Editor’s Note: Law Week Colorado edits court opinion summaries for style and, when necessary, length.
People v. Zachariah C. Crabill
In April 2023, a client hired Zachariah Crabill to prepare a motion to set aside judgment in the client’s civil case. According to the disciplinary opinion, Crabill, who had never drafted such a motion before working on his client’s matter, cited case law he found through the artificial intelligence platform, ChatGPT. Crabill didn’t read the cases he found through ChatGPT or otherwise attempt to verify the citations were accurate.
In May 2023, Crabill filed the motion with the presiding court. Before a hearing on the motion, Crabill discovered the cases from ChatGPT were either incorrect or fictitious. But Crabill didn’t alert the court to the sham cases at the hearing. Nor did he withdraw the motion, the opinion noted. When the judge expressed concerns about the accuracy of the cases, Crabill falsely attributed the mistakes to a legal intern. Six days after the hearing, Crabill filed an affidavit with the court, explaining he used ChatGPT when he drafted the motion.
The Presiding Disciplinary Judge approved Crabill’s stipulation to discipline and suspended him for one year and one day, with 90 days to be served and the remainder to be stayed upon Crabill’s successful completion of a two-year conditional probation. The suspension took effect Nov. 22.
On Nov. 8, 2021, a client retained Lynn Jordan to assist with clearing the title to the client’s property. That day, Jordan accepted the client’s advance payment of $1,500, which the client deposited directly into Jordan’s operating account. According to the disciplinary opinion, the client, who lived out of state and who didn’t have a bank account anywhere, couldn’t wire money into Jordan’s trust account in Colorado. But due to health and personal issues, Jordan didn’t transfer the funds out of her operating account and into her trust account until Jan. 8, 2022, more than two weeks after she had fully earned the fee.
In another matter, Jordan represented a defendant in a replevin action. On Sept. 20, 2022, Jordan and her client failed to appear for a hearing because Jordan had incorrectly calendared the hearing for the next day, according to the disciplinary opinion. The court’s minute order stated the court would issue a bench warrant for Jordan’s client’s arrest and the opposing counsel was ordered to notify Jordan. But Jordan didn’t move to vacate the court’s order and quash the bench warrant until Oct. 31, 2022. The motion, which Jordan and the opposing counsel jointly filed, states that neither Jordan nor the opposing counsel realized sooner that the court had issued the bench warrant.
The Presiding Disciplinary Judge approved Jordan’s stipulation to discipline and suspended her for 180 days, all to be stayed upon Jordan’s successful completion of a two-year conditional probation. The probation took effect Oct. 31.