AI keeps inventing fake cases. Lawyers keep citing them
AI keeps inventing fake cases. Lawyers keep citing them
The trend of attorneys getting caught citing AI-hallucinated cases points to a broader problem: instead of checking AI’s work, people keep trusting it
By Steven Melendez edited by Eric Sullivan
Judges around the U.S. have sanctioned lawyers for filing court documents that include fake AI-generated citations.
In April the Alabama Supreme Court sanctioned an attorney who had filed legal briefs laden with inaccurate citations generated by AI, including numerous references to cases that did not exist. After being informed he had cited a made-up precedent in one filing, the lawyer promised it wouldn’t happen again—but then cited “nonexistent cases at the end of the very next sentence,” as a justice noted in a concurring opinion. At least one other lawyer was sanctioned that week for continuing to file AI-hallucinated material after being warned not to do so.
A database maintained by Damien Charlotin , a senior research fellow at the Paris School of Advanced Business Studies (HEC Paris), lists more than 1,400 cases where courts have addressed AI errors in the past three years, including filings by attorneys and self-represented litigants. As recently as last fall, Charlotin says, the list appeared to be growing exponentially. It’s since leveled off to a steady flow of exasperated judicial rulings. “For the past two or three months, we have reached a plateau of around 350, 400 decisions a quarter,” says Charlotin, who has also created an AI-powered reference checker called Pelaikan .