legaltech.fyi Beta

Tracker

Sanctions watch

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

Embed this
4
Incidents tracked
2
Incidents in 2026
$37,377
In fines, where reported
4 of 4 report an amount

The curve

Incidents per month

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

Apr 2025 Sep 2026

Charting 3 of 4 incidents; the rest are undated or fall outside this window.

Blamed by name

ChatGPT 53 Claude 4 Lexis+ AI 4 Westlaw Precision 4 CoCounsel 3 Copilot 2 AI-assisted legal software 1 Archie 1 ChatOn 1 ClearBrief 1 CoCounsel, Westlaw Precision, Google Gem 1 Descrybe.ai 1 First Drafts 1 Gemini 1 Ghostwriter Legal 1 Google AI 1 Google Scholar 1 Grok 1 Irys 1 vLex Fastcase 1

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

Hall of Shame

All Fined 4

Showing 1–4 of 4 incidents involving Westlaw Precision. Clear filters

Fined $1K Westlaw Precision
A lawyer blamed Westlaw Precision for hallucinated citations, but the judge found the citations came from a suspended lawyer's work and imposed a $1,000 penalty.
Louisiana court imposed a $1,000 penalty · Louisiana court · LA
arstechnica.com ↗
The file →
  • Louisiana case involving an unnamed lawyer
  • She blamed Westlaw Precision for AI hallucinations in citations
  • $1,000 penalty
  • Louisiana court, Louisiana
  • The judge found she had outsourced the research to a currently suspended lawyer
Fined $30K Westlaw Precision 2026-07-14
Attorney Gregory W. Mitchell filed Motions to Quash containing fabricated citations and was sanctioned $29,877 jointly and severally with creditors.
In re Rosslyn2016, LLC and Texas Esencia 2019 LLC · Gregory W. Mitchell · U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas · TX
“Mitchell's suggestion that the "Precision" version of Westlaw, which is a generative AI tool offered by Westlaw, should be given different treatment from non-legal AI tools demonstrates Mitchell's disregard for the General Orders of the Southern District of Texas.”
nydailyrecord.com ↗
The file →
  • Rosslyn2016, LLC and Texas Esencia 2019 LLC; attorney Gregory W. Mitchell sanctioned.
  • Submitted Motions to Quash containing fabricated quotations and nonexistent legal citations without verifying them.
  • Ordered to pay $29,877 in attorneys' fees and costs jointly and severally, plus complete 6 hours of CLE on generative AI.
  • U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.
  • Order issued July 14, 2026; Mitchell claimed citations came from a template and noted using Westlaw AI tools.
Fined $5K Westlaw Precision 2026-06-03
Two Orange County immigration attorneys filed a brief with nonexistent cases and misattributed quotations; the Ninth Circuit suspended each for six months and fined each $2,500.
Lnu v. Blanche · Mike Singh Sethi; Sethi Law Group; William Rounds; Bill Rounds Attorney at Law PC · U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · CA
“We issue this disciplinary order, and explain our reasoning at some length, as a warning to the members of this Court's bar: be aware of the risks of overreliance on generative AI, read everything cited in a court filing—whether drafted by generative AI or not—and disclose quickly and transparently generative AI hallucinations that are inadvertently included in court filings….”

Cases that don't exist

  • Eduardo v. Garland, 28 F.4th 742 (9th Cir. 2022)
  • Lay v. Holder, 729 F.3d 962 (9th Cir. 2013)
llms-for-lawyers.com ↗
The file →
  • LNU v. Blanche; attorney Mike Singh Sethi was sanctioned with co-counsel William Rounds.
  • He filed briefs with nonexistent cases and misattributed quotations, later calling them typographical errors.
  • The Ninth Circuit suspended him from practice before the court for six months.
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; Judge Richard Paez, Carlos Bea, and Danielle Forrest.
  • The order said generative AI hallucinations had been included in filings and warned lawyers to read every citation.
Fined $2K Westlaw Precision 2025-08-06
An attorney was sanctioned $1,500 after using an AI tool to summarize an opinion and improperly quoting text that did not actually appear in the decision.
In re BFI Waste Sys. of Tenn. · Billy Ringger · U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee · TN
“[A]rtificial intelligence combines the illusion of thorough review and analysis with the temptations of speed and low cost.”
mondaq.com ↗
The file →
  • Environmental attorney Billy Ringger was sanctioned by the court.
  • Ringger included language in quotes from a WestLaw AI summary without verifying it appeared in the opinion.
  • Federal Magistrate Judge Luke Evans imposed a $1,500 monetary sanction.
  • The order was issued in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
  • On August 6, 2025, Judge Evans noted that AI offers speed and low cost but creates the illusion of thorough review.
Get Sanctions Watch in your inbox
New AI-citation sanctions, the morning after they hit the docket.