Judge blasts lawyers for filing AI-written court briefs

Judge condemns AI-written briefs

US District Judge Mark Pittman eviscerated a defendant's lawyers for filing court motions he called frivolous and filled with blatant AI slop, saying most law students could do better.

The case and the defendant

Khalwinder Singh Bhengura, a seventy-year-old Indian native and lawful permanent resident, was convicted last month of false statements of citizenship to register to vote and voting by an alien.

The motion and the disclosure

Bhengura's three attorneys filed a motion for his release pending sentencing, disclosing that portions were prepared with the assistance of a generative artificial intelligence tool.

Pittman's harsh judgment

The judge called the arguments an abysmal reading of the statute with tortured statutory analysis so tone-deaf that only artificial intelligence could advance it. He called it lazy lawyering.

“so tone-deaf that only artificial intelligence could advance it”

Defense lawyers respond

Nicole Knox said the lawyers disclosed AI use as required and that AI could never create their novel approach. Mario Herrera said he wrote, reviewed, and finalized each brief himself.

“AI could never create our novel approach to the argument presented”

Pittman warns of sanctions

The judge said the filings raise serious questions about the lawyers' ability to practice law.

Broader pattern across US courts

Courts across the United States have increasingly come down on lawyers' use of AI-generated material in filings, with some cases resulting in sanctions.