Attorney AI use
Lacey v. State Farm General Insurance Co.
An AI-assisted discovery brief passed between two firms with fake or misquoted authority; even the revised filing remained defective.
$31,100 firm sanction01
Case background
Material facts
Two firms circulated and filed a discovery and privilege brief containing nonexistent and misquoted authority without disclosing or adequately checking the AI-assisted work. The attempted correction still contained errors.
02
The decision
The court’s ruling
The court struck the briefs, denied discovery relief, and held the firms jointly and severally responsible for $31,100. The client was not sanctioned.
Why it matters
What the decision means
Shared drafting needs clear ownership. When a filing passes between firms, someone must be expressly responsible for checking every source in the final version.
Primary reading