A federal judge in Mississippi dismissed attorneys from a case this week after discovering they irresponsibly used generative artificial intelligence to research and write legal documents.
As first reported by Mississippi Free Press, U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Mississippi Sharion Aycock said in a ruling Monday that counsel from both sides “blindly” used AI in their legal filings, resulting in hallucinations, or fabricated quotes or sources, which is a hallmark of AI usage.
The four attorneys are involved in a lawsuit stemming from a contractual pay dispute between Tom Withers III and the city of Aberdeen. Withers was represented by Kathleen Wilson and Shauncey Hunter Ridgeway. Mark McClinton and Kathryn Young Williams represented the city.
Aycock informed the parties about her concerns in December. She ordered the attorneys to defend their AI usage at a January hearing, and both legal teams filed documents correcting the hallucinated sources.
Though the attorneys “expressed embarrassment and apologized” for their actions at the hearing, according to Aycock’s ruling, she announced Monday that she was removing the four attorneys from the case and barring two of them from appearing before Northern District of Mississippi courts for two years.
According to the June 8 ruling, Williams admitted to using an AI tool to conduct research, and Wilson admitted to using an AI tool to draft her legal filing. Neither verified the AI work before filing their briefs. McClinton and Ridgeway, based in Mississippi, admitted to failing to review the error-laden legal filings before submitting them, despite signing their names to the documents.
Judge Sharion AycockWilson, who is based in Baton Rouge, testified in January that she didn’t know AI could hallucinate sources. But Aycock called that explanation “insufficient and incredulous” in her ruling, given increasing legal AI usage incidents throughout the country.
Judges in other states have applied sanctions and fines or disqualified lawyers caught negligently using artificial intelligence. Last year, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Mississippi Henry T. Wingate admitted that his staff used AI to draft a flawed court order.
“I’m trying to shake back from all of this and regroup,” Wilson said Thursday, when reached by Mississippi Today.
She declined to comment on case specifics, but said the sanctions were fair.
“Unfortunately for the attorneys, I think the judge gets it exactly right,” said Ben Cooper, a professor at the University of Mississippi School of Law who studies AI and is a member of the Mississippi Bar Association’s Ethics Committee.
“You’d have to have your head in the sand to not know what’s going on in terms of AI hallucinating and lawyers getting in trouble for submitting briefs that contain hallucinated citations,” he added. “At this point, no lawyer can credibly say they aren’t aware of the risks, and it’s kind of hard to believe that this keeps happening.”
Williams, who is based in Houston, Texas, testified her firm started using an in-house AI legal research software a few months prior to the court’s December order. She first told the court that the software was designed for Texas law, but later backtracked and said Mississippi was within the software’s scope.
Additionally, Aycock wrote that Williams disregarded her firm’s AI policy, which requires attorneys verify AI work.
“The Court finds that she was aware that the software was not designed to produce Mississippi case law and that she acted in bad faith in using it anyway,” Aycock wrote.
Aycock also noted both Wilson and Williams are based in other states and practicing in Mississippi as pro hac vice attorneys, which means they’re out-of-state attorneys who have been given temporary permission to practice in Mississippi.
The temporary permission is a “privilege, not a right,” Aycock wrote. She revoked their admission in this case. She also barred them from appearing in any case before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi for two years and ordered them to pay fines.
Additionally, Aycock ordered Wilson to attend a legal education course on artificial intelligence and submit proof of attendance.
“The problem isn’t that they used AI,” Cooper said. “It’s that they used AI irresponsibly. No matter what AI they use, they have to be checking what it’s giving them. It’s not hard, and it doesn’t take a lot of time for a lawyer to check the citations and make sure they exist.”
Aycock disqualified Ridgeway and McClinton from the case and ordered them to pay fines. Aycock noted that while they both “acted negligently and carelessly,” they did not act in bad faith.
“In an era of rampant unverified AI usage within the legal field, this case presents a prime example of the risk associated with serving as a rubberstamp when acting as local counsel,” Aycock wrote.
Cooper said the determination was “tough, but fair.” While the judge recognized the Mississippi-based lawyers had less culpability, they were still responsible, he said.
“It’s a wake-up call for lawyers when they act as local counsel that they are also going to have to do a final check themselves,” he said.
RIdgeway, Williams and McClinton could not be reached for comment.
Copies of Aycock’s order are also being sent to the Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas bar associations. Cooper said those bar associations will have to decide if they want to prosecute the case, and the attorneys will have an opportunity to defend themselves.
“It’s surprising and disappointing that this keeps happening, and unfortunately, it seems to be happening more and more,” he said.
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