AI Hallucination Cases

In a response, counsel identified the tools used to write the faulty brief, suggested he would withdraw from the case, and offered to "self-report this incident and offer corrective measures" to the bar authorities.

Rather ironically, plaintiff was seeking to disqualify law firm Butler Snow (of Johnson v. Dunn fame) from the case.

"Deleman admits to using generative artificial intelligence (“AI”) tools while draftinghis filings and has filed certificates of use with the Court. (Doc. 29-2; Doc. 30-2; Doc. 31-3).During the Court’s July 23, 2025, hearing, Deleman appeared to be relying entirely on AIgenerated arguments and citations. The Court directly asked Deleman whether he read thecases he cited and he claimed he did. Given that Deleman did not appear to encounter anexplanation of the term “consideration” while preparing for the hearing, the Court is skepticalof this claim. The Court reminds Deleman that false representations to the Court may warrantsanction."

"Chandra’s self-represented status does not permit him to submit information blindly. Likeevery other person who appears before the court, he has an obligation to confirm that arguments andcase law submitted to the court are supported by existing law, and a failure to do so is sanctionable."

Timothy J. Beall, a pro se litigant, admitted to using AI software to generate filings with fabricated citations. The court did not impose monetary sanctions but required Beall to include a written representation of citation accuracy in future filings. The court acknowledged the challenges faced by pro se litigants but emphasized the responsibility to ensure accurate legal citations.

In their Response, Counsel confessed to the use of AI tools in their Response to the OSC.

(As recounted by Above the Law, the law firm involved quickly deleted a recent post they made about using AI.)

In the Order, the judge prefaced her findings by noting that "Even in cases like this one, where lawyers who cite AI hallucinations accept responsibility and apologize profusely, much damage is done. The opposing party expends resources identifying and exposing the fabrication; the court spends time reviewing materials, holding hearings, deliberating about sanctions, and explaining its ruling; the substance of the case is delayed; and public confidence about the trustworthiness of legal proceedings may be diminished."

The court further reasoned that "At the threshold, the court rejects the invitation to consider that actual authorities stand for the proposition that the bogus authorities were offered to support. That is a stroke of pure luck for these lawyers, and one that did not remediate the waste and harm their misconduct wrought. Further, any sanctions discount on this basis would amplify the siren call of unverified AI for lawyers who are already confident in their legal conclusion. This court will have no part of that."

It added that: "Likewise, the court rejects the invitation to consider that the involved lawyers and firm have been deeply embarrassed in media reports. For many very good reasons, courts traditionally have not relied on the media to do the difficult work of professional discipline, and this court is not about to start."

In a letter, the defendant pointed out the errors in the Opinion - prompting the judge to withdraw it through a minute order, without offering a rationale.

The judge later issued a new opinion, without mentioning or addressing what had happened.

Counsel admitted his law clerk used AI tools and failed to verify the citations. The court imposed a $2,500 monetary sanction, required completion of CLE in ethics/legal technology, and ordered service of the sanction order to the plaintiff.

Case involved counsel sanctioned in Coomer v. Lindell. The court here noted:

"The fact that Kachouroff and DeMaster corrected some of their misrepresentations before the court or the defendants identified them would ordinarily mitigate their conduct. But the reality is that Kachouroff and DeMaster acted only after the Colorado District Court in Coomer v. Lindell noted similar misconduct. That so many misrepresentations persist supports the inference that counsel’s conduct was not mere negligence but an intentional effort to mislead the court."

In her response to the OSC, Counsel disclosed the Westlaw tools she had used.

The pro se litigant filed an appeal with the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, which was dismissed with prejudice due to his repeated violations of court rules, including citing non-existent legal authorities and hallucinated cases. The court found that Zajradhara's filings were replete with fabricated citations, such as non-existent cases and misrepresented precedents. Despite being warned, plaintiff continued to submit documents with false legal references and engaged in unprofessional conduct, including personal attacks against opposing counsel and court staff. As a result, the court declared him a vexatious litigant, restricting his ability to file future litigation without express permission from the Chief Justice or Presiding Judge. No monetary penalty was imposed due to his financial circumstances.

" Further, the court is aware that relator's brief includes citations to non-existent cases. Relator is put on notice that she may face sanctions in the future for citing false caselaw. See Tex. R. App. P. 52.11(a) (“On motion of any party or on its own initiative, the court may--after notice and a reasonable opportunity to respond--impose just sanctions on a party or attorney who is not acting in good faith as indicated by any of the following... filing a petition that is clearly groundless.”) "

Counsel was sanctioned for citing eight nonexistent cases in briefs filed on behalf of his client, in an appeal concerning the termination of parental rights. The court found that Counsel violated Illinois Supreme Court Rule 375 by submitting fictitious case citations generated by AI without verification. As a result, he was ordered to disgorge $6,925.62 received for his work on the appeal and pay an additional $1,000 in monetary sanctions. The court also directed that a copy of the opinion be sent to the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission.

Story here, including a link to the original order full of hallucinations.

Judge did not explain why he withdrew the original order and replaced it with a new one, prompting counsel to move for a preservation of the record and an explanation (motion).

The judge dismissed the motion on 1 August 2025, stating: "The original version of that Order contained clerical errors referencing improper parties and factual allegations. The Court promptly corrected those errors and issued an Amended and Corrected TRO on the docket. [...] The Court corrected the record, notified the parties, and the corrected TRO is the controlling order. No further explanation is warranted."

"The first reason I issue sanctions stems from [Counsel]'s claim of ignorance—he asserts he didn't know the use of AI in general and ChatGPT in particular could result in citations to fake cases. Mr. Nield disputes the court's statement in Wadsworth v. Walmart Inc. (D. Wyo. 2025) that it is "well-known in the legal community that AI resources generate fake cases." Indeed, [Counsel] aggressively chides that assertion, positing that "in making that statement, the Wadsworth court cited no study, law school journal article, survey of attorneys, or any source to support this blanket conclusion."

I find [Counsel]'s position troubling. At this point, to be blunt, any lawyer unaware that using generative AI platforms to do legal research is playing with fire is living in a cloud."

[...]

"If anything, [Counsel]’s alleged lack of knowledge of ChatGPT’s shortcomings leads me to do what courts have been doing with increasing frequency: announce loudly and clearly (so that everyone hears and understands) that lawyers blindly relying on generative AI and citing fake cases are violating Bankruptcy Rule 9011 and will be sanctioned"

Counsel submitted a response to an Order to Show Cause that included a false quote attributed to none other than Mata v. Avianca, a case about hallucinations.

According to local press, counsel was called to a special hearing to discuss the citation to an hallucinated authority.

Later on, opposing counsel scoured the full docket and found multiple instances of hallucinations, including for routine, uncontested motions. On July 29, 2025, they filed for sanctions (motion available here; see story here).

Folllowing a show cause order, Counsel admitted to having used the tool together with Google Search, and explained that, although he was aware of the issues with AI models like ChatGPT, he said he did not expect this tool to fall into the same issues.

In May, the court asked Counsel to show cause why they should not be sanctioned for filing briefs with hallucinations - especially since they continued filing hallucinated submissions after being warned about it.

In their Answer, Counsel revealed that "specific citations and quotes in question were inadvertently derived from internal draft text prepared using generative AI research tools designed to expedite legal research and brief drafting".

In the Order, the court noted that Counsel "was not candid to the Court when confronted about his use of AI, stating that some of these documents were “prepared under time constraints,” when he had nearly two more weeks before the deadline to submit his responses." The judge was also unimpressed by Counsel's attempt to shift the blame to a paralegal.

Plaintiff's Counsel cited nine non-existent cases in a response to a motion to dismiss, which were generated using AI software. The court found this to be a violation of Rule 11, as the citations were not checked for accuracy. Counsel admitted the error, apologized, and explained the circumstances, including staff transitions and the use of AI. The court imposed a $1000 sanction, required Mr. Braddy to attend a CLE course on AI ethics, and ordered reimbursement of Defendant's attorney fees and costs.

Counsel confessed having Claude Sonnet 4 to draft a legal submission, which included fabricated quotations from legal authorities. Counsel said he was pressed by time.

After holding that there is "no reason to distinguish between the submission of fabricated cases and the submission of fabricated quotations from real cases. In both postures, the attorney seeks to persuade the Court using legal authority that does not exist", the court held that Mr. Desmarais had violated Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure by failing to verify the accuracy of the AI-generated content. Counsel was found to have acted in subjective bad faith, as he was aware of the potential for AI to hallucinate legal citations and failed to take corrective action even after the government pointed out the errors.

The court imposed a $1,000 monetary sanction and required Counsel to complete a CLE course on the ethical use of AI in legal practice and notify his client of the issue.

Prior Order to Show Cause available here.

After reviewing - and dismissing - the factual allegations made by Counsel, and noting that they had submitted errata in parallel cases (dealing with other fabricated citations), the court swiftly concluded that they "have violated Rule 11 because they were not reasonable in certifying that the claims, defenses, and other legal contentions contained in Defendants’ Opposition to Motion in Limine [Doc. 283] were warranted by existing law or by a nonfrivolous argument for extending, modifying, or reversing existing law or for establishing new law."

Both counsel were sanctioned with a 3,000 USD fine, payable to the court.

In the case of Smith v. Gamble, the appellant, Karen A. Gamble nka Smith, moved to strike the appellee brief filed by Gary C. Gamble III, alleging that several case citations were fraudulent, as they were either inaccurate, non-existent, or completely false. The court directed the appellee, Father, to provide copies of the cited cases, which he failed to do. Consequently, the court found that Father used nonexistent cases and inappropriate citations, likely generated by an AI tool, to support his arguments. The court denied the motion to strike the brief but granted sanctions against Father for the time and expense incurred by Mother in uncovering the fraudulent citations. The matter was referred to a magistrate to determine the appropriate amount of sanctions.

"Further, these inaccuracies signal that Plaintiff's counsel may have used AI to assist in the drafting of Plaintiff's Response (or otherwise counsel produced exceptionally sloppy work). In this regard, this Court's Chambers Rules include “Disclosure and Certification Requirements” for use of “Generative Artificial Intelligence” and expressly provide that an attorney or party must disclose in any document to be filed with the Court “that AI was used and the specific AI tool that was used” and to “certify in the document that the person has checked the accuracy of any portion of the document drafted by generative AI, including all citations and legal authority.” See id.6 No such disclosure and certification has been made in this case. The Court's Rules further provide that an attorney will be responsible for the contents of any documents prepared with generative AI, in accordance with Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and that the failure to make the disclosure and certification “may result in the imposition of sanctions.”"

The court noted that:

"both Lehr-Guthrie's and McDonald's briefs are replete with errors in their citations to case authority, such as repeated citation errors, references to nonexistent quotes, and incorrect statements about the cases (for instance, as noted above, the two cases McDonald cited for a proposition relating to the duty of impartiality don't even reference that duty). This suggests to us that the briefs may have been drafted with the use of generative artificial intelligence (GAI). “[U]sing a GAI tool to draft a legal document can pose serious risks if the user does not thoroughly review the tool's output.” Al-Hamim v. Star Hearthstone, LLC, 2024 COA 128, ¶ 32. Self-represented litigants must be particularly careful, as they “may not understand that a GAI tool may confidently respond to a query regarding a legal topic ‘even if the answer contains errors, hallucinations, falsehoods, or biases.’ ” Id. (citation omitted).4 We advise the parties that errors caused by GAI in future filings may result in sanctions. See id. at ¶ 41. "

The court warned that future errors caused by AI could result in sanctions.

"In a prior order, we struck portions of Walker's brief that included citations to nonexistent cases. We note that the arguments raised would not have changed the outcome of the appeal in any event. "

"Compounding the problem, what generative AI lacks in precision, it more than makes up for in speed. Litigants who simply file the material that AI tools generate, without carefully reviewing it first for accuracy, have the potential to swamp courts with what appear at first glance to be legal arguments built on law and precedent, but which are in fact nothing of the sort. And not only are these problems in their own right, but they also heighten the two concerns the Court highlighted above—that defendants will be forced to spend more time and incur more costs parsing through copious baseless filings to defend an action, and that Courts will waste precious time doing the same in ruling on motions and moving matters along."

(Plaintiff acknowledged use of ChatGPT in a subsequent filing)

Defendant Holly Nelson, appearing pro se, filed a motion to dismiss that included a fabricated case citation, Finch v. Smith, which does not exist. The court inferred that Nelson used AI to draft the motion without verifying the accuracy of the citations. The court issued an order to show cause, requiring Nelson to justify why her filing does not violate Rule 11, or alternatively, to withdraw her motion. If she fails to do so, the court intends to strike her motion entirely.

Fake citation, in this brief, was to : Moms Against Poverty v. Dep’t of State, 2022 WL 17951329, at *3 . Case docket can be found here.

Counsel later confirmed having used ChatGPT and apologised.

" After the trial court entered a final judgment and decree of divorce, Nimat Shahid (“Wife”) filed a petition to reopen the case and set aside the final judgment, arguing that service by publication was improper. The trial court denied the motion, using an order that relied upon non-existent case law."

"We are troubled by the citation of bogus cases in the trial court's order. As the reviewing court, we make no findings of fact as to how this impropriety occurred, observing only that the order purports to have been prepared by Husband's attorney, Diana Lynch. We further note that Lynch had cited the two fictitious cases that made it into the trial court's order in Husband's response to the petition to reopen, and she cited additional fake cases both in that Response and in the Appellee's Brief filed in this Court. "

In the case of Crespo v. Tesla, Inc., the pro se plaintiff, Leonardo Crespo, submitted discovery motions containing fabricated case citations and a false quote, which were identified as potentially generated by AI. The court ordered Crespo to show cause for these submissions and admitted to using AI in his filings. The court acknowledged Crespo's candor and imposed sanctions requiring him to apologize to the defendant's counsel and pay reasonable attorney's fees incurred by the defendant in addressing the fake citations.

(In a subsequent ruling, the court averred that the reasonable fees amount was 921 USD.)

Plaintiff Ravel Ferrera Parra, proceeding pro se, filed a lawsuit against the United States alleging financial harm due to misconduct by various judicial and governmental entities. The court dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction, as the claims were not within the court's purview.

The court noted that Plaintiff's filings appeared to be assisted by AI, as evidenced by the rapid filing of responses tell-tale language ("Would you like additional affidavits, supporting exhibits, or further refinements before submission?"), the inclusion of fabricated case citations. "While Plaintiff’s use of AI, by itself, does not violate this Court’s Rules, Plaintiff’s citation to fake cases does."

The court further pointed out that:

"“It is no secret that generative AI programs are known to ‘hallucinate’ nonexistent cases.” Sanders, 176 Fed. Cl. at 169 (citation omitted). That appears to have happened here. When searching the Federal Claims Reporter for “Tucker v. United States, 71 Fed. Cl. 326 (2006),” Plaintiff’s citation brings the Court to the third page of Grapevine Imports, Ltd. v. United States, 71 Fed. Cl. 324, 326 (2006), a real tax case from this Court. Similarly, the AI used by Plaintiff in Sanders v. United States, 176 Fed. Cl. 163, 169 (2025) also made up a citation to a case called Tucker v. United States. Perhaps both AI programs hallucinated this case name based on the Tucker Act, this Court’s jurisdictional statute. Regardless, here, as in Sanders, the citation to a case called Tucker v. United States does not exist."

The court warned Plaintiff about the risks of using AI-generated content without verification but did not impose sanctions.

The court observed that the original motion to remand filed pro se by the plaintiff contained non-existent case law and falsified quotations. Although the court did not impose sanctions in this instance, it warned that future use of fake legal authority would result in a show cause order, including against the Counsel who later joined the case.

"Before addressing the merits of Schoene’s motion, the Court notes that Schoene cited several cases in her reply brief to support her motion to amend, including Butler v. Oregon, 218 Or. App. 114 (2008), Curry v. Actavis, Inc., 2017 LEXIS 139126 (D. Or. Aug. 30, 2017), Estate of Riddell v. City of Portland, 194 Or. App. 227 (2004), Hampton v. City of Oregon City, 251 Or. App. 206 (2012), and State v. Burris, 107 Or. App. 542 (1991). These cases, however, do not exist. Schoene’s false citations appear to be hallmarks of an artificial intelligence (“AI”) tool, such as ChatGPT. It is now well known that AI tools “hallucinate” fake cases. See Kruse v. Karlen, 692 S.W.3d 43, 52 (Mo. Ct. App. 2024) (noting, in February 2024, that the issue of fictitious cases being submitted to courts had gained “national attention”).6 In addition, the Court notes that a basic internet search seeking guidance on whether it is advisable to use AI tools to conduct legal research or draft legal briefs will explain that any legal authorities or legal analysis generated by AI needs to be verified. The Court cautions Schoene that she must verify the accuracy of any future citations she may include in briefing before this Court and other courts"