Judge fines law firm Hagens Berman over AI errors in OnlyFans case

By Sara Merken

NEW YORK, Dec 15 (Reuters) - A judge in California has fined plaintiffs’ law firm Hagens Berman, one of its partners, and another lawyer a combined $13,000 for the “misuse” of artificial intelligence in several court filings in a lawsuit against the parent company of adult content social media site OnlyFans.

U.S. District Judge Fred Slaughter in Santa Ana on Friday imposed a $10,000 sanction on Hagens Berman and partner Robert Carey, as well as a $3,000 fine on co-counsel Celeste Boyd.

The sanctions against the prominent Seattle-founded firm come as fines and scrutiny continue to mount over AI-infused legal filings. Judges across the country have levied fines and reprimanded lawyers for failing to verify the accuracy of their briefs, as AI mistakes have appeared in a growing number of filings – and even two court decisions.

The judge found that Hagens Berman and Carey, in filing four briefs that included material “hallucinated” by AI, violated a rule that requires legal arguments to be “warranted by existing law.” The firm and partner also had a duty to supervise Boyd’s work and ensure she complied with professional conduct rules, even if they did not know she had used AI, the judge said.

Boyd failed to verify the AI-generated material, the judge said. Boyd said in an August declaration that she used OpenAI’s ChatGPT to draft and edit portions of the briefs, saying she failed to follow her own AI protocols while dealing with personal issues.

In a statement on Monday, Carey said the hallucinated citations were added by outside co-counsel “without adherence to Hagens Berman’s AI protocols,” and that no one at the firm used AI in preparing the briefs. He said the firm’s management committee, of which he is a member, is assessing how to strengthen its processes and that the firm is “fully committed to accuracy and candor in our filings.”

A Hagens Berman spokesperson did not immediately comment. Boyd did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

Hagens Berman represents OnlyFans users who claim its parent company works with agencies to operate a scheme in which subscribers unknowingly talk with professional “chatters” that impersonate creators – people who post content on the platform – to convince users to spend more money. The judge on Friday separately granted OnlyFans parent company Fenix International Ltd and the agencies’ motions to dismiss the case, while giving the plaintiffs an opportunity to amend the complaint.

An attorney for Fenix at law firm Skadden Arps did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

The judge in Friday’s sanctions order also denied Hagens Berman’s request to withdraw and fix the AI-assisted filings, pointing to arguments from some of the defendants that they already spent time and resources responding to the AI misuse.

Correcting the briefs “would not remediate, but rather exacerbate, the harm on defendants in this case,” the judge said. He also noted that there were errors in the corrected filings that the lawyers had asked to file.