Attorney Hit With Historic Fine for Citing AI-Generated Cases
Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:
https://gizmodo.com/attorney-hit-with-historic-fine-for-citing-ai-generated-cases-2000738651
A court in Oregon has issued a fine of $10,000 to an attorney who submitted a legal brief with citations and quotes hallucinated by AI, according to a new report from the Oregonian. It's the highest fine yet for citing fake cases in the state and would have been higher, but the judges offered some leniency, according to the newspaper.
The attorney, identified by the Oregonian as Bill Ghiorso in Salem, submitted a legal brief to the Oregon Court of Appeals that contained 15 fake citations and nine fake quotes. Ghiorso reportedly blamed a paralegal for the AI hallucinations and initially challenged the fine.
The appeals court in Oregon first fined a different attorney for the practice back in December 2025. The three-judge panel established that this kind of issue should be met with $500 for each fake citation and $1,000 for each false quotation or statement of law. Adding up all the hallucinations, Ghiorso was first hit with a $16,500, but the judges capped that at $10,000.
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