REFILE-Lawyers in Walmart lawsuit admit AI 'hallucinated' case citations

Fixes typo in paragraph 4.

By Sara Merken

Feb 10 (Reuters) - Lawyers representing plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Walmart WMT.N over alleged injuries from a defective hoverboard toy said on Monday that they inadvertently included made-up cases generated by artificial intelligence in a court filing.

A federal judge in Wyoming on Thursday had asked the plaintiffs' attorneys to explain why they should not be sanctioned, after lawyers for Walmart and co-defendant Jetson Electric Bikes told the court that they could not find nine cases that the plaintiffs had cited in a court document and suggested AI played a role.

The case, involving lawyers from national plaintiffs' law firm Morgan & Morgan, is the latest in which AI-generated case citations have proven prone to error, testing lawyers and judges' ability to sort legitimate legal research from fiction.

The plaintiffs' lawyers — Rudwin Ayala and T. Michael Morgan from Morgan & Morgan, and Taly Goody from three-lawyer Goody Law Group — withdrew the filing that contained the nine cases on Friday.

In their filing on Monday to U.S. District Judge Kelly Rankin, they said the cases cited "were not legitimate" and that an internal AI platform "hallucinated" the cases.

"This matter comes with great embarrassment and has prompted discussion and action regarding the training, implementation, and future use of artificial intelligence within our firm," the lawyers said in the filing submitted by Morgan.

The three lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A lawyer representing Walmart and Jetson declined to comment. Walmart declined to comment.

Judges across the country have weighed and in some cases imposed sanctions on lawyers for including AI-generated citations in court documents.

While some judges and courts have issued orders governing how attorneys can use AI tools, use of the technology is generally permitted. Groups including the American Bar Association have said lawyers much consider their ethical obligations to verify information in court submissions.

The underlying case in Wyoming was filed in July 2023 by two parents on behalf of themselves and their children, claiming they suffered burns and emotional distress after a hoverboard made by Jetson and sold by Walmart exploded and burned down their house.

Walmart and Jetson have denied the allegations and argued the fire originated in a "smoking shed" outside of the house.