In a Thursday order, U.S. District Judge Fred W. Slaughter set a hearing for Sept. 25 to determine whether the court should issue sanctions "for the misuse of artificial intelligence" in briefs filed by the plaintiffs' attorneys.
OnlyFans parent Fenix International Ltd. told the court Wednesday that it should be granted permission to dismiss claims, arguing that counsel for the five anonymous plaintiffs gave up their right to fight the dismissal by including the bogus AI-generated citations in their objection.
Counsel for the OnlyFans users admitted last month that a contract attorney working on the case used ChatGPT to draft some briefs, and that it resulted in mistakes. They have sought permission to fix earlier filings found to have errors that they say came from ChatGPT. Fenix's opposition Wednesday urged the court not to give the users' counsel another try.
"Read together, plaintiffs' papers give an impression of a group of attorneys trying to manage bad litigation optics, rather than taking responsibility for their actions and omissions," Fenix's motion said.
Robert Carey of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, counsel for the users, told Law360 last month the briefs were "overall the product of extensive and careful research and writing" but said co-counsel on the case ran the briefs through generative AI, which added quotation marks and inaccurate statements and, in one instance, a nonexistent case.
Fenix has alleged that the users filed briefs that included 11 made-up citations among 18 cases they cited in their argument against ending the U.S. case and allowing claims to commence overseas.
Counsel for Fenix declined to comment. Counsel for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The OnlyFans users are represented by Christopher Pitoun, Robert B. Carey, Michella A. Kras and Leonard W. Aragon of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, Andrea R. Gold, Annick M. Persinger and Shana H. Khader of Tycko & Zavareei LLP, Andrew W. Knox and Keith T. Vernon of Timoney Knox LLP and Andrew C. Stone and Seth T. Goertz of Dorsey & Whitney LLP.
Fenix is represented by Jason D. Russell, Hillary A. Hamilton, Or-el Vaknin, Peter B. Morrison and Raza Rasheed of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.
The case is N.Z. et al. v. Fenix International Ltd. et al., case number 8:24-cv-01655, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
--Additional reporting by Adrian Cruz. Editing by Brian Baresch.
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