"The errors turned up in a court filing supporting interim attorney fees in a trademark lawsuit filed by Green Building Initiative Inc. against Green Globe Limited. In an Oct. 27 order to show cause, Simon said one cited case was "totally fake" and another was "almost real" because there is a case with the name, but it is a state case instead of a federal case as indicated."
"Buchalter senior associate David Bernstein drafted the document, and he "admits that he alone, and not GBI or GBI's other attorneys, is responsible for the two hallucinated citations," Buchalter said in its response to the order to show cause. Bernstein had intended to use Microsoft Copilot for "wordsmithing" purposes and wasn't aware that it had inserted cases during the editing process, the Buchalter response said. He had copied portions of his brief into Microsoft Copilot and instructed it to improve the writing."
"Buchalter has escaped sanctions for a case filing with "hallucinated" cases after one of its attorneys took responsibility for the errors and the law firm pledged to educate its attorneys on the misuse of generative artificial intelligence. U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon of the District of Oregon said in a Nov. 12 order that he was satisfied with the firm's remedial actions and he won't be imposing formal sanctions."
A law firm filing contained fabricated and incorrect case citations in a trademark-fee filing, one citation described as "totally fake" and another as mischaracterized. A Buchalter associate drafted the filing and acknowledged sole responsibility for the hallucinated citations after using Microsoft Copilot for "wordsmithing" and failing to notice inserted cases. The associate expressed remorse and apologized for not fully reviewing the final product. The firm pledged to educate attorneys on generative AI misuse and implemented remedial actions. A federal judge reviewed the response, found the remedial steps satisfactory, and declined to impose formal sanctions.
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