A federal judge in Mississippi removed four lawyers from a civil breach of contract case and sanctioned them for citing fake legal cases generated by artificial intelligence in court filings. The case involves a 2023 dispute over legal fees related to a solar power project between attorney Tom Withers III and the city of Aberdeen, Mississippi [1, 2].
Two of the lawyers, Kathleen M. Wilson and Kathryn Y. Williams, were each barred from practicing before the US District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi for two years and fined $2,500 and $3,500 respectively. All four lawyers were collectively fined $8,000 for their conduct [1, 2].
Wilson told the court she relied on an AI tool called First Drafts for legal research and admitted to citing two nonexistent cases in the filings. Williams also acknowledged using generative AI to draft court documents and failing to verify the authenticity of the cited legal authorities [1, 2].
The other two lawyers, Shauncey Hunter Ridgeway and Mark McClinton, admitted they did not review the filings before submitting them to the court [1, 2].
US District Judge Sharion Aycock said the case presented an unusual scenario where attorneys for both sides engaged in similar sanctionable conduct. She described the Northern District of Mississippi as again being "burdened with addressing AI hallucinations in court filings." The judge found that relying on unverified AI-generated court cases constituted bad faith conduct [1, 2].
Law professor Mark Bartholomew noted that judges increasingly reject claims that lawyers are unaware of AI’s tendency to hallucinate and view such failures to verify as bad faith [2].
Wilson and Williams acknowledged during a hearing in January 2026 that they did not verify the authenticity of the AI-generated citations before filing them with the court [1].
On June 8, 2026, Judge Aycock issued the sanctions order removing all four lawyers from the case, barring Wilson and Williams from the court for two years, and imposing the total $8,000 fine [1, 2]. The sanctions underscore judicial efforts to hold lawyers accountable for AI-generated misinformation in legal pleadings.
