Law360 (May 22, 2026, 10:26 PM EDT) -- A federal judge has suspended an attorney from practicing in the Northern District of Alabama after the attorney deleted his ChatGPT account in a bid to cover up his use of the chatbot to write an erroneous brief, saying the court never imagined having to deal with such "atrocious conduct."

U.S. District Judge Harold D. Mooty III on Thursday publicly reprimanded solo practitioner H. Gregory Harp and suspended him from practicing in the district for six months.

Judge Mooty said that the court was hitting Harp with sanctions, not because he merely used generative text, but because he submitted false legal authority, "pleaded ignorance as to any wrongdoing," and then "turned around and destroyed the evidence that likely would have exposed him."

"He has consumed substantial judicial resources as the court has had to sift through an ever-evolving series of distortions, evasions, and half-explanations designed to obscure rather than illuminate the truth," Judge Mooty wrote. "The court never imagined that it would be faced with such atrocious conduct from an officer of the court, and it will not tolerate it."

Harp had included four false quotations in a plaintiff client's response in opposition to defendant Regions Bank's motion for summary judgment. While the cases cited in the opposition filing were real, the purported quotes from the cases were not, and the court issued a show cause order against Harp.

In response, Harp stated that he did not know how the false quotations ended up in the submitted brief and denied using a bot to generate the quotations.

The court held a hearing on the matter and ordered Harp on April 20 to submit screenshots of his ChatGPT history showing the entirety of all conversations related to the case for inspection.

Harp submitted a flash drive that included an unsigned PDF titled "Your Honor." In the PDF, Harp told Judge Mooty that he tried to comply with the court's order but that his account "has been deleted, and the files are no longer available."

"I have attempted, in good faith, to recover the account, but I was unable to do so," Harp wrote. "From my review, it appears that it is not able to be recovered."

Suspicious that Harp intentionally deleted his ChatGPT account to destroy evidence of misuse, the judge told Harp on April 29 to submit a sworn declaration explaining, among other things, the "specific steps" he took to comply with the April 20 order and "in granular detail exactly how, when, why, and by whom his ChaptGPT account was deleted."

On May 1, Harp told the court that he deleted his ChatGPT account and that he was "extremely upset" after the hearing that he had "used ChatGPT at all."

Thursday's order said email screenshots filed under seal show that Harp signed up for a paid ChatGPT Plus subscription four days before submitting the brief and that he deleted the account on April 23, three days after he was ordered to hand in information from the account to the court.

The court then issued a second show cause order, citing a "strong inference" that Harp had acted in bad faith.

Harp, in response, said that he "can offer no grounds for the avoidance of sanctions and a finding of civil contempt other than the information I have previously provided."

He said that the court was correct that he submitted misstatements of law including misrepresented quotes, and correct that he deleted ChatGPT.

"I remain contrite," Harp wrote.

Judge Mooty said Thursday that suspending Harp from practice in the district was appropriate, saying "Harp's is a clear case of misconduct which indeed affects his standing and character as an attorney."

"If the court cannot trust an individual not to destroy evidence, that individual must not be allowed to practice in front of that court," Judge Mooty said.

Judge Moothy emphasized that the court's "harshest" of sanctions were not because he made a mistake, but because Harp "chose dishonesty over candor and destruction over disclosure."

"Lawyers make errors," Judge Mooty wrote. "Competent and ethical lawyers own them."

Judge Mooty said that attorneys caught submitting misrepresentations generated by bots can either admit their mistake or try to cover it up.

While those who choose to admit their mistake "will likely preserve their standing before the court," those who make the other choice "may well lose their career," Judge Mooty said.

"Any lawyer who believes this court will hesitate to vigorously investigate and impose career-altering sanctions for such misconduct is gravely mistaken," Judge Mooty wrote.

Harp did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday evening.

The case is Jackie L. Miller v. Regions Bank, case number 2:24-cv-01324, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

--Editing by Brian Baresch.

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