Tyrone Blackburn warned a federal choose {that a} $76K penalty over AI errors within the T.D. Jakes case may shut down his whole regulation apply.

Tyrone Blackburn is staring down a $76K penalty in federal courtroom over bogus citations tied to synthetic intelligence mix-ups in a lawsuit involving T.D. Jakes and if the choose indicators off, it may wreck his authorized apply.

The Brooklyn-based lawyer is begging a Pennsylvania choose to not slap him with a large lawyer’s charge invoice after courtroom paperwork he submitted have been 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 a long time in the past.

Jakes fired again with a defamation go well with, saying the story’s a lie and accusing Youngblood of making an attempt to squeeze him for $6 million in hush cash.

Blackburn already admitted he screwed up the citations, blaming new AI options in LexisNexis and Westlaw for the mess. He says he began fixing the errors earlier than he bought booted from the case in June.

“I made no excuses then, and I make none now,” he wrote in a courtroom submitting.

Blackburn instructed the choose that he does a ton of free work for low-income and abuse survivor shoppers and {that a} burdensome sanction may simply put him out of enterprise.

“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 mentioned.

He additionally identified that he’s accomplished over 11 hours of continuous authorized training on AI, ethics and compliance for the reason that incident, making an attempt to scrub up the harm.

Blackburn is asking the courtroom to go simple on him with the punishment and go together with one thing like extra CLE hours or a warning as a substitute of a monetary intestine 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 mentioned. “I have taken full ownership of those citation errors.”

Meanwhile, Jakes’ legal professionals say they spent greater than 140 hours fixing the AI-fueled blunders, which they declare have been crammed with faux case regulation and phony authorized information.

They need Blackburn or his shopper to cough up the complete quantity inside 30 days if the choose agrees.

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