Mealey's Artificial Intelligence : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Artificial Intelligence

April 01, 2026
Employment Lawyers, Firms On Hook For Attorney Fees After Fake Citations, Quotes

PHOENIX — Two attorneys and their law firms will be jointly liable for reasonable attorney fees incurred by Suns Legacy Partners LLC after the company sought sanctions for the plaintiffs’ inclusion of at least 16 fake citations and quotes in a woman’s employment case, a federal judge in Arizona said March 31 in partially denying a motion to dismiss.
April 01, 2026
Attorney Escapes With Admonishment After 7th Circuit Fake Citations

CHICAGO — A Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel admonished an attorney in an immigration case for filing a brief with the “tell-tale signs of AI hallucinations” but did not impose any other sanction.
March 31, 2026
FTC, AirAI Entities Reach Agreement Over Misrepresentation Claims

PHOENIX — The Federal Trade Commission announced that it has reached a settlement in a federal court in Arizona with Air AI Technologies Inc. under which the company and related entities would cease deceptive claims about potential business growth and earnings and stop making promises about refunds associated with its artificial intelligence customer service app.
March 31, 2026
Fake Citations Lead To $15,500 Sanction, $94,700 In Costs And Fees

MEDFORD, Ore. — A federal magistrate judge in Oregon ordered a local attorney to pay 15% of $94,704.38 in costs and attorney fees after finding that his failure to meaningfully participate in a family dispute over a winery allowed an attorney admitted pro hac vice to file a brief with more than 20 fake citations and quotes. In a previous sanctions ruling, the court dismissed the case and hit the pro hac vice attorney with a $15,500 penalty.
March 31, 2026
Judge Grants Injunction In Anthropic’s Challenge To Supply Chain Designation

SAN FRANCISCO — The government’s designation of Anthropic PBC’s Claude artificial intelligence as a supply chain risk appears more likely to have been an attempt at punishing the company for speech rather than a legitimate contract decision, a federal judge in California said in granting preliminary injunctive relief.
March 27, 2026
Man Pleads Guilty In $10M AI Music Service Theft Scheme Case

NEW YORK — The Department of Justice announced that during an arraignment hearing, a man pleaded guilty and agreed to forfeit in excess of $8 million after the United States charged him with operating a scheme through which bots streamed thousands of artificial intelligence-created songs.
March 26, 2026
Judge Amends Protective Order On Use Of AI Tools In Chemical Injury Suits

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A U.S. magistrate judge in Kansas on March 25 amended a protective order governing the use of AI tools in chemical injury litigation, stating that any party that wishes to use an AI tool in connection with discovery materials must, prior to using the tool, provide written notice of its intent to use the tool because submission of discovery materials to an open AI tool may violate U.S. data privacy laws as well as strict disclosure rules under the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
March 24, 2026
Nebraska High Court Sanctions Lawyer; Explanation For Errors ‘Lacks Credibility’

OMAHA, Neb. — The Nebraska Supreme Court struck an appellate brief in a marital separation case, dismissed an appeal and referred an attorney for discipline after finding at least 20 instances of fictitious or inaccurate citations and concluding that counsel’s explanations for the errors “lack credibility.”
March 23, 2026
Judge Dismisses Publishers’ AI Antitrust Tying Claims Against Google

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two news publishers are not in the general search services marketplace and have not established that general Google LLC search and its artificial intelligence products AI Overviews or Gemini chatbot are separate products for antitrust tying purposes, a federal judge in the District of Columbia said March 20 in dismissing antitrust claims.
March 20, 2026
Amici Largely Favor Anthropic As Parties Debate Injunction In Supply Chain Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — Seven amicus curiae briefs were filed in support of Anthropic PBC’s challenge to being labeled a “supply chain risk” by the U.S. government, while the government opposed injunctive relief, saying the artificial intelligence company’s decision not to accept contract terms does not implicate free speech rights and it is unlikely to succeed.
March 19, 2026
2nd Circuit Hears Media Companies’ Attempt To Revive AI Copyright Suit

NEW YORK — Whether media companies’ allegation that OpenAI entities downloaded content and removed copyright management information from works used to train artificial intelligence suffices as an injury or whether copyright law requires something more came before the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals during oral arguments on March 18.
March 19, 2026
Vice Chancellor Reinstalls Subnautica Studio CEO After ChatGPT Termination Plan

WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware vice chancellor reinstated the CEO of the game studio behind “Subnautica,” unwinding a termination the parent company undertook after consulting with ChatGPT in an effort to avoid an up to $250 million payout to employees it believed would have been triggered by the release of a sequel to the popular title.
March 18, 2026
Minors Sue XAI Over Grok’s Alleged Creation Of Illegal Nude Images

SAN FRANCISCO — Three minors filed a putative class action lawsuit in California federal court against x.AI Corp. and x.AI LLC (collectively, xAI) over the alleged creation by its generative AI tool Grok of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) using their images seeking injunctive relief and damages against xAI for violation of CSAM laws as well as California’s unfair competition law (UCL), saying “[t]heir lives have been shattered” by the images being spread online.
March 16, 2026
6th Circuit Sanctions Attorneys $30,000 For AI Errors In COVID-Protest Appeal

CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 13 imposed $30,000 in sanctions for “rampant misconduct,” including fake citations and representations of law, while affirming lower court sanctions and other rulings in consolidated appeals stemming from a defamation and free speech dispute that started with a protest at a fireworks show held under COVID-19 restrictions.
March 13, 2026
Magistrate Rules On Discovery Motion In Suit Alleging Insurer Illegally Employs AI

MINNEAPOLIS — A federal magistrate judge in Minnesota granted in part and denied in part plaintiffs’ motion to compel an insurer to respond to discovery and produce certain documents in their class complaint alleging that it illegally uses artificial intelligence (AI) to deny elderly insureds medically necessary care based on a model it knows “has a 90% error rate,” ordering the insurer to produce all required documents within 21 days.
March 12, 2026
California Court Coordinates 10 Product Liability Actions Involving ChatGPT

SAN FRANCISCO — The Judicial Council of California agreed to coordinated proceedings of an initial batch of 10 actions against ChatGPT alleging product liability and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL).
March 12, 2026
Judge Will Consider MosaicML Dismissal Motion On The Briefs

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California vacated a scheduled hearing on a motion to dismiss direct copyright infringement claims against MosaicML Inc. and Databricks Inc. and will decide the motion on the briefs in litigation over the alleged use of copyrighted works to train artificial intelligence models (In re Mosaic LLM Litigation, No. 24-1451, N.D. Calif.).
March 11, 2026
OpenAI Says State Action Should Take Lead In ChatGPT Murder-Suicide Case

SAN FRANCISCO — A woman’s California unfair competition law (UCL) action alleging that interactions with ChatGPT led to a murder-suicide threatens to waste court resources and produce piecemeal litigation duplicative of a recently consolidated state court action, OpenAI entities say in a March 10 motion urging the federal court to dismiss the case or stay it while the state court suit proceeds.
March 11, 2026
Some AI Hiring Discrimination Claims Survive Dismissal Attempt

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California partially denied Workday Inc.’s motion to dismiss, allowing disparate impact claims over its artificial intelligence job-application screening tool to proceed while granting leave to amend certain California state law and disability claims. Previously, a magistrate judge granted an administrative motion to withdraw an exhibit from a contested joint discovery letter that defendant Workday claims the plaintiffs filed without consent and that varies drastically from the last draft version it saw. The case involves allegations that Workday’s AI applicant screening program discriminates against minorities and those with disabilities.
March 10, 2026
Anthropic Sues Government Over ‘Supply Chain Risk’ Designation

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Anthropic PBC filed a complaint and a petition for review in federal courts on both coasts challenging the federal government’s identification of it as a “supply chain risk” and order directing agencies to immediately stop using its Claude artificial intelligence, saying the actions were retaliations for publicly expressing concerns about the scope and safety of the government’s use of its chatbot. The petition for review was filed March 9 in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
March 10, 2026
Judge Enjoins Perplexity AI From Accessing Protected Areas Of Amazon.com

SAN FRANCISCO — Perplexity AI Inc.’s artificial intelligence agents are barred from accessing or providing access to protected areas of Amazon.com Services LLC’s store after a federal judge in California granted the retailer’s motion for preliminary injunctive relief on March 9.
March 06, 2026
Plaintiffs Seek Discovery Of Microsoft AI Revenue, 88M More AI Conversations

NEW YORK — Revenue and profits Microsoft Corp. acquired as a result of artificial intelligence offerings are relevant and discoverable in a suit over the alleged use of copyrighted works to train the technology, a proposed class told a federal judge in New York. Meanwhile, the plaintiffs and OpenAI entities filed letter briefs over the availability and relevance of 88 million ChatGPT conversations.
March 06, 2026
New York Bill Targets AIs Acting As Lawyers, Licensed Professionals

ALBANY, N.Y. — A measure creating a private right of action and imposing liability for damages arising when an artificial intelligence chatbot impersonates a licensed professional, including lawyers, advanced to a third reading after unanimously passing the New York Senate Internet and Technology Committee.
March 06, 2026
Insurer: OpenAI’s Unlicensed Practice Of Law Aided Woman’s Abuse Of Process

CHICAGO — ChatGPT enabled a woman to file more than 60 motions and other court documents serving no legal purpose in a pair of cases attempting to undo a valid and enforceable settlement agreement, a life insurance company says in a complaint filed in federal court in Illinois alleging OpenAI entities practice law without a license.