DON’T USE GENAI!: TCPA Defense Lawyer Sanctioned for GenAI Use and This Drives Me Nuts

Add a comment

Law Conference of Champions V Ticket Prices as I type: $369.00

My top performing LinkedIn post from the last month was a meme I created showing a law firm owner turning into a clown as they try to deploy #LegalTech GenAI solutions.

#LegalTech #GenAi tools do not work.

They will, in all likelihood, never work.

Because the practice of law is the practice of sound judgment. That is ultimately what clients pay for.

And judgment is something that will always evade GenAI models because it flows from a combination of wisdom and heart. 

But set aside the metaphysics for a moment– GenAI tools just plain suck.

They can’t even differentiate between real cases and fake cases they just made up. They can’t find which case is more on point than another. They can’t determine which arguments should be made and why.

They can’t reason. They can’t think.

And neither can the lawyers who use these tools, apparently.

Oh sure #LegalTech and #GenaAi can produce a lot of really bad content much faster than good lawyers can produce good content– or as I say, Ai can generate dog crap a lot faster than I can make a diamond– but clients are paying me to produce sparkling gems of wisdom to display in court. Not filth that stinks up the place and needs to be shoveled up after.

Well the Court did some shoveling recently in Whitfield v. Prime Agency, Case 2:26-cv-00327-AMP, Doc. 33 (E.D.PA.  Oct. 20, 2026)–issuing a sanctions order against a defense lawyer that used GenAi in a TCPA suit and it is as embarrassing as it sounds.

I already gave the background on this in a previous article and I won’t repeat myself but here is the final sanctions ruling:

Accordingly, taking account of the totality of the circumstances, including
mitigating factors and the severity and recurrence of the Fed. R. Civ. P. 11(b)(2) violations in this
case, the Court ORDERS sanctions as follows:

a. The court imposes a monetary sanction of $1,000 on Mark T. Sophocles, Esq,
payable to the Clerk of Court or a charity of his choosing within fourteen (14) days of this Order.
Mr. Sophocles shall file a certification of payment with the Court via ECF when completed.

b. In all filings made by Mark T. Sophocles, Esq to the Court on this matter going
forward, Mr. Sophocles will certify that: (1) he personally reviewed the filing; (2) confirmed all
citations are accurate; and (3) all facts asserted have a good faith basis in fact.

c. This Court will not tolerate additional violations of Fed. R. Civ. P. 11. Any further
violations by Mark T. Sophocles, Esq, will result in disqualification from this matter.

d. Mark T. Sophocles, Esq shall provide a copy of the Order to Show Cause (ECF No. 25) and this Order to his client, Defendant Prime Agency, LLC, and certify that he has done so on or before Friday, October 23, 2026.

e. The Court will transmit a copy of this Order to the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, so that the Disciplinary Board may evaluate whether further oversight of Mr. Sophocles’ practice is necessary.

Eesh.

Still it could have been a lot worse.

Some courts have issued sanctions as high as $80,000.00 on lawyers for using GenAi and one article found nearly $150k in sanctions issued in the first quarter of 2026 alone– and we are surely over half a million by now.

Indeed per the Legal AI Governance tracker there have been nearly 400 orders sanctioning lawyers for using GenAi.

400!

And each time a new sanctions order comes out lawyers are informed anew of the dangers of using these criminal (IMO) products.

Still don’t understand how it isn’t FRAUD to agree to represent your client and then turn your job over to a software program. Folks should be disbarred-maybe jailed- for using it. But for now they’ll just get sanctioned as they’re discovered.

Troutman Amin, LLP is proud to have been the FIRST law firm in the nation to ban GenAi– historic decision really– and many other SMART law firms are following its lead.

You will want to follow our lead by attending Law Conference of Champions V. We will probably debate GenAI a bit, but we will definitely talk TCPA, CIPA, ECPA, CEMA, data privacy and AI regulations– and a bunch more– over two solid days with 15+ hours of CLE and a ton of great networking.

Be there or miss out!

Chat soon.

Discover more from TCPAWorld

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Categories:

Published by Eric "Czar" Troutman

The Czar of TCPAWorld Eric Troutman is one of the country’s prominent class action defense lawyers and is nationally recognized in Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) litigation and compliance. He has served as lead defense counsel in more than 70 national TCPA class actions and has litigated nearly a thousand individual TCPA cases in his role as national strategic litigation counsel for major banks and finance companies. He also helps industry participants build TCPA-compliant processes, policies, and systems. Eric has built a national litigation practice based upon deep experience, rigorous analysis and extraordinary responsiveness. Eric and his team feel equally at home litigating multibillion dollar telecommunications class actions in federal court as they do developing and executing national litigation strategies for institutions facing an onslaught of individual TCPA matters. They thrive in each of these roles – delivering consistently excellent results – while never losing sight of the client experience. While many firms now tout TCPA expertise, Eric has been there from the beginning. He built one of the country’s first TCPA-only defense teams and began serving as national TCPA counsel for his clients nearly a decade ago. This perspective allows him to swiftly develop the right litigation strategies for dealing with recurring problems, without wasting time on tactics that are bound to fail. Eric’s rich historical perspective and encyclopedic knowledge of the TCPA landscape also make him an invaluable resource to institutional compliance teams struggling to comply with the shifting regulatory landscape. No task is too small – or too big. Indeed, Eric and his team have helped build TCPA-compliant systems and processes for some of the largest and most complex corporate entities in the country. He commonly works with in-house compliance counsel to build and implement enterprise and business-line specific TCPA solutions, performs TCPA audits and drafts and reviews proposed TCPA policies and procedures. He and his team also have the technical expertise necessary to assist call centers seeking to develop TCPA-resistant call path architecture or to modify existing telephony and software integration to better insulate from potential TCPA exposure. Eric has built a reputation for thought leadership. An avid blogger and speaker, he has been at the forefront of the industry’s effort to push for clarity and a return to sanity for the TCPA for years. He was selected to advocate for the financial services industry on important TCPA issues before the Federal Communications Commission and co-authored the nation’s only comprehensive practice guide on TCPA defense. In his spare time, Eric leads defense teams representing banks and other financial services companies in consumer finance litigation matters. He has experience representing clients in UCC, TILA, RESPA FCRA, CCRA, CLRA, FDCPA, RFDCPA and FCCPA claims, as well as in fraud and bank operations issues.

Leave a Reply