Lawyer Caught Using AI While Explaining to Court Why He Used AI (404media.co)
- Reference: 0179780582
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/10/14/1542245/lawyer-caught-using-ai-while-explaining-to-court-why-he-used-ai
- Source link: https://www.404media.co/lawyer-using-ai-fake-citations
> An attorney in a New York Supreme Court commercial case got caught using AI in his filings, and [1]then got caught using AI again in the brief where he had to explain why he used AI, according to court documents filed earlier this month.
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> New York Supreme Court Judge Joel Cohen wrote in a decision granting the plaintiff's attorneys' request for sanctions that the defendant's counsel, Michael Fourte's law offices, not only submitted AI-hallucinated citations and quotations in the summary judgment brief that led to the filing of the plaintiff's motion for sanctions, but also included "multiple new AI-hallucinated citations and quotations" in the process of opposing the motion.
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> "In other words," the judge wrote, "counsel relied upon unvetted AI -- in his telling, via inadequately supervised colleagues -- to defend his use of unvetted AI."
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> The case itself centers on a dispute between family members and a defaulted loan. The details of the case involve a fairly run-of-the-mill domestic money beef, but Fourte's office allegedly using AI that generated fake citations, and then inserting nonexistent citations into the opposition brief, has become the bigger story.
[1] https://www.404media.co/lawyer-using-ai-fake-citations
Disbar the fucker (Score:3)
I am sure he still charges the usual exorbitant rates even when he fails to supervise the AI. Ordinarily, that is called fraud. I am sure the legal mafia has made themselves some laws around that.
Re: (Score:2)
Flood the zone with shit, the gold standard of modern life. It only matters that the rewards are greater than the consequences.
Re: (Score:3)
Pretty sure this opens him up to a legal malpractice suit. Probably more lucrative than whatever the debt was.
Ballsy move (Score:2)
Well that's certainly a ballsy move. I think he ought to foot to bill for his client to receive competent counsel, because I don't see how the court could allow this attorney to continue with the case (or his ability to practice law) after this. His client has no reason to trust that his lawyer is capable of representing his interests going forward.
This guy has done the improbable and somehow managed to lower my opinion of lawyers. It was already a low bar, but this man is the new limbo champion. The onl
It's going to be interesting to see what happens (Score:1)
It's only a matter of time before AI can replace most common high profit lawyer work. I don't mean the ultra high profit stuff where rich assholes get away with crimes but the run of the bills stuff that keeps lawyers in business.
Think divorce, common lawsuits for harm caused, that's sort of thing.
But lawyers tend to be our elites and ruling class. So I can see them passing laws to protect themselves.
On the other hand that level of automation is worth trillions so I could see the people pushing
Re: It's going to be interesting to see what happe (Score:2)
I doubt AI is going to do much for divorce law. Divorces generally go relatively smoothly or are a battle. People in easy divorces are already using template forms from the internet. Difficult cases are the definition of a "people business", a chatbot is not going to be satisfying to people who want someone to fight for what they want.
(Hallucinated) Turtles All The Way Down (Score:2)
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtles_all_the_way_down
Until the sanctions for the firms and lawyers are (Score:4, Insightful)
firm destroying and career ending this will go on and on.
AI-hallucinated citations :o (Score:2)
AI is fundamentally a product of probabilistic generation, shaped by user input and a vast Large Language Model (LLM) trained on the web. It often reflects inaccuracies, biases, propaganda, and falsehoods, lacking any true understanding of the material. At its core, AI serves as a probabilistic mirror of human communication.
Re: (Score:2)
It's a combination of training data and rewards. Chatbots are trained to never admit that they don't know, and to always be willing to be convinced that the person talking to them is correct. This makes them more popular, and enchances engagement, but at the cost of accuracy.
I'll wait for the final word (Score:2)
The judge's brother Ethan suggested the attorney should be forced into a woodchipper.
Non paywalled article ... (Score:2)
Here is a non-paywalled article that even has a summary at the top:
[1]NY judge sanctions lawyer for fake AI citations [nydailyrecord.com].
[1] https://nydailyrecord.com/2025/10/08/judge-sanctions-lawyer-for-fake-ai-citations/
Grow a pair FFS (Score:2)
Judge should have the lawyer arrested for contempt and strike to get his licence to practice revoked.
Re: (Score:2)
No one will know if you actually know what 'irony' means.