A federal judge has given a Bergen County Attorney $ 3,000 a fine for the abuse of artificial intelligence and the submission of fake woman, of which he was ultimately generated with the help of AI.
The fine was imposed in a judgment of 18 September by magistrate judge José R. Almonte, who found that lawyer of Fort Lee Sukjin Henry Cho “did not fall and manufactured legal propositions from generative artificial intelligence” in a case application.
This ruling came from a case from 2024 in which Cho represented the plaintiff, OTG New York, Inc.
In May 2025 OTG New York Inc. A motion to consolidate this case with a case that was previously submitted by the suspect, Ottogi America Inc., in California State Court.
Ottogi America Inc. opposed the motion to consolidate, which OTG New York, Inc. has submitted an answer assignment. The court eventually denied the motion to consolidate in June.
However, when revising the submissions of Cho to support consolidation, the court found various discrepancies. According to the ruling, the cited cases “(1) did not exist, (2) the claimant’s statements did not and/or were not relevant to the issue of the issue, or (3) did not contain the assumed authority that claimed the plaintiff.”
In a written statement to the court, Cho admitted that an investigation was being carried out using generative AI tools and concept compensation, as well as searches in the LexisNexis database.
He blamed these actions for time limitations and planning conflicts, and told the court that he has since taken internal measures to ensure that this will no longer happen in the future.
The use of generative AI by lawyers has become a prevailing issue for courts throughout the country, according to Almonte, who wrote: “AI can generate a legal proposition that seems to come from a judicial opinion and is even well quoted under the uniform system of Citation; but there is only real problem.
Almonte mentioned several other authorities that have resulted in fines between $ 1,000 and $ 6,000.
In this case, the court acknowledged the “fast admission and fair disclosure of Cho, apologies to the court and claim that he will immediately implement guarantees against future AI abuse”, so that Almonte imposes a fine on the bottom of the range.
“Accordingly, although the regret of Mr. Cho does not fully apologize, the mitigating factors make the court conclude that a fine of $ 3,000 is sufficient to deter this behavior in the future,” Almonte wrote.
The court ordered Cho to pay the fine, to report the sanctions itself to the disciplinary authority of the state bars and to serve the order on his client within 14 days of the ruling of 18 September.
Cho did not immediately respond to an e -mail request to comment on the ruling.
This article originally appeared on Northjersey.com: Fort Lee NJ lawyer has imposed a fine of $ 3,000 for the use of AI in the court applications
