Three lawyers removed from a prison case over ChatGPT citations

Butler Snow defends Alabama in lawsuits over its prisons. Its lawyers filed two motions in a suit by an inmate who says officials failed to protect him from repeated stabbings. The motions cited five cases that do not exist. A partner had used ChatGPT to find them, and they were filed unchecked. The judge called the citations "completely made up." On July 23, 2025, Judge Anna Manasco disqualified three of the lawyers from the case. She reprimanded them publicly and referred them to the Alabama State Bar. They must share her order with clients, opposing counsel and judges in all their pending cases. An outside firm rechecked over 2,400 citations in 330 past filings and found no other errors.