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A Pro Se Litigant Buried Prompt Injections in Court Papers, Gambling the Judge Would Let AI Do the Reading
A pro se litigant attempted to use prompt injection by hiding commands in court filings, intending for an AI to read them. However, the court had no AI in use, and a human staff member discovered the hidden text. The judge deemed this a serious litigation abuse, revoking the litigant's electronic filing access and requiring all future submissions to be on paper. This marks the first documented prompt injection attack aimed at a U.S. court and the first sanction for such an attempt.
Both lawyers in case use hallucinating AI, causing judge to throw up hands, bar them for 2 years, fine everybody, and…
A court case involving a dispute between Tom Withers and the city of Aberdeen saw both legal teams sanctioned for using AI-generated citations that did not exist. The judge fined the attorneys and barred two of them from practicing in the district for two years due to their reliance on unverified AI research and drafting tools.