Incident #1572
Westlaw CoCounsel Reportedly Generated False Legal Quotations in United States v. Farris
Description
In United States v. Farris, court-appointed attorney Steven N. Howe admitted using Westlaw CoCounsel to draft appellate briefs that reportedly included AI-generated false quotations and misleading descriptions of precedent. The filing disrupted Farris's appeal, leading the court to appoint new counsel and restart briefing, while Howe lost his compensation and faced possible disciplinary action.
Actors
Alleged Deployers
- steven-n.-howe
- legal-professionals
- law-firms
Alleged Developers
- thomson-reuters
- large-language-model-developers
- ai-research-tool-developers
Harmed Parties
- united-states-court-of-appeals-for-the-sixth-circuit
- legal-clients
- judicial-integrity
- john-c.-farris
- epistemic-integrity