Legislators decided to delay an expensive contract with a law firm this week after three attorneys were caught using ChatGPT to create court filings containing fake case law. The $200,000 Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) legal contract for William Lunsford of Butler Snow was put on hold by the Contract Review Committee, Thursday.
“This is a new $200,000 contract,” State Rep. Chris England (D-Tuscaloosa) said. “At some point, as an Alabama taxpayer, you see cases that have been pending for a long time… and then also find out the representation we’ve been provided is someone who’s using AI to file motions in front of the court. You start to get to the point where maybe we need to find another law firm.”
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U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco of the Northern District of Alabama issued an order condemning the actions of Matthew Reeves, William Cranford, and William Lunsford last month. The order will reportedly be reviewed by the Alabama State Bar. Lunsford has been paid millions by the state to defend ADOC in multiple lawsuits.
Manasco issued the original order for the attorneys to appear in court in May after lawyers representing Frankie Johnson, an incarcerated man who is suing former Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn, alleged that defense lawyers relied on fictitious legal precedents.
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Clay Crenshaw, chief deputy Alabama Attorney General, commented on the situation at the hearing Thursday.
“The previous lawyer who was on the case has been removed from any representation involving DOC. That particular lawyer was sanctioned recently, and so he has been removed,” Crenshaw said.
“There was extensive analysis done by the Butler Snow firm and by an outside law firm that found that there was one document where I think there were three or four AI-generated, fake citations, which the person that was most culpable for that is the one who has been removed from these cases. Mr. Lunsford, although he was sanctioned, certainly did not have a lot of culpability with that. Again, one document out of many hundreds that they have filed. One mistake was made.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on X @Yaffee
