A Family Feud at an Oregon Winery Turns to Vinegar Over A.I. Slop

Many lawyers and litigants are using chatbots to speed up their work, and judges have been burdened with fictitious arguments generated by A.I. tools. An online database tracking judges’ reprimands of A.I. misuse now catalogs more than 1,300 cases, almost triple the number from only five months ago.

Mark Wisnovsky’s parents, Frank, a civil engineer, and Ann Wisnovsky, a former secretary, started Valley View Winery in 1972, eager for a lifestyle change and a permanent home to raise their four children. The winery consists of 80 acres of neat rows tucked between two mountains in southern Oregon. Eight years later, Frank Wisnovsky died suddenly, but his wife kept the winery running.

The oldest brother, Robert, ran the business for a few years but moved on. Their older sister, Joanne Couvrette, never came back after college. Mark and Michael Wisnovsky both joined their mother in the family business. She kept the books, signed the checks, owned the winery and the land beneath it. They did the day-to-day work of growing grapes and selling wine.

In 2006, Ms. Wisnovsky gave her younger sons a minority stake in the winery business. But in 2016, she signed documents agreeing to give the younger brothers the rest of the business and give them the vineyard land upon her death.

In 2019, Ms. Couvrette and her mother filed a new estate plan that called for giving the winery to her and Robert. She next moved Ms. Wisnovsky from Oregon to Southern California, where she lived. Then in 2021, Ms. Couvrette sued Mark and Michael on behalf of Ms. Wisnovsky’s estate, seeking $12.6 million in damages and accusing her brothers of manipulating their mother in previous estate agreements. The brothers countersued the same year, accusing Ms. Couvrette of trying to deprive them of their inheritance. Ms. Wisnovsky died in 2023.

Ms. Couvrette hired a lawyer in California who agreed to help represent her for free, since Ms. Couvrette’s daughter was dating Mr. Brigandi’s son. “We’re not spending a dollar compared to what you’re spending,” bragged Robert Wisnovsky, while on the phone with Michael urging him to turn the vineyard over him and Ms. Couvrette. “Walk away. Make money and quit losing money.”

Ms. Couvrette received legal work littered with A.I.-generated citations.Two appeared in a January 2025 filing, then seven in April and 16 more in May even after the opposing lawyers had pointed out the previous ones.

Just before the deadline for Ms. Couvrette’s legal team to mount a defense, Mr. Brigandi was rushed to the hospital. Four months later, Mr. Brigandi’s doctor explained that he was suffering from severe kidney disease that had “significantly impaired” his cognitive function in the preceding months.

Unmoved, the judge wrote that Mr. Brigandi “must be held accountable,” adding that the court did not “give full weight” to the doctor’s declaration because of its lateness. The judge also referred to “persuasive” evidence that Ms. Couvrette herself had written the offending briefs, which were full of irrelevant citations to things like free-speech cases.

Because of Ms. Couvrette’s shared responsibility for the fabricated citations, the judge permanently dismissed her case against her brothers. He also fined Mr. Brigandi almost $100,000.

Timothy Murphy, an Oregon lawyer hired by Ms. Couvrette to ensure Mr. Brigandi followed local court rules, also faces more than $14,000 in fines for failing to meaningfully participate in the case. It never occurred to him that Mr. Brigandi might have stamped his own name on briefs written by Ms. Couvrette, he said, “but it seemed like that’s what was happening.”

Usually, the punishments for A.I. misuse are modest such as a warning, a voided brief, a six-hour training session with the bar. But the Valley View Winery case was “notorious,” the judge wrote, made worse by the fact that Ms. Couvrette and her lawyers were not “forthcoming, candid, or apologetic about their conduct.”

Now the winery is in the hands of the two younger brothers, who sell about 12,000 cases a year. Even before racking up almost $1 million in legal bills, they weren’t making much of a profit, just enough to pay the salaries of around eight full-time employees. They expect their sister to appeal in as many different ways as she can.

For more information see Evan Gorelick and Anna Griffin “A Family Feud at an Oregon Winery Turns to Vinegar Over A.I. Slop” The New York Times, April 17, 2026.