Georgia court fines lawyer for apparent use of AI that generated inaccuracies

For the first time ever in Georgia Appeals Court history, a lawyer is being fined for the apparent use of AI.

The Georgia Court of Appeals found multiple instances of made-up or misused cases in her brief.

They say in a brief to them, more than 70% of the cases were made up, or had nothing to do with the case at hand — and now are punishing the attorney with the maximum amount, Channel 2’s Michael Doudna reports.

“Yeah, it’s laziness. I read the appellate opinion, and it was pretty harsh,” said Christopher Timmons, a partner with Knowles, Gallant and Timmons.

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The Georgia Court of Appeals found attorney Diana Lynch may have used AI when she repeatedly cited made-up or misused cases.

“It’s embarrassing for the judges involved. It makes the lawyer who cited the fake cases look bad.” Timmons said.

He says this started during a DeKalb County divorce proceeding, where an appeals court says she cited seven fake cases in a brief.

When the case was appealed, they say her brief cited 11 more either made-up or unrelated cases.

“The court of appeals fined her the highest amount that they could fine her, which was $2,500. And I think if they had the ability to go higher, they would have,” Timmons said.

Now Timmons says the use of AI is growing in the legal field.

“And so AI is basically a product that ... it’s as good as you, your inputs,” Timmons said.

He says lawyers are starting to lean more on AI with companies building specific law-focused models, but they still need to be double-checked.

And as the tech becomes more prevalent, Timmons says he thinks there will be more situations like this, with real filings containing fake cases.

“So we’re gonna see more cases where attorneys are relying on ChatGPT, and that ChatGPT is going to end in hallucination,” he said.

Starting Thursday, Channel 2 Action News called Lynch’s office, a cell phone number, reached out on Instagram, and sent her an email to try and reach her but received no response.

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