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GROVES — A local personal injury attorney who also represents the city of Groves had been sanctioned by a district judge for submitting a court filing with contents created by artificial intelligence that were nonexistent.

Brandon Monk was ordered to pay a $2,000 penalty and attend a course on generative AI in the legal field. He has since paid the fine and attended the course.

Groves City Council was made aware of the issue and will address it during the Jan. 13 meeting in executive session as a personnel item, City Manager Kevin Carruth said. 

Groves Mayor Chris Borne declined to comment as neither he nor council have spoken with Monk on the issue yet. 

The case in question was a wrongful termination lawsuit against Goodyear Tire & Rubber and not associated with Groves. 

According to court documents Monk, acting as counsel for the plaintiff, filed a response in opposition to Goodyear’s Motion for Summary Judgment citing two cases that did not exist and nonexistent quotations.

In a Nov. 15 filing Monk apologized to the court for the unintentional error that originated from an AI legal research tool in which he failed to verify the information. 

The ruling was issued by District Judge Marcia A. Crone.