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Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Yahoo
Federal judge mulls sanctions for attorneys who used AI in court filing
The front of Hugo L Black Courthouse in Birmingham, Alabama on August 15, 2023. A U.S. District Judge is considering sanctions against attorneys representing the state for using artificial intelligence to draft a legal filing that either misstated legal authorities or cited cases that do not exist. (Jemma Stephenson/Alabama Reflector) BIRMINGHAM — A federal judge said Wednesday she would consider sanctions on attorneys who filed a motion that used artificial intelligence and cited legal authorities that do not exist. U.S. District Court Judge Anna M. Manasco told attorneys representing the state in the lawsuit — claiming corrections officers failed to protect an inmate — that lawyers continue to use artificial intelligence even after other courts have imposed corrective measures throughout the country. 'Generally, this has occurred in other cases where the courts have imposed sanctions and standing orders,' Manasco said during the hearing. 'This incident is proof-positive that those sanctions were insufficient. That causes me to consider a fuller range of sanctions.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Attorneys Matthew Reeves, the attorney who used AI; Bill Lunsford, the attorney overseeing the case, and litigants from Montgomery-based Butler Snow, the firm where Reeves and Lunsford are employed, expressed remorse and publicly apologized to both the plaintiffs and the court regarding the incident. 'I had limited use of artificial intelligence products such as Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel and ChatGTP,' Reeves said to Manasco during the hearing Wednesday. 'I first used it related to dietary matters. That is how I started to use it.' Reeves then said he began querying artificial intelligence to research colleges for his son before applying the technology professionally for research into policies and practices related to different issues. It then culminated in using it to obtain citations for the case. He said he was aware that using artificial intelligence to obtain citations did not comply with the firm's policies and that he did not verify the citations during the two instances that he relied on AI for the citations. Reeves, who according to his LinkedIn profile has been a partner with Butler Snow since April 2023, said Manasco is within her discretion to impose sanctions. 'My only request, since I am the only one responsible, is not to punish my colleagues,' he said. The incident involves five citations that Manasco characterized as 'hallucinated' across two documents filed with the court. The court was made aware of the fabricated citations after the attorneys for Frankie Johnson, the plaintiff in the case, filed a document to oppose the state's request to have their client available to give testimony on a certain date. 'As discussed below, Defendant has cited no legitimate authority to support his proposition that ordering a deposition before an anticipated document production is appropriate,' the filing said. 'Instead, Defendant appears to have wholly invented case citations in his Motion for Leave, possibly through the use of generative artificial intelligence.' Lunsford and Butler Snow have been awarded millions of dollars to represent the Alabama Department of Corrections in cases alleging abuse within Alabama's prison facilities. In December 2024, the Contract Review Committee approved contracts totaling $4.8 million to Lunsford and Butler Snow. The committee had previously approved $14.9 million in July 2023 and another $7.68 million in June of that same year. Blood Money: Alabama Department of Corrections pays to settle lawsuits alleging excessive force Manasco listed several possible consequences, from continuing education seminars and fines to referrals to the Alabama State Bar or even temporary suspensions. Johnson, currently incarcerated at William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer, said in the lawsuit that he was attacked by as many as 13 people and stabbed at least nine times in the prison in December 2019. Johnson said that despite the attack, staff at the prison failed to properly protect him afterward. 'As a consequence of their individual and collective failure, on or about March 5, 2020, while restrained in shackles and handcuffs during a therapy session, Mr. Johnson was stabbed repeatedly by another prisoner at Donaldson,' the lawsuit states. The attorneys for ADOC filed a motion to compel Johnson to testify the week of June 3. Johnson's attorneys said that they would not have enough time to prepare their client to give testimony. In response, Reeves and Lunsford filed another document stating that other courts have required people who are incarcerated to give their testimony during a deposition when they are given the appropriate notice, which they argue was done in this case. 'Defendant bolstered this assertion with a lengthy string citation of legal authority and parentheticals that appeared to support Defendant's proposition,' Johnson's attorneys said. 'But the entire string citation appears to have been made up out of whole cloth.' Johnson's attorneys noted four of the citations in the ADOC filing. One included an appropriate case but was not relevant to the issue that Reeves and Lunsford claimed in the document they filed. A second case, Kelley v. City of Birmingham, was said to be decided in the U.S. Northern District of Alabama in 2021, when it was actually a Alabama state case from 1939. Two other citations referred to cases that did not exist. Attorneys for Johnson began to review other documents that Lunsford and Reeves filed with the court in the case. They then found another citation that was fabricated in a different document in which 'Plaintiff's counsel found a string of similarly named opinions, none of them stood for the proposition Defendant represented, and Plaintiff's counsel could not identify any case using the citation Defendant provided,' Johnson's attorneys said in their filing. The plaintiffs in the case agreed to allow Reeves to refile the document to have Johnson testify by the original date that he and Lunsford requested, but this time with the appropriate citations. Manasco will allow the leadership at the Butler Snow law firm another 10 days to review its policies and practices pertaining to the use of artificial intelligence before considering the matter further. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Powys County Times
08-05-2025
- General
- Powys County Times
Stray tortoise 'chasing cats' alarm residents in Powys
A straying tortoise has been causing trouble for cats in a Powys village. An appeal has been issued by a veterinary practice to help track down the owner of the reptile which is reportedly "chasing cats" in Llansantffraid. The four-legged shelled creatures, which are more widely known for moving at a glacial pace, can range from the four-inch padlopers to one-metre giant tortoises. Tortoises are renowned for their long life, with some living well over 100 years, but not every tortoise will live to that grand old age though with some species only living up to 20 years in captivity. The average age across all species is 50 years. On Wednesday evening (May 7), Montgomery-based Trefaldwyn Vets issued an appeal on their social media page: "We have been asked to help find the owner of a straying tortoise in Llansantffraid who is chasing cats!? "Please contact the surgery if you have any information."
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Yahoo
Wife of 72-year-old veteran beaten to death by a cellmate in Alabama jail sues corrections officers
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The wife of a 72-year-old veteran who was beaten to death by a cellmate in an Alabama jail filed a civil rights lawsuit Wednesday against three deputies working at the jail, alleging that the officers ignored his pleas for help. Attorneys for the wife of John Reed say the deputies working at the Macon County jail that morning in October were made aware of the assault but ignored his cries and need for medical attention. Reed required a wheelchair and 24-hour oxygen for a lung disease. The three deputies named as defendants entered the holding cell where Reed was injured and neglected to separate him from the cellmate during the attack, according to the lawsuit. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. 'This is one of the worst cases of prison neglect that I've seen,' said civil rights attorney Bakari Sellers, who is representing Reed's wife, Regene Brantley-Reed. Court records did not list attorneys representing the three deputies on Wednesday. The Macon County sheriff did not respond to a phone call seeking comment. Reed's cellmate, Daniel Pollard, 24, has been charged with murder in Reed's death. His attorney, Jennifer Tompkins, said he has severe mental health issues. 'In 17 years of criminal law, this is probably one of the worst cases I've ever had in the sense of mental health,' Tompkins said. Pollard pleaded guilty to attempted murder and burglary in 2022 and was sentenced to a 20-year split sentence, with five to be served in jail or prison, according to his arrest records. He was released on probation in May 2024, according to a spokesperson from the Alabama Department of Corrections. For Brantley-Reed's Montgomery-based attorney Chuck James, questions remain about why Reed, who had been arrested for alleged drunken driving, was being held with Pollard in the first place. 'These deputies had multiple opportunities to do the right thing and, if they had, John Reed would be alive today,' James said. The Macon County sheriff's department did not respond to requests for comment about why Pollard, who was arrested for a misdemeanor, was being held in the county jail. Tompkins said the problem goes beyond the Macon County jail. 'The mental health system in Alabama is so broken that we're not getting the mental health treatment quick enough to prevent crime,' Tompkins said. 'We're creating a bad environment for not only other inmates but for the jailers too.' Brantley-Reed said she was waiting outside the jail with less than $300 to bail her husband out while the beating was happening. She didn't know anything was wrong until she saw first responders arrive at the jail, she said. She was told by an administrator her husband was dead shortly after. Reed's beating was so severe that his wife had to bring photographs of him to the funeral director so that he could reconstruct his face for the funeral. Brantley-Reed said there wasn't a day in their 16-year relationship when her husband didn't make her laugh. Now, his 95-year-old mother has dementia and cries every day when she asks for her son — only to be reminded that he is dead. 'It was just so unexpected and so crazy how it happened that sometimes I can't even get a grip on it,' Brantley-Reed said. ___ Riddle is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Associated Press
29-01-2025
- Associated Press
Wife of 72-year-old veteran beaten to death by a cellmate in Alabama jail sues corrections officers
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The wife of a 72-year-old veteran who was beaten to death by a cellmate in an Alabama jail filed a civil rights lawsuit Wednesday against three deputies working at the jail, alleging that the officers ignored his pleas for help. Attorneys for the wife of John Reed say the deputies working at the Macon County jail that morning in October were made aware of the assault but ignored his cries and need for medical attention. Reed required a wheelchair and 24-hour oxygen for a lung disease. The three deputies named as defendants entered the holding cell where Reed was injured and neglected to separate him from the cellmate during the attack, according to the lawsuit. 'This is one of the worst cases of prison neglect that I've seen,' said civil rights attorney Bakari Sellers, who is representing Reed's wife, Regene Brantley-Reed. Court records did not list attorneys representing the three deputies on Wednesday. The Macon County sheriff did not respond to a phone call seeking comment. Reed's cellmate, Daniel Pollard, 24, has been charged with murder in Reed's death. His attorney, Jennifer Tompkins, said he has severe mental health issues. 'In 17 years of criminal law, this is probably one of the worst cases I've ever had in the sense of mental health,' Tompkins said. Pollard pleaded guilty to attempted murder and burglary in 2022 and was sentenced to a 20-year split sentence, with five to be served in jail or prison, according to his arrest records. He was released on probation in May 2024, according to a spokesperson from the Alabama Department of Corrections. For Brantley-Reed's Montgomery-based attorney Chuck James, questions remain about why Reed, who had been arrested for alleged drunken driving, was being held with Pollard in the first place. 'These deputies had multiple opportunities to do the right thing and, if they had, John Reed would be alive today,' James said. The Macon County sheriff's department did not respond to requests for comment about why Pollard, who was arrested for a misdemeanor, was being held in the county jail. Tompkins said the problem goes beyond the Macon County jail. 'The mental health system in Alabama is so broken that we're not getting the mental health treatment quick enough to prevent crime,' Tompkins said. 'We're creating a bad environment for not only other inmates but for the jailers too.' Brantley-Reed said she was waiting outside the jail with less than $300 to bail her husband out while the beating was happening. She didn't know anything was wrong until she saw first responders arrive at the jail, she said. She was told by an administrator her husband was dead shortly after. Reed's beating was so severe that his wife had to bring photographs of him to the funeral director so that he could reconstruct his face for the funeral. Brantley-Reed said there wasn't a day in their 16-year relationship when her husband didn't make her laugh. Now, his 95-year-old mother has dementia and cries every day when she asks for her son — only to be reminded that he is dead. 'It was just so unexpected and so crazy how it happened that sometimes I can't even get a grip on it,' Brantley-Reed said.
