United States v. Glennie Antonio McGee

What sanction did the court impose?

Public reprimand with publication requirement (Johnson must file the order in every active case where he appears as counsel and in every new case for twelve months, and provide it to every jurisdiction in which he is licensed within two business days); referral to the Alabama State Bar and to the chief judges of the Northern and Middle Districts of Alabama; referral to the Southern District of Alabama's advisory panel for consideration of removal from the CJA panel; $5,000 fine payable to the CJA fund; and order directing publication of the opinion in the Federal Supplement.

Why does United States v. Glennie Antonio McGee matter for law firms using AI?

McGee is one of a small but growing set of sanctions orders involving a legal-vertical AI tool rather than a general-purpose chatbot. Johnson disclaimed using ChatGPT and said he believed Ghostwriter Legal was a reliable research program; the court found that distinction immaterial, holding that an attorney aware of the general AI hallucination problem cannot offload verification to any tool regardless of its legal-vertical branding. The case also illustrates a downstream cost rarely captured in the citation itself: McGee told the court he had lost confidence in his counsel, new CJA counsel had to be appointed, and trial in two complex federal prosecutions slipped roughly five and six months.