Description: In the case of Lacey v. State Farm, two law firms were sanctioned $31,000 after submitting a legal brief containing reportedly erroneous citations generated using AI tools. The court reportedly found that the lawyers failed to disclose the use of AI, neglected to verify its output, and refiled a revised brief with additional inaccuracies. Judge Michael Wilner deemed the conduct reckless and issued sanctions for what he described as "improper" and "misleading" legal filings.
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The OECD AI Incidents and Hazards Monitor (AIM) automatically collects and classifies AI-related incidents and hazards in real time from reputable news sources worldwide.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Unnamed large language model developer developed an AI system deployed by K&L Gates LLP and Ellis George LLP, which harmed K&L Gates LLP , Ellis George LLP , Michael Wilner , Judicial process integrity and Defense counsel in Lacey v. State Farm.
Alleged implicated AI system: Unknown large language model
Incident Stats
Incident ID
1073
Report Count
2
Incident Date
2025-04-15
Editors
Dummy Dummy
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
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I should note up front that both of the firms involved (the massive 1700-lawyer national one and the smaller 45-lawyer predominantly California one) have, to my knowledge, excellent reputations, and the error is not at all characteristic of…
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A judge in California has imposed sanctions to law firms that relied on AI for case research, resulting in an error-filled brief.
In the case of Lacey v. State Farm, Judge Michael Wilner (serving as Special Master in the case) took the two …
Variants
A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
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