O.C. immigration – An Orange County immigration case turned into a disciplinary one after a U.S. appeals court found two attorneys filed briefs containing nonexistent cases, misattributed quotations, and other misrepresentations, attributing the errors to generative AI hallucina
For six months, two Orange County immigration attorneys won’t be allowed to practice before the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals—after the court concluded they submitted legal briefs packed with fabricated material.
The temporary suspensions were imposed on Mike Singh Sethi and William Rounds, both lawyers with the Sethi Law Group in Orange County. The court also fined each of them $2,500, in a Wednesday opinion that framed the discipline as more than a technology mistake.
The judges said the problem wasn’t simply that generative AI was used. The suspension followed their filing of briefs that included “multiple nonexistent cases. misattributed quotations. and gross misrepresentations of real cases. ” and their failure to be candid about how those inaccuracies occurred.
In the court’s view. Sethi and Rounds did not disclose that the fabrications and errors were tied to hallucinations from generative AI. Instead. the three-judge panel said they “knowingly or recklessly made false statements to this Court. ” including by disputing the possibility that AI might have produced the errors. The ruling says they repeatedly denied that generative artificial intelligence (“AI”) could have caused the mistakes and argued the problems were the “product of innocent typographical mistakes.”.
The briefs were filed as part of a request to the appeals court to review an immigration decision. That underlying case had gone in the attorneys’ clients’ favor: the court had ruled for the attorneys’ clients and halted the deportation of three family members from India. according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The disciplinary ruling did not change that November outcome.
Still, the court made clear it was issuing a warning to the bar. In the same decision. the panel told other attorneys to treat generative AI as a tool that doesn’t override courtroom obligations. “Be aware of the risks of overreliance on generative AI. read everything cited in a court filing—whether drafted by generative AI or not—and disclose quickly and transparently generative AI hallucinations that are inadvertently included in court filings. ” the ruling said.
A request for comment from the firm was not immediately answered.
The opinion also emphasized that the law’s procedural and ethical rules remain the same regardless of how paperwork is produced. “However legal papers are prepared, and however legal technology develops, the court’s procedural and ethical rules apply with equal force,” the three-judge panel wrote.
For Sethi and Rounds, the practical consequence is immediate and personal: a six-month suspension from appearing in the 9th Circuit. For the rest of the immigration bar. the court’s message is sharper—AI can be used. but briefs still have to be truthful. fully checked. and candidly disclosed when the technology goes wrong.
O.C. immigration attorneys Orange County U.S. 9th Circuit generative AI AI hallucinations court discipline legal ethics immigration briefs Sethi Law Group Mike Singh Sethi William Rounds
So AI lied and now lawyers get punished? Seems backwards, honestly.
I mean I saw this coming. Judges are like “gen AI can’t do that” and then boom fake citations. Also $2,500 feels like nothing for immigration stuff.
Wait I thought immigration courts already use like that kind of stuff, like automatic forms and whatnot. If the original decision stopped deportation then why are they even suspending them? Sounds like a technicality to me.
Generative AI hallucinations are real but the article says they “knowingly or recklessly” made false statements?? Like they denied AI could’ve caused it? That’s crazy. I bet they just copied the wrong stuff from somewhere and blamed AI. Also “nonexistent cases” just sounds like something an intern would do, not attorneys. Why did the 9th circuit even allow them to file after that?