A Salem civil attorney has been ordered to pay a $10,000 sanction by the Oregon Court of Appeals after judges determined that an appellate brief he signed was riddled with fake case law and phony quotations generated by artificial intelligence tools. The penalty, one of the steepest in Oregon so far for an AI-tainted filing, signals that courts are losing patience with so-called hallucinated legal authorities eating up their time.
In a March 18 opinion, the court found that attorney Bill Ghiorso submitted a brief that relied on 15 fabricated citations and nine made-up quotes while representing Henry Doiban in a challenge to the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission’s 2022 revocation of a marijuana production license, according to The Oregonian/OregonLive. Ghiorso told the court he had only a day to assemble the AI-assisted filing and said he trusted research done by a paralegal. He later apologized in writing, saying the mistakes “fell short of the standards of my office and of the profession,” the outlet reported. Court records show opposing counsel had raised red flags about some of the citations months earlier.
Presiding Judge Scott Shorr wrote that submitting a brief loaded with unchecked and ultimately fabricated citations can breach an attorney’s professional duties, and the panel rejected Ghiorso’s argument that he had not knowingly filed false material. Applying a fee schedule that runs from $500 to $1,000 per bogus citation or quote, the appeals court calculated that Ghiorso’s exposure could have reached about $16,500 before capping the sanction at $10,000 in light of his recent medical issues, according to The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Court’s reasoning and state bar guidance
The decision zeroed in on a basic point: lawyers must verify the authorities they cite before filing, no matter how those citations were generated. That expectation lines up with the Oregon State Bar’s formal ethics opinion on AI tools, which instructs attorneys to stay competent with emerging technology, supervise staff who use it, double-check AI-generated content and safeguard client confidentiality, according to the Oregon State Bar.
A national pattern courts are watching
Oregon’s move drops into a growing stack of cases nationwide in which judges are confronting AI-created fake citations that clog dockets and invite sanctions. Courts around the country are reporting more of these AI misfires, and Bloomberg Law has documented hundreds of decisions along with a run of fines and fee awards tied to the problem in recent months, describing the spread of AI-fabricated cases as a mounting burden on already overworked judges, according to Bloomberg Law…