Tyrone Blackburn warned a federal judge that a $76K penalty over AI errors in the T.D. Jakes case could shut down his entire law practice.
Tyrone Blackburn is staring down a $76K penalty in federal court over bogus citations tied to artificial intelligence mix-ups in a lawsuit involving T.D. Jakes and if the judge signs off, it could wreck his legal practice.
The Brooklyn-based lawyer is begging a Pennsylvania judge not to slap him with a massive attorney’s fee bill after court documents he submitted were loaded with AI-generated nonsense.
The case stems from a messy defamation war between T.D. Jakes and Duane Youngblood, where Blackburn repped Youngblood for free.
Jake’s sued Youngblood after he went on “Larry Reid Live” in 2024, claiming the Bishop groomed and tried to assault him decades ago.
Jakes fired back with a defamation suit, saying the story’s a lie and accusing Youngblood of trying to squeeze him for $6 million in hush money.
Blackburn already admitted he screwed up the citations, blaming new AI features in LexisNexis and Westlaw for the mess. He says he started fixing the errors before he got booted from the case in June.
“I made no excuses then, and I make none now,” he wrote in a court filing.
Blackburn told the judge that he does a ton of free work for low-income and abuse survivor clients and that a burdensome sanction could easily put him out of business.
“My representation of Mr. Youngblood was entirely pro bono. I do not possess the resources to pay $76,197.63, or any amount, without jeopardizing my practice and my client,” he said.
He also pointed out that he’s done over 11 hours of continuing legal education on AI, ethics and compliance since the incident, trying to clean up the damage.
Blackburn is asking the court to go easy on him with the punishment and go with something like more CLE hours or a warning instead of a financial gut punch.
“My Dad is a Marine, my uncles are Marines and now my nephew is a Marine. Service to the least of these and unequivocal accountability when wrong is how I was raised,” Blackburn said. “I have taken full ownership of those citation errors.”
Meanwhile, Jakes’ lawyers say they spent more than 140 hours fixing the AI-fueled blunders, which they claim were filled with fake case law and phony legal info.
They want Blackburn or his client to cough up the full amount within 30 days if the judge agrees.