A Baldwin County attorney has been fined and reprimanded by a federal judge for using artificial intelligence to draft court filings that later contained multiple inaccurate case citations.
According to Fox News, U.S. District Judge Terry Moorer of the US District Court for the Southern District of Alabama criticized Loxley-based attorney James A. Johnson in an 18-page order.
“The Court has no difficulty finding that Mr. Johnson’s misconduct was more than mere recklessness. … The insertion of bogus citations is not a mere typographical error, nor the subject of reasonable debate,” Moorer wrote in the order issued Oct. 10. “It is just wrong.”
“Somehow the message still has not been hammered home as the epidemic of citing fake cases continues unabated,” he continued. “It has become clear that basic reprimands and small fines are not sufficient to deter this type of misconduct because if it were, we would not be here.”
“To be clear, the Court is not saying that AI has no place in the practice of law. AI can absolutely be a useful tool. But in the same realm as supervising subordinate’s work or checking citations found indirectly, a lawyer is absolutely responsible for the citations and submissions to courts,” the judge concluded.
Moorer has fined Johnson $5,000 and ordered him to inform all current and future clients of the incident.
Johnson’s fine and reprimand follow a similar incident in July when U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco of the Northern District of Alabama formally sanctioned three attorneys at Butler Snow LLP.
The trio of lawyers allegedly submitted ChatGPT-generated case citations in defense of the Alabama Department of Corrections during litigation proceedings.
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