"This case adds yet another unfortunate chapter to the story of artificial intelligence misuse in the legal profession. Here, Defendants' counsel not only included an AI-hallucinated citation* and quotations in the summary judgment brief that led to the filing of this motion for sanctions, but also included multiple new AI-hallucinated citations and quotations in Defendants' brief opposing this motion. In other words, counsel relied upon unvetted AI — in his telling, via inadequately supervised colleagues — to defend his use of unvetted AI."
Justice Cohen opined that the use of AI is not the problem per se, "the problem arises when attorneys abdicate their responsibility to ensure their factual and legal representations to the Court—even if originally sourced from AI—are accurate". In the words of the Court, "When attorneys fail to check their work—whether AI-generated or not—they prejudice their clients and do a disservice to the Court and the profession. In sum, counsel's duty of candor to the Court cannot be delegated to a software program".**
Justice Cohen then:
"ORDERED that Plaintiff's motion for sanctions pursuant to 22 NYCRR §130-1.1 is GRANTED, such that Defendants and their counsel are jointly and severally liable to compensate Plaintiff for her reasonable costs and attorney's fees incurred in connection with this motion, together with fees and costs attributable to addressing Defendants' unvetted AI citations and quotations in the summary judgment motion;
"ORDERED that Plaintiff shall submit an application with supporting documentation for the fees awarded above within fourteen (14) days of the date of this order; Defendants and their counsel may submit opposition thereto within fourteen (14) days of Plaintiff's application. Plaintiff shall notify the Court via letter filing on NYSCEF and by email when the application is complete and whether it is opposed or unopposed; and
"ORDERED that Plaintiff's counsel promptly submit a copy of this decision and order to the Grievance Committee for the Appellate Division, First Department and the New Jersey Office of Attorney Ethics, copying defense counsel and this Court on its transmittal letters."
* Such "creativity" by an Artificial Intelligence computer program is often referred to as an "AI generated hallucination".
Click HERE to access Justice Cohen's ruling posted on the Internet.