William Cranford

Incidents Harmed By

Incident 11963 Report
Judge Reportedly Disqualifies Butler Snow Lawyers Following Purported Use of ChatGPT-Fabricated Citations in Alabama Prison Litigation

2025-05-07

Three Butler Snow attorneys defending a former Alabama corrections commissioner were reportedly disqualified after two motions cited five non-existent cases generated via ChatGPT. Judge Anna Manasco is reported to have publicly reprimanded the lawyers, referred them to the Alabama State Bar, and ordered broad disclosure; she declined to sanction the firm. An external review of 2,400 citations across 330 filings reported no further errors.

Incidents involved as Deployer

Incident 11963 Report
Judge Reportedly Disqualifies Butler Snow Lawyers Following Purported Use of ChatGPT-Fabricated Citations in Alabama Prison Litigation

2025-05-07

Three Butler Snow attorneys defending a former Alabama corrections commissioner were reportedly disqualified after two motions cited five non-existent cases generated via ChatGPT. Judge Anna Manasco is reported to have publicly reprimanded the lawyers, referred them to the Alabama State Bar, and ordered broad disclosure; she declined to sanction the firm. An external review of 2,400 citations across 330 filings reported no further errors.

Related Entities

Butler Snow

Incidents Harmed By

Incidents involved as Deployer

Matthew B. Reeves

Incidents Harmed By

Incidents involved as Deployer

William Lunsford

Incidents Harmed By

Incidents involved as Deployer

OpenAI

Incidents involved as Developer

Frankie Johnson

Incidents Harmed By

Alabama Department of Corrections

Incidents Harmed By

State of Alabama

Incidents Harmed By

Judicial integrity

Incidents Harmed By

Epistemic integrity

Incidents Harmed By

General public of Alabama

Incidents Harmed By

ChatGPT

Incidents implicated systems