A Minnesota lawyer has been given a 30-day suspension after it came to light that he cited nonexistent cases due to an artificial intelligence error while attempting to win a civil case.
Faisal S. Ahmed cited Anderson v. City of Biwabik in a 2025 legal memorandum that he filed in Hennepin County Court and cited Doherty v. Alma E. Clark Memorial House in an effort to get Judge Lois Conroy to rule in his client’s favor in a civil case. The problem was that both of those cases were completely made up by an AI tool that Ahmed had used in drafting the brief. In addition to the fake citations, Ahmed also included a false quotation from a real case, as well as two other citation errors.
“AI, like the advent of word processors and the Internet, can be a powerful tool to aid attorneys in their legal work,” Conroy wrote in a January order. “But these technological improvements should not be accepted with blind, unyielding faith or used as a substitute for legal analysis and interpretation. The problem has become so common that a website has been set up to catalog the over 800 documented instances of litigants (and now judges) using AI to cite fake law and hallucinate quotes.”
Referred To Professional Responsibility Board
Judge Conroy did not rule in favor of Ahmed’s client in the civil matter, and she later fined him $5,000 and referred him to the Minnesota Lawyer’s Professional Responsibility Board.
In the petition for disciplinary action, Ahmed agreed to a 30-day suspension of his law license and agreed to pay an additional $900 in related costs. The petition stated that the poorly created filings caused an unnecessary delay and burdened the opposing counsel and the court, as both had to take extra time to research the non-existent cases and discover the AI hallucinations.
AI can certainly help lawyers, doctors and other professionals get answers and conduct research more quickly, but it’s clear that the answers these programs provide should not be taken with blind faith. Artificial intelligence can and does get things wrong all the time, and this can be incredibly harmful when you’re using it in a space like law or medicine. Lawyers should double check any documents created or developed in part by AI for mistakes, omissions or hallucinations, and don’t assume that information is correct just because Claude or ChatGPT said it was so.
If you want a lawyer who will collect evidence and develop a strong defense the old fashioned way, reach out to Avery and the team at Appelman Law Firm. Let us use our industry expertise to build a foolproof defense and ensure you get the outcome you seek. For more information, connect with Appelman Law Firm today at (952) 224-2277.
