This article was originally published by Alabama Reflector.
The Montgomery-based law firm, which has lawyers facing the possibility of sanctions to file legal briefs with manufactured citations generated by artificial intelligence, said internal investigations have not allowed formal citations in recent filings.
Butler Snow LLP, in a federal court filing, reviewed more than 50 dockets from the Federal Court of Alabama and the 11th Circuit earlier this month, 40 of which contained “substantial citations for review,” and failed to find “hastised hallucinations of citations generated using artificial intelligence.”
“The results of these investigations, coupled with the lawyer's declaration, indicate that this is an isolated event,” Butler Snow said in his submission. “The two cases covered by the order indicating the cause are likely the only cases of AI-generated hallucinations filed by a record counsel in this or other Alabama federal court. Butler Snow states to provide assurances to the court without minimizing what happened in this case.”
Company partner Matthew Reeves said he used artificial intelligence in court last month to obtain a quote in a document filed on behalf of the Alabama Department of Corrections, and filed a lawsuit in a lawsuit alleging that the department failed to protect him from violence.
The inmate's lawyer first flagged the quote. U.S. District Judge Anna M. Manasco, who oversees the case, described five of them as “hadowsighted.”
A representative for Butler Snow told Manasco during May that the company will review applications from other cases to investigate other possible uses of AI that have led to citations produced in other documents.
Manasco has agreed to the company's request at the hearing that Butlersnow will be allowed to complete an internal investigation before imposing sanctions on the case.
Philadelphia-based Morgan, Lewis & Bocchius LLP independently reviewed the filing. The company also included a declaration from an attorney in this case, if they were not using anyone other than Reeves.
“The company has begun a process of implementing the revised policies and procedures previously explained to the court,” Butler Snow said in a filing. “In addition, Matthew B. Reeves is engaged in an effort to work with plaintiffs' lawyers and law school professor Anil Mujuma, to educate law students about the risks and impact of using AI in legal practices to prevent such conduct by others.”
The case is a civil lawsuit filed by Frankie Johnson against the Alabama Department of Corrections in December 2019 after being assaulted and stabbed at least nine times by 13 people at William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer.
Johnson claims that corrections staff were unable to protect him, leading to another attack in March 2020 when he was stabbed by another Donaldson individual.
During the case, Alabama Department of Corrections attorney filed an motion to resign Johnson in the week of June 3, but his lawyer filed his claim seeking delay in deposition to better prepare his client for questions.
Reeves then filed a response to the complaint, challenged the request of the opposing counsel, alleging that the court had sought to testify after being given appropriate notice. The submission included two legal referrals that Johnson's lawyers said could not be verified. Reeves admitted using AI to generate quotations to support his argument without checking whether it is accurate or not.
Manasco had not imposed any sanctions on the company late Monday afternoon.
