Lawyer ordered to pay state $5,000 after ChatGPT supplied fake cases in appeal
JACKSON — The Mississippi Court of Appeals has ordered a defense lawyer to pay the state $5,000 out of his own pocket. The lawyer admitted that he used ChatGPT to help write legal documents that included court cases that do not exist.
The full court ordered lawyer Michael Crosby to pay the money to the Office of the Attorney General within 30 days and send proof of payment to the court clerk. The order was issued on October 21 and signed by Chief Judge Donna Barnes. The $5,000 pays for the time a state lawyer spent responding to Crosby’s first legal brief.
Crosby represents Hunter Harrison Haas, who is appealing a conviction from Harrison County Circuit Court. In a court filing, Crosby said his client should not have to pay this cost. The order does not decide whether Haas’s appeal should succeed.
On May 1, the court said Crosby’s original main brief and reply brief included made-up legal sources and quotes wrongly claimed to come from real court cases. The court also said the briefs described the law incorrectly. It rejected both briefs and ordered Crosby to submit new ones. The court also told him to explain in writing why he should not be found in contempt of court.
In his response, Crosby said he used ChatGPT “to assist in enhancing and revising my work.” He explained that he did not realize at the time that the program could make up court cases and citations or claim that real court decisions contained words they never used. He accepted responsibility and apologized to the court, the state and his client. He also admitted that trusting his research was no excuse for failing to check whether it was correct.
The court did not accept his claim that he had never knowingly cited a fake case. The court wrote that by submitting the briefs without checking the research, “that is exactly what he did.”
The state said a special assistant attorney general spent about 40 hours responding to the original brief. At $125 an hour, that work cost $5,000. Crosby did not challenge the amount and said he had already set the money aside.
Crosby later submitted a revised main brief, and the state responded to it. He did not submit a revised reply brief.
The order does not say whether Crosby will be found in contempt of court or face any other punishment.