The Blame Game Begins
Rather than simply acknowledge the error, lead counsel Robert Carey of Hagens Berman chose to throw his colleague under the legal bus in spectacular fashion. In a statement that’s now part of the public record, Carey explained that a “Yale Law School graduate and trusted colleague who has provided excellent work for over a decade” was responsible for the AI-enhanced brief.
But wait, there’s more. Carey didn’t stop at professional credentials—he dove headfirst into personal family tragedy. The unnamed attorney was apparently dealing with her father’s entry into hospice care while he battled Parkinson’s disease. “Under that strain, she turned to an AI tool to help polish her drafts, not realizing that in doing so, the tool had introduced or altered citations and text,” Carey explained.
Here’s where Carey’s explanation raises eyebrows among legal ethics experts: when lawyers seek to correct their own mistakes in court, they typically need only claim “mistake, error, or inadvertence.” There’s no requirement—or professional wisdom—in airing personal family crises in public court filings. The fact that Carey felt compelled to do so suggests just how desperate he was to distance himself from this professional embarrassment.
