Lawyer apologizes for AI-generated fake quotes in layoffs case

Attorney Jason Greaves apologized after AI-generated ‘phantom quotations’ produced by Anthropic’s Claude Console appeared in a court filing in litigation over Trump-era federal layoffs. The filing arose from a subpoena dispute tied to lawsuits challenging mass federal layoffs and proposed changes to civil service protections.

In a declaration filed on Friday, Greaves wrote that he used Claude Console to create an initial draft of a motion in the subpoena dispute and turned to the enterprise AI tool because of tight time constraints. He described the platform as an enterprise, data-isolated AI system.

Greaves wrote that on the morning of May 6 he sent the draft to an associate with explicit oral instructions that the draft had come from AI and that the citations needed careful checking. The associate later informed him she had reviewed and verified each citation and noted that two cases cited were incorrect but that she had identified a different case to cite.

As the supervising partner and the signer of the pleading, Greaves accepted responsibility for the errors and apologized to the court and to opposing counsel. He wrote, ‘I take full responsibility for that and apologize fully to the court and to all counsel in this case, for the phantom quotations that appeared in the motion.’

He also acknowledged that using the AI ‘was a mistake’ and described the inclusion of fabricated quotations as inexcusable.

The disputed document is part of litigation involving staffing changes at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and includes testimony linked to former Homeland Security official Joseph Guy. The motion was submitted in federal court as part of broader challenges to the layoffs and proposed civil service changes.

Anthropic launched Claude Console in March 2023 as an enterprise platform for its Claude AI models, which businesses and professionals use for drafting, summarizing, coding and research.

In April, a separate federal matter resulted in sanctions against attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell after they submitted fake legal citations generated by artificial intelligence. Courts and litigants have raised concerns about automated drafting tools producing inaccurate material when outputs are not fully verified by human lawyers.

Greaves’ declaration and apology say that responsibility for accurate citations rests with attorneys even when AI tools are used to speed drafting.