AI Hallucination Cases

The magistrate judge found multiple cited authorities in the plaintiff's complaint to be fabricated or misquoted: two cases could not be located and two quotations attributed to real cases did not appear in those opinions. The court warned the plaintiff and ordered him to provide copies of cited cases in future filings; recommended dismissal of federal claims and possible sanctions for continued misrepresentations.

Plaintiff admitted using AI to prepare filings, submitted an unsigned affidavit for a purported attorney and cited cases the court could not locate; court found false statements and potential fake caselaw and ordered show-cause re: Rule 11 sanctions and evidentiary hearing.

Father admitted using ChatGPT to generate case citations; 14 cited cases were non-existent or misattributed. Court treated them as AI hallucinations, disregarded them, awarded costs, and ordered declarations for future AI use.

The applicant relied on numerous case citations that the Board and OSSTF could not locate as cited; one located decision did not support the proposition relied upon. Applicant acknowledged possible citation errors and was asked to provide copies but objected. The Board refused to rely on unlocatable authorities and dismissed the application.

The court later declined to reconsider its sanction (see here).

" Opposing counsel, and the court, should not have to parse case citations and parentheticals to discern whether cases exist, and if so, if they stand for the propositions asserted. "

The self-represented Applicant admitted using generative AI (Google Gemini and ChatGPT) to prepare submissions. NCAT Procedural Direction 7 requires verification of citations when Gen AI is used; the Applicant did not verify citations. The Tribunal accepted the submissions into the record but placed greater weight on primary records and noted non-compliance with the verification requirement.

""101    The use of AI technology in the Courts has been the subject of judicial observations, particularly regarding legal practitioners who are subject to professional and ethical obligations and responsibilities. However, as Bell CJ observed in May v Costaras [2025] NSWCA 178 at [15], with whom Payne JA and McHugh JA agreed, in the context of considering the use of AI in the preparation of submissions, that “(a)ll litigants are under a duty not to misled the court or their opponent.” The reliance on unverified materials produced by generative AI does have the potential to misled the Court.

102    Although the termed used in relation to erroneously generated references by AI is “hallucinations”, this is a term which seeks to legitimise the use of AI. More properly, such erroneously generated references are simply fabricated, fictional, false, fake and as such could be misleading.

103    All persons appearing before the Court have a duty to verify that the case law and legislation referred to and relied on, is accurate and that such materials actually exist. The references in Ayinde at [85] and [86] and in Costaras at [14]-[15], to matters involving litigants who are acting in person who rely on AI generated material clearly supports the position that all are required to verify the submissions made to the Court. There are many publicly available legal research websites, some which are accessible without a fee. Further, and without attempting to be exhaustive, the Queensland Supreme Court library is open and available to the public.

104    The use of generative AI to prepare submissions that may include fake authorities will nearly always introduce added costs, complexity and add to the burden of other parties and to the Court: Costaras at [16] and [49]. I gratefully adopt the observation from Ayinde at [9] that “(t)here are serious implications for the administration of justice and public confidence in the justice system if artificial intelligence is misused.” The Court in Ayinde observed from [10] to [31] the existing guidance, regulatory duties of the profession, referrals and the Court’s powers. Matters which are within the Court’s own domain include in the most serious of cases contempt of Court. The observations in Ayinde at [26]-[28] regarding contempt of court are not limited to legal practitioners.

105    As the reasons above demonstrate, the circumstances of this case involved many fake authorities, fabricated quotes and false propositions. It is unhelpful for the Court to be referred to, and for parties to rely on, such matters."

"The case at bar epitomizes the concern. Inordinate judicial resources were expended on reviewing cases cited by Plaintiff that did not exist. No doubt Plaintiff’s opponent in this litigation was forced to expend similar energies. Here, too, as noted, certain cases Plaintiff cited in support of her arguments stood for the opposite result from that which Plaintiff stated in her briefs. This kind of activity not only wastes precious and limited judicial resources, but it also drives up the cost of litigation unnecessarily for those who must defend against or seek to prosecute claims on behalf of paying clients, given the underpinnings of the American Rule that attaches to most civil litigation in this country."

The debtor, Sonja Helvig DeRosa-Grund, engaged in substantial abuse of the Chapter 13 process by filing numerous frivolous motions and making false allegations against opposing counsel. The debtor repeatedly cited non-existent case law and fabricated quotes from existing cases, despite being warned about this behavior. The court dismissed the case with prejudice for one year, terminated the debtor's ECF filing privileges, and imposed additional protective measures to prevent future abuse. The court found that the debtor violated Bankruptcy Rule 9011(b) by making arguments based on non-existent case law and misquoting cases.

The court imposed sanctions under Rule 11, requiring Mr. Owoc to complete 10 hours of community service and to certify the accuracy of legal citations in future filings if AI is used. No monetary penalty was imposed.

"Second, the protester's explanation--that it was “manual mismatches in secondary summaries” that caused the citation errors (Protester's Resp., Aug. 8, 2025, at 1)--does not meaningfully explain the number of citation errors in the protester's filings. Indeed, Oready's patently erroneous citations are far removed from mere typographical or scrivener's errors, and instead, bear the hallmarks of the use of a large-language model or other artificial intelligence (AI) without adequate verification that the generated results were accurate. "

" We have the authority to sanction Wife under Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.410(a) for failure to comply with Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.210(c). See Gutierrez v. Gutierrez, 399 So. 3d 1185, 1188 (Fla. 3d DCA 2024). However, we decline to do so. Our decision is tempered by the fact that Wife is defending a judgment on appeal in an unrepresented capacity, Husband has not sought the imposition of sanctions, and Wife has not brought any other meritless or frivolous filings in this Court. See id. at 1187–88; Al-Hamim, 564 P.3d at 1125–26. Instead, we admonish Wife for her counterfeit brief and warn her that the Court will not regard similar infractions as mildly in the future. "