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Alabama federal judge suspends lawyer over deleted ChatGPT use in bad brief

Published
Score
10

Why it matters

A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama has suspended an attorney from practicing in that court after finding he used ChatGPT to draft a brief containing errors and then deleted his account to conceal the use. The court characterized the attempted cover-up as "atrocious conduct," treating the concealment as a separate and compounding violation distinct from the underlying filing defect.

The specific details of the brief's errors and the procedural posture of the underlying case remain unclear. The judge's order and any related filings have not been made fully public.

The suspension reflects a hardening judicial stance on generative AI misuse in litigation. Courts are no longer treating AI-generated errors as mere filing mistakes; they are treating concealment of AI use as a professional responsibility violation warranting sanctions. Attorneys should assume that courts will scrutinize both the accuracy of AI-assisted work product and candor about its use. Disclosure of AI assistance in drafting is now effectively mandatory, and deletion of evidence of that use will be treated as aggravating misconduct.

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