State Farm attorney admits to AI hallucinations in California court filings
An attorney representing State Farm in a California case has apologized after seven AI hallucinations were found in court filings.
The AI hallucinations were discovered by attorneys representing the plaintiff, Fa’alagilagi Meni-Siliga, according to reporting by CalMatters.
Meni-Siliga filed a lawsuit in 2024 alleging that her home was damaged in a 2020 fire and due to State Farm delays, repair work was never completed. Ultimately, she and her husband declared bankruptcy and lost their home to foreclosure, CalMatters reports.
State Farm has argued that negligence by Meni-Siliga, her contractor, and public adjuster led to the injuries and damage she suffered.
According to CalMatters, Meni-Siliga’s attorneys found cases, quotes, and holdings that do not exist in court filings by State Farm’s attorneys.
A court document uploaded by AI Vortex shows that Jacquelen A. Robinson, a contracted attorney for State Farm, apologized for the AI hallucinations in an August motion.
Robinson said she learned about errors in the case filings during an Aug. 7 hearing from Meni-Siliga’s attorneys. Upon investigation, she found seven case citations across eight motions in limine that do not exist.
“As an officer of the Court with great respect for the Court and counsel and committed to the integrity of my legal, factual, and ethical representations to and interactions with the same, I am deeply apologetic for the above-mentioned submissions and my serious lapse in professional judgment,” Robinson writes. “As such, I accept responsibility for those inexcusable errors, and offer no excuse, only an apology.”
She explains that she used an AI program called Irys to assist with preparation of motions for the case.
“However, I regrettably did not check some of the cites I chose to include in the filed pleadings, and I believed, incorrectly, that the program was tied to and vetted through our firm’s subscription to the Westlaw legal research tool and performed an internal cite check,” Robinson says.
A recent Thomson Reuters survey finds that 48% of legal professionals are concerned about AI’s impact on independent judgement development.
Another 53% said they’ve already seen a return on investment from AI.
Eight percent of respondents believe AI will have a high or transformational impact on their work within the next five years.
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