and FrankSpeech (the former name of Lindell's media corporation).

Notably, Mr Lindell is a devout Donald Trump supporter who is believed to have financed post-election protest movements in 2020, in a bid to overturn the election win of former president Joe Biden.

Both attorneys have until May 5 to respond.