--- title: "Law Firms Caught and Punished for Passing Around “Bogus” AI Slop in Court" description: "A judge fined two law firms tens of thousands of dollars after lawyers submitted a brief containing sloppy AI errors." date: "2025-05-15" modified: "2025-05-15" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/law-firms-fine-ai-slop-court" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai chatbots" - "ai slop" - "artificial intelligence" - "law" --- # Law Firms Caught and Punished for Passing Around “Bogus” AI Slop in Court ![A judge fined two law firms tens of thousands of dollars after lawyers submitted a brief containing sloppy AI errors.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* A California judge fined two law firms $31,000 after discovering that they'd included AI slop in a legal brief — the latest instance in a [growing]() [tide]() of [avoidable]() [legal drama]() wrought by lawyers using generative AI to do their work without any due diligence. As [*The* *Verge* reported this week](), the court filing in question was a brief for a civil lawsuit against the insurance giant State Farm. After its submission, a review of the brief found that it contained "bogus AI-generated research" that led to the inclusion of "numerous false, inaccurate, and misleading legal citations and quotations," as judge Michael Wilner wrote in a [scathing ruling](). According to the ruling, it was only after the judge requested more information about the error-riddled brief that lawyers at the firms involved fessed up to using generative AI. And if he hadn't caught onto it, Milner cautioned, the AI slop could have made its way into an official judicial order. "I read their brief, was persuaded (or at least intrigued) by the authorities that they cited, and looked up the decisions to learn more about them — only to find that they didn’t exist," Milner wrote in his ruling. "That's scary." "It almost led to the scarier outcome (from my perspective)," he added, "of including those bogus materials in a judicial order." A lawyer at one of the firms involved with the ten-page brief, the Ellis George group, used Google's Gemini and a few other law-specific AI tools to draft an initial outline. That outline included many errors, but was passed along to the next law firm, K&L Gates, without any corrections. Incredibly, the second firm *also* failed to notice and correct the fabrications. "No attorney or staff member at either firm apparently cite-checked or otherwise reviewed that research before filing the brief," Milner wrote in the ruling. After the brief was submitted, a judicial review found that a staggering nine out of 27 legal citations included in the filing "were incorrect in some way," and "at least two of the authorities cited do not exist." Milner also found that quotes "attributed to the cited judicial opinions were phony and did not accurately represent those materials." As for his decision to levy the hefty fines, Milner said the egregiousness of the failures, coupled with how compelling the AI's made-up responses were, necessitated "strong deterrence." "Strong deterrence is needed," wrote Milner, "to make sure that lawyers don't respond to this easy shortcut." **More on lawyers and AI:** [*Large Law Firm Sends Panicked Email as It Realizes Its Attorneys Have Been Using AI to Prepare Court Documents*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()