Tracker

Sanctions watch

Every incident where a lawyer got caught filing AI-fabricated citations. The Hall of Shame.

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Incidents tracked

Incidents in 2026

$8,371

In fines, where reported

1 of 2 report an amount

The curve

Incidents per month

Last 18 months of published incidents, by the date of the court's order.

Mar 2025 Dec 2025 Aug 2026

Charting 1 of 2 incidents — the rest are undated or fall outside this window.

Blamed by name

ChatGPT 17 Claude 2 LEAP 2 AI-based legal software 1 Copilot 1 GPT-3.5 1

Counts only incidents where the filing court or the reporting named the tool.

Hall of Shame

All Caught, not sanctioned 4 Fined 3 Referred to the bar 2

Showing 2 incidents involving Claude. Clear filters

Referred to the bar $8K Claude

A lawyer filed immigration submissions with four non-existent case citations and was referred to the WA legal regulator and ordered to pay costs.

Australia immigration case (anonymised lawyer referred to Legal Practice Board of Western Australia) · Federal Court of Australia

““demonstrates the inherent dangers associated with practitioners solely relying on the use of artificial intelligence in the preparation of court documents and the way in which that interacts with a practitioner’s duty to the court”.”

theguardian.com ↗

The file →

An anonymised lawyer in an immigration case was referred to the Legal Practice Board of Western Australia.
The court found the submissions contained four case citations that did not exist.
The federal court ordered costs of $8,371.30 and made the referral.
Federal Court of Australia; the lawyer was not named in the article.
Justice Arran Gerrard said the case showed the dangers of solely relying on AI; the lawyer used Claude and Copilot.

Referred to the bar Claude 2025-08-15

A lawyer filed submissions citing four non-existent cases based on Claude AI research, and Judge Gerrard ordered personal costs and referred the conduct.

JNE24 v Minister for Immigration and Citizenship [2025] FedCFamC2G 1314 · Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 2)

“Legal principles are not simply slogans which can be affixed to submissions without context or analysis.”

mpslaw.com.au ↗

The file →

JNE24 v Minister for Immigration and Citizenship involved a lawyer whose submissions cited four cases.
The citations came from Claude AI research and the cases did not exist or did not support the propositions.
Judge Gerrard ordered the lawyer to pay costs personally and referred the conduct to the regulatory body.
Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 2).
2025-08-15; the court declined to reproduce the citations to avoid contributing to case hallucinations.

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