BUTLER, Pa. — A Commonwealth Court judge is questioning the potential use of “AI Hallucinations” in a legal brief filed in a lawsuit that aims to roll back protections for gay and transgender Pennsylvanians.
“It’s just a waste of money and time and it’s an embarrassment for the Knoch School District,” said Tim Danehy, a parent of Knoch students.
Commonwealth Court Judge Matthew Wolf said in court last week he believed the lawyers for the plaintiffs, which include Knoch School District, South Side Area School District in Beaver County, and Republican State Representative Aaron Bernstine and Barbara Gleim cited quotes from cases that did not exist.
Attorney Thomas King was adamant that his firm did not use made-up AI-generated content in their brief.
“Using AI in filing a brief that has citations that aren’t real is a lie. And Tom King emphatically said he did not use AI, and he checked with attorneys, and nobody used AI,” Danehy said. “So they either used AI and are lying about it, or are just plain lying.”
If successful, the lawsuit would no longer allow the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission to investigate complaints about discrimination involving sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.
Attorney Jay Silberblatt provides ethical advice to the Dillon, McCandless, King, Coulter, and Graham law firm.
“They have pulled every case cited in their legal documents, the cases exist, the opinions are genuine, the legal argument they have made in their brief are supported by the law of Pennsylvania,” Silberblatt told Channel 11’s Andrew Havranek. “The Dillon McCandless law firm did not utilize any AI-generated hallucinatory case citations or legal principles.”
There have been cases in other states where that has happened. Reports show a lawyer in Florida was suspended for using AI-hallucinated citations in a legal brief. Another lawyer in Utah was sanctioned, and an attorney in California had to pay a $10,000 fine.
“That’s not similar to what’s, what we’re discussing with the Dillon McCandless law firm,” Silberblatt said.
The law firm said it will file an appropriate motion with the Commonwealth Court to further address the judge’s inquiry.
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