Judge sanctions lawyers defending Alabama's prison system for using fake ChatGPT cases in filings
U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco publicly reprimanded three lawyers with Butler Snow, the law firm hired to defend Alabama and other jurisdictions in lawsuits against their prison systems. The order sanctioned William R. Lunsford, the head of the firm division that handles prison litigation, along with Matthew B. Reeves and William J. Cranford.
'Fabricating legal authority is serious misconduct that demands a serious sanction,' Manasco wrote in the Wednesday sanctions order.
Manasco removed the three from participating in the case where the false citations were filed and directed them to share the sanctions order with clients, opposing lawyers and judges in all of their other cases. She also referred the matter to the Alabama State Bar for possible disciplinary action.
Butler Snow is representing Alabama in multiple lawsuits involving its prison system. Alabama has paid Lunsford and his firm more than $40 million since 2020, according to state spending records.
Butler Snow lawyers had repeatedly apologized during an earlier hearing before Manasco. They said an attorney used artificial intelligence to research supporting case law but did not verify the information before adding it to two filings with the federal court. Those citations turned out to be 'hallucinations' — meaning incorrect citations — by the AI system.
'In simpler terms, the citations were completely made up,' Manasco wrote. She added that using the citations without verifying their accuracy was 'recklessness in the extreme.'
The filings in question were made in a lawsuit filed by an inmate who was stabbed on multiple occasions at the William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility in Jefferson County. The lawsuit alleges that prison officials are failing to keep inmates safe.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
32 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Britain hopes a crackdown on people-smugglers' social media ads will help curb Channel crossings
LONDON (AP) — Britain says people who advertise fake passports or people-smuggling services on social medial could face up to five years in prison, in the government's latest effort to deter migrants from crossing the English Channel in small boats. The government said Sunday that anyone convicted of creating online materials intended to break U.K. immigration law will face prison time and a large fine. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the aim was to stop the 'brazen tactics on social media' used by smuggling gangs. 'Selling the false promise of a safe journey to the U.K. and a life in this country — whether on or offline — simply to make money, is nothing short of immoral,' she said. Assisting illegal immigration to the U.K. is already a crime, but officials believe a new offense — part of a border security bill currently going through Parliament — will give police and prosecutors more powers to disrupt gangs that send migrants on perilous journeys across one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said the crime gangs are a threat to global security and should be treated like terror networks. Since taking office a year ago, Starmer's center-left Labour Party government has adopted powers to seize the assets of people-smugglers, beefed up U.K. border surveillance and increased law-enforcement cooperation with France and other countries to disrupt the journeys. Despite that, more than 25,000 people have reached Britain by boat so far this year, an increase of 50% on the same period in 2024. Small boat crossings have become a potent political issue, fueled by pictures of smugglers piling migrants into overcrowded, leaky inflatable boats on the French coast. Opposition parties say the government's plans aren't working — though the government argues the problems built up during 14 years when the Conservative Party was in power, The Conservatives say Starmer should not have scrapped the previous government's contentious and expensive plan to send migrants arriving by boat on a one-way trip to Rwanda. 'This is a panicked attempt to look tough after months of doing nothing,' Conservative immigration spokesman Chris Philp said. The government says it will take time to clear a backlog of applications that has left thousands of migrants stuck in temporary accommodation — often hotels — without the right to work.
San Francisco Chronicle
10 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Senate confirms former Fox News host Pirro as top federal prosecutor for the nation's capital
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has confirmed former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro as the top federal prosecutor for the nation's capital, filling the post after President Donald Trump withdrew his controversial first pick, conservative activist Ed Martin Jr. Pirro, a former county prosecutor and elected judge, was confirmed 50-45. Before becoming the acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia in May, she co-hosted the Fox News show 'The Five' on weekday evenings, where she frequently interviewed Trump. Trump yanked Martin's nomination after a key Republican senator said he could not support him due to Martin's outspoken support for rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Martin now serves as the Justice Department's pardon attorney. In 2021, voting technology company Smartmatic USA sued Fox News, Pirro and others for spreading false claims that the company helped 'steal' the 2020 presidential election from Trump. The company's libel suit, filed in a New York state court, sought $2.7 billion from the defendants. Last month, Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to send Pirro's nomination to the Senate floor after Democrats walked out to protest Emil Bove's nomination to become a federal appeals court judge. Pirro, a 1975 graduate of Albany Law School, has significantly more courtroom experience than Martin, who had never served as a prosecutor or tried a case before taking office in January. She was elected as a judge in New York's Westchester County Court in 1990 before serving three terms as the county's elected district attorney. In the final minutes of his first term as president, Trump issued a pardon to Pirro's ex-husband, Albert Pirro, who was convicted in 2000 on conspiracy and tax evasion charges.
San Francisco Chronicle
12 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Rescue workers in Chile find the body of one of 5 miners trapped in a copper mine
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Rescue teams found a body inside a section of a Chilean copper mine that collapsed two days earlier during a moderate earthquake, the mine's director said Saturday. Rescuers have been trying to reach five miners who were trapped Thursday evening in the El Teniente mine in central Chile as rocks collapsed around them during a 4.2 magnitude quake. The copper mine is one of Chile's largest. A spokesman for the rescue team that is trying to drill through 90 meters (295 feet) of rock to reach the miners said the body found on Saturday is one of the five miners who were trapped in the mine. El Teniente Director Andres Music said authorities were still trying to identify the body. The body of another miner — not one of the five still trapped — identified as Paulo Marin Tapia was found Friday, shortly after the mine's partial collapse. Nine other mine workers suffered injuries, said Chile's National Copper Corp., known as Codelco, describing the incident as a result of 'a seismic event.'
