Fabricated — does not exist
Rogers v. Wells Fargo does not exist — a fabricated AI citation
This case is fabricated
In Cornelia O. Barnes v. Frank Williams, et al., a filing cited “Rogers v. Wells Fargo” as supporting authority. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama was unable to locate any such case and found the citation appears fabricated.
The same filing separately misused two real, findable cases: a citation to Safeco was offered for the proposition that automobile dealers are subject to 15 U.S.C. § 1681m(a), which the court found unsupported by the actual Safeco opinion and pin cite given, and a citation to Miller was relied on for individual liability under ECOA and the FCRA, a proposition the court found Miller does not actually support. Three distinct citation problems in one brief — one invented case and two real cases stretched past what they hold — is a pattern this database sees often enough to be its own lesson: fabrication and misrepresentation travel together.
“Rogers v. Wells Fargo” is a generic-enough caption that a search will turn up real Wells Fargo litigation under similar names in other jurisdictions; none of it is the authority the Barnes filing actually needed, and none of it appears to be what was cited.
Real cases with similar names
Verified against the CourtListener case-law database. These are real, existing decisions — do not confuse them with the fabricated citation above.
Rogers v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
551 P.3d 142 · Court of Appeals of Kansas · June 7, 2024
A real Kansas appellate decision under a very similar caption. It is not the authority the Barnes v. Williams filing needed and was not the citation identified as fabricated in that case — but the name overlap is exactly the kind of coincidence that makes a fabricated citation feel plausible on a quick search.
How to verify a case citation
A citation is only as good as its weakest link: the case has to exist, the quote attributed to it has to actually appear in the opinion, and the opinion has to actually support the proposition it's cited for. Deterministic verification checks each of those three things against a primary source — a real court docket or reporter, not another AI's guess — so the result does not depend on whether the tool doing the checking might itself hallucinate. That is the only way to catch a fabricated citation like this one before it reaches a filing rather than after a judge does.
Verify a citation free →Cited in these real sanctions cases
Cornelia O. Barnes v. Frank Williams, et al.
U.S. District Court, N.D. Alabama · Alabama (federal) · June 30, 2026
- Outcome
- Warning
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Layer 1–2 check (existence + quote match) against primary sources. Not legal advice.
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More fabricated citations
This entry documents a fabricated citation identified in a real, publicly reported court ruling. It is informational only, not legal advice. Corrections: /contact.
Written by the Citation Safe Research Desk · Reviewed by Andy Gaber, Founder