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Judge dismisses L.A. Film School suit, fines lawyer over ChatGPT brief
Variety reported that U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld dismissed a False Claims Act suit against Los Angeles Film School with prejudice and fined attorney Mark Kleiman $5,000 for filing an AI-generated brief.
- New headline Was: “L.A. Film School Escapes Whistleblower Lawsuit as Judge Punishes Lawyer for AI Use”
- Our desk filed its story
A federal judge has dismissed a whistleblower lawsuit accusing Los Angeles Film School of student-loan fraud and fined the claimants' attorney $5,000 for filing a brief generated by ChatGPT, Variety reported1.
U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld on Friday dismissed the False Claims Act case with prejudice, Variety said, finding that much of the alleged conduct fell outside the six-year statute of limitations1. He also sanctioned attorney Mark Kleiman for submitting an April brief without disclosing that it had been written by AI1.
Two former school executives filed the suit in 2024, alleging the school paid outside vendors to hire its own students and thereby inflate job-placement figures used to keep accreditation and federal student-loan eligibility1. Variety said the school paid $1 million in 2020 to resolve a Department of Education audit into that and other issues, while the executives alleged the school had lied to investigators and hidden the full scope of the conduct1.
Variety said the 76-page brief cited a nonexistent case, Darwich v. Department of Economic Security, and two real cases that did not support the propositions for which they were cited, including one authored by Blumenfeld1. Claimant Dave Phillips later said he had drafted the brief with ChatGPT and given it to Kleiman to review1.
Kleiman submitted the brief with a disclaimer attempting to disavow involvement beyond filing it to meet a deadline, Variety reported, and later told the court that his relationships with Phillips and co-claimant Ben Chaib had broken down1. A week after filing, Kleiman told opposing counsel that his clients had written the brief with AI and that he planned to withdraw1.
Blumenfeld faulted Kleiman for a pattern of neglect and for ethical and court-order violations, Variety reported1. Granting the school's motion to dismiss, the judge found the opposition brief contained almost no citations to legal authority or to the complaint and advanced arguments that appeared untethered to the False Claims Act or Ninth Circuit law1.
The judge also faulted Phillips, a former vice president of job placement, and Chaib, a former vice president of admissions, for not obtaining new counsel earlier, Variety said1. He noted they were not blameless in the AI use but did not sanction them because they are not lawyers1.
The complaint alleged the school paid entities including Ivar Music Group to hire students for two-day jobs and quoted an internal document saying most graduates reported yearly income of $0 to $5,000 in their field of study1. It also named CEO James "Bill" Heavener, who Variety said owns LAFS and Full Sail University in Winter Park, Fla.; Blumenfeld found the claimants offered no details about Full Sail1.
Kleiman did not respond to Variety's request for comment1.
