Illinois Appellate Court Sanctions Attorney Mason Cole $15,000 for AI-Generated False Citations

The Illinois Appellate Court, hearing Scott v. Ill. Hum. Rts.

Comm'n, chastised attorney Mason Cole for repeatedly submitting briefs that misquoted statutes, cited nonexistent cases, and misapplied existing case law. Cole claimed reliance on a premium corporate ChatGPT subscription and cross-checking with Lexis-Nexis, yet several references—such as a fabricated “Harris” case and outdated statutory subsections—were wholly inaccurate. After a June 30 order demanding a corrective response, Cole admitted the citations were false, though his reply still contained errors, including a non-existent subsection and misquoted language. The court fined him $15,000, calculating $1,500 for each of the ten false citations, and sent the opinion to the Illinois Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission, emphasizing that AI-generated hallucinations do not excuse attorney responsibility.