Alabama Attorney Sanctioned for Submitting fabricated Citations Generated by AI
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – An Alabama attorney has been removed from a financial fraud case after submitting a legal motion containing citations generated by teh AI tool Ghostwriter Legal, which were later found to be entirely fabricated. U.S. District Judge Emily Moorer issued an order detailing the incident, calling the use of unchecked AI-generated legal research an ”epidemic” within the legal community.
attorney Patrick Johnson apologized to the court, opposing counsel, adn his client, attributing the “embarrassing mistake” to ”time pressure and tough personal circumstance.” Johnson explained in a court response that he used Ghostwriter Legal to file a motion on July 3, after a pretrial conference in the case was unexpectedly moved up. He stated he typically uses Fastcase, a research tool provided by the Alabama State Bar, but was drawn to the new program while working from a hospital out of state, where he was attending to a family member recovering from surgery.
According to court documents, Johnson stated, “[W]hen I used Ghostwriter the idea that the search results, which looked authentic, could be fully made up never even entered my mind.” He added he woudl “never make that mistake again,” nonetheless of whether it was due to his own naiveté or misleading marketing from the company.
Counsel for the united States noted the discrepancy between Johnson’s disclaimer of ChatGPT use and the fact that Ghostwriter Legal utilizes ChatGPT as its default AI program. Judge Moorer ultimately ruled that Johnson was responsible for verifying the accuracy of his citations, regardless of his awareness of the AI’s underlying technology.
“Simply put, the legal community is well aware of the dangers and pitfalls of using AI shortcuts without further review or supervision,” the order reads. While acknowledging AI’s potential as a legal tool, Moorer emphasized that lawyers remain accountable for all submissions to the court. “To be clear, the Court is not saying that AI has no place in the practise of law…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.”