The judge, Brian Davis, accepted Marullo's apology but noted that other citations included additional typos or failed to support the argument the lawyer was making. Davis warned that the blind acceptance of AI-generated content by attorneys will likely lead to other sanction hearings in the future. He also dismissed all charges against one of the police officers in the lawsuit but allowed the lawsuit to continue against the others and the town.
Key takeaways:
- A lawyer, Steven Marullo, was sanctioned by a judge in Norfolk County for submitting at least four briefs that included citations made up by an AI program about cases that never happened.
- Marullo paid the $2,000 sanction and explained that an associate and two recent law-school graduates in his firm had used an AI program without his knowledge.
- Marullo has since submitted replacement briefs without the false citations and has instructed his office to stop using the AI and return to using Lexis, which does not make up citations.
- Judge Brian Davis warned all Massachusetts lawyers about the dangers of blindly accepting AI-generated content, stating that it will likely lead to more sanction hearings in the future.