This is an opinion column

Lawyers for the firm Butler Snow, called to show why they should not be sanctioned for filing documents filled with generative artificial intelligence “hallucinations,” threw themselves on the mercy of a federal judge this morning.

At least seven of the firm’s lawyers appeared in court for the hour-long hearing – enough to pay for a good used car, if they choose to bill for it.

The lawyers who signed off on the motions apologized, as they did in earlier filings, and the firm’s leaders promised to investigate the use of AI further to make sure it had not happened before. They said they would step up training to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco was skeptical that these two motions – two in a week – were isolated instances of lawyers using AI.

“It strains credulity,” she said.

Manasco gave the firm 10 days to show the results of their investigation. On June 2 she will hold a hearing to decide if the lawyers will be sanctioned, and how severely.

She said she is considering a wide range of sanctions, everything from fines and mandated education programs to temporary suspension or referral for possible disbarment.

The lawyers include Bill Lunsford, appointed as an assistant attorney general by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, which allows him to select others in the firm to work on cases defending the prison system in an avalanche of lawsuits. Lunsford has been paid more than $42 million by the state since 2020, presumably sharing the wealth with others on his team.

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Lunsford and other members of that team, including Matthew B. Reeves, William J. Cranford and Daniel Chism, signed off on the citations, which were part two ostensibly mundane motions in a suit filed by an Alabama prisoner.

Reeves, a partner and assistant leader of the firm’s Constitutional and Civil Rights Litigation group, which is led by Lunsford, has claimed responsibility for using ChatGPT to search for citations in both motions. The blunder – which defied recommendations by the firm, the American Bar Association and AG policies – was discovered by a lawyer for Frankie Johnson, who has been stabbed multiple times in the gulags the state calls correctional facilities.

Reeves said he had begun to use ChatGPT for personal reasons last year, on issues related to his diet and his son’s college choices, and tried using AI at work at times, though not in citations. In the recent case, he said he added citations to a motion written by a younger lawyer, and nobody checked their accuracy.

“I did not comply with policy,” he said.

Reeves took “full responsibility,” and asked Manasco not to punish his colleagues who signed off on the work.

Manasco seemed provoked that senior lawyers at the firm were not required to seek approval to use AI, as junior lawyers were, and annoyed by Lunsford’s immediate attempts last week to get out of today’s hearing.

Lunsford responded in writing at first, saying he had nothing to do with the filing and had other places to be. He did sign the filings, one of which contained four legal citations, every one of them hallucinated by AI.

Asked by the judge to explain, Lunsford said his initial response “was filed quickly and in haste and I did not appreciate” the severity of the situation.

He went on to say adding citations to a case, as Reeves did, is rare. Partly because the firm works on so many cases involving the prisons that the citations of law are similar and are used over and over.

“Almost everything we pull is from another brief,” he said.

Which brings up a few questions. Like:

Why does the state pay these guys so much to cut and paste?

Did these lawyers bill top-dollar legal time for asking AI to generate citations and other things?

Is Butler Snow billing the state for this case, this investigation of its own wrongdoing, and this hearing?

If so, the lawyer-packed elevator ride down from the fifth floor of the Hugo Black federal courthouse could alone cost more than some taxpayers make in a week.

David Fawal, the attorney who spoke on behalf of the firm during the hearing, declined to comment on those questions afterward.

Judge Manasco seems to be taking this seriously. She acknowledged that AI has been a problem in courtrooms in other states, and offenders have been punished with educational efforts and other measures. But the Butler Snow fiasco “proves those sanctions insufficient,” she said.

Like she said. It strains credulity.

But then, it strains credulity that these guys are the legal superstars the state claims. It strains credulity that defending indefensible prison conditions is worth the millions we pay, much less the value of our souls.

It strains credulity to believe these lawyers are any better equipped than lawyers for the Alabama Department of Corrections, who were benched by AG Steve Marshall so Lunsford could get paid.

John Archibald is a two-time Pulitzer winner at AL.com.