using AI to write court documents. AI that cited 7 fictional cases out of 9. how does one keep their license after doing this Lawyers Of Florida-Based Morgan & Morgan Caught Citing Fake Cases Created By AI In Wyoming A major US law firm, Morgan & Morgan, is facing scrutiny after two of its lawyers admitted to using artificial intelligence (AI) that generated fictitious case law in a lawsuit against Walmart. The incident in a Wyoming federal court highlights the potential pitfalls of relying on AI in legal proceedings and has prompted the firm to issue an urgent warning to its lawyers about the use of AI. In a motion filed in January, the lawyers cited nine cases to support their arguments, but Judge Kelly Rankin discovered that seven of the cases were completely fabricated by the firm's internal AI tool. "The cases are not identifiable by their Westlaw cite, and the Court cannot locate the District of Wyoming cases by their case name in its local Electronic Court Filing System," Judge Rankin wrote in her order.
That wouldn’t be cause to disbar them but if they charged time they didn’t work it could be. With them being plaintiffs attorneys they likely haven’t done that though.
This is at least the second time this has happened. Seems like a year or two ago we had a thread on some law firm also used AI and it invented and cited bogus cases in their filings. As I recall, that law firm even asked, "are these real cases?", and AI told them "yes".
Westlaw and Lexis are offering AI-based legal research and writing products, but they use their respective legal databases. These guys were probably just using Chat gpt.
That’s pretty wild. You’d think a huge law firm would have access to the official and secure legal case law databases, to ensure any AI tool deployed was pulling from actual cases only. Pretty crazy a tool would create cases out of thin air. I guess these guys were too cheap to pay for a subscription to a proper service, or they were just a couple of dopes?
They will not even get a slap on the hand. They answer to the bar that is just a group of other lawyers that will do nothing because they might be the next one in trouble. Must be nice to police your own.
Lazy. How much did they save on the paralegal or junior lawyer to cite check? It’s not like Lexis or Westlaw is a bank breaker. Don’t call yourself a professional if your profession is under siege and you can’t stop the PE from investing in AZ law firms.
I know a few people that work there and they have said that in the last 5 years or so, Morgan has brought in a bunch of NY techies to modernize his IT infrastructure. This is just a symptom of it. They are doing far more than this.
We just stated using Westlaw’s AI, and it only captures information from its own databases, based on the jurisdiction(s) selected. It doesn’t always get the right answer. We use it as a starting point, and for that it is REALLY helpful — I get answers in 10 minutes that would take an associate all day to get for me. But it is just a starting point that needs to be double- checked.
This is happening everywhere. Kind of funny as I would have opined lawyers would be an area AI could almost replace the profession, but if AI is going to invent cases… perhaps not. It’s amusing to think of two AI lawyer bots in a battle of escalating dishonest arguments.
Lol, all of you all are going to be sued by ChatGPT eventually. I don't the see the issue, it's like complaining in the 1980s that your coworker used a PC and dot matrix printer to fill out a form instead of using a typewriter and whiteout...
And Mike Morgan wrote a filing to the court apologizing for the motion…and threw Mr. Ayala of his office right under the the bus!!!
Not the first time a law firm has been caught citing fictitious sources on AI generated briefs and other documents. I guess what makes this case newsworthy is that Morgan and Morgan spends more on advertising than any other law firm and in fact advertises itself as the nation's largest law firm and it's undoubtedly the most well known. Some other examples. AI 'hallucinations' in court papers spell trouble for lawyers Fake News In Court: Attorney Sanctioned for Citing Fictitious Case Law Generated by AI - McLane Middleton AI under fire in legal sector after ChatGPT used to cite fictitious case
