Colorado lawyer fired, suspended from bar for using AI in court
May 3, 2024, 4:43 PM | Updated: May 6, 2024, 1:27 pm
A Colorado lawyer has been suspended from the bar and fired from his law firm after admitting to using the AI chatbot ChatGPT to file a court case.
Zachariah Crabill, who was hired to prepare a motion in a civil case, said he was “stressed out” and decided to use ChatGPT to generate the motion, including seemingly “impeccable” case law and citations. However, Crabill never read the AI cases that were cited in the paperwork. And, right before his hearing, discovered the cited cases from ChatGPT were either incorrect or totally made up.
Since Crabill failed to properly review the AI-generated content, the judge expressed concerns. The lawyer initially blamed a legal intern before later admitting to using ChatGPT.
Despite getting busted, Crabill has now set up his own law firm named Av{AI}lable Legal Solutions and said that AI is much like a virtual legal assistant, helping cut costs and level the playing field.
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