'Tantamount to Bad Faith': Two Firms' Collective AI Debacle
A retired federal magistrate judge was appointed to referee a discovery fight in Lacey v. State Farm. A lawyer fed the research into three AI tools, and the outline became a federal filing nobody checked. The court's finding: both firms 'collectively acted in a manner that was tantamount to bad faith.' Its epitaph for the episode: a collective debacle.
From the full episode: His Co-Counsel Sent an AI Brief. He Filed It Without Reading. (EP10)
Full transcript
The court had appointed a special master back in January: a retired federal magistrate judge whose whole job was refereeing discovery fights like this one. A lawyer at Ellis George, one of the plaintiffs' firms, fed the research assignment into not one but three generative AI tools: CoCounsel, Westlaw's AI features, and Google Gemini.
Out came a preliminary outline. They had, quote, collectively acted in a manner that was tantamount to bad faith. In paragraph two, he gave the episode its epitaph: a collective debacle.
Sources
- 'Order re: Sanctions' (Doc. 119), Lacey v. State Farm General Insurance Co., No. 2:24-cv-05205-FMO-MAA (C.D. Cal.), Special Master Hon. Michael R. Wilner (ret.): full opinion (PDF)
- RECAP archive docket gov.uscourts.cacd.930490 (free public court record; the order above is Doc. 119).
- Full episode: His Co-Counsel Sent an AI Brief. He Filed It Without Reading. (EP10)