Two attorneys were sanctioned by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals for submitting legal briefs containing over 24 fake case citations that appeared to be AI-generated hallucinations, resulting in $30,000 in fines and reimbursement of legal costs.
In March 2024, the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sanctioned attorneys Van Irion and Russ Egli for submitting an appeal brief in Whiting v. City of Athens that contained more than two dozen fake case citations and misrepresentations of fact. The case involved an incident at a fireworks show hosted by the city of Athens, Tennessee in 2022. The court found that the attorneys had cited fake cases, provided citations lacking the quoted language, and citations that failed to support their legal propositions. When the appeals court asked how they vetted their briefs and whether they used generative AI, the attorneys refused to answer and instead challenged the court's authority to ask such questions. The court imposed sanctions under Rule 38, requiring each attorney to pay $15,000 individually to the court and reimburse Athens for legal costs. The court stated that the fake citations went beyond mere sloppiness and constituted misconduct that 'sullied the reputation of our bar.' The attorneys categorically denied citing fake cases and claimed they were pursuing legal remedies to challenge the order.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
AI systems that inadvertently generate or spread incorrect or deceptive information, which can lead to inaccurate beliefs in users and undermine their autonomy. Humans that make decisions based on false beliefs can experience physical, emotional or material harms
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Unintentional
Due to an unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed
