Hallucinations & Sanctions

A Pennsylvania Superior Court suspected AI drafting after finding a stepmother’s custody appeal brief cited cases that did not support claimed propositions. The court warned that AI-hallucinated citations risk waiving the arguments they purport to support under Pennsylvania appellate rules.

A Western District of Washington court issued a show cause order after an immigration habeas petitioner cited Ninth Circuit cases for propositions they did not support and included quoted text that appeared in neither of the cited cases — a pattern the court found consistent with AI-generated fabric

A California Central District court granted a motion to dismiss a civil rights complaint while noting that plaintiff’s counsel cited cases with inaccurate descriptions — characteristic of AI-hallucinated briefs. The ‘Editor’s Note’ flag on the Westlaw opinion indicates courts and publishers are now

Shaun Fleck, founder of an AI company called MarketPulse AI, sued a Delaware credit union over an auto loan dispute using RICO, FCRA, and constitutional claims; the Oregon federal court dismissed most claims but allowed the FCRA claim to proceed.

Pro se litigant Gregory Hardy filed a motion to consolidate cases one month after being warned about AI-hallucinated citations — and the new motion contained fresh fake quotations from real federal cases. The court struck the motion, noting that the Sixth Circuit had just confirmed even a single fak

A US court warned plaintiff’s counsel in Marino v. Marano after AI-generated citations for non-existent cases appeared in a civil brief filed March 25, 2026. The court ordered counsel to show cause why sanctions should not be imposed, reinforcing that attorney certification obligations apply fully t