A Texas lawyer has been fined by a federal judge after submitting court documents that included fabricated citations and quotations generated by artificial intelligence. The ruling came down in a wrongful termination lawsuit against Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., where U.S. District Judge Marcia Crone of the Eastern District of Texas in Beaumont imposed a $2,000 penalty on attorney Brandon Monk.
The sanction issued on Monday also requires Monk to participate in an educational course on the use of generative AI in legal practices. This incident highlights ongoing concerns and judicial responses to the misuse of AI tools in the legal field.
During the proceedings against Goodyear, discrepancies were noted in Monk’s submission for summary judgment opposition, which included several non-existent cases. In response to Goodyear’s complaint about the erroneous citations, Judge Crone demanded Monk to justify his actions under the compliance standards of both federal and local court rules.
In a subsequent filing dated November 15, Monk acknowledged the use of an AI-driven legal research tool and admitted that the error was unintentional, citing misplacements in some of the quotations provided.
