What was hallucinated

Misrepresented: Exhibits & Submissions | References to findings that the judge in charge did not make. || False Quotes: Case Law | Objections purportedly quoted language attributed to Howell v. New York Post Co., 81 N.Y.2d 115, 122 (N.Y. 1993) that the court found was not an accurate quotation from that opinion. || Fabricated: Case Law | Objections purportedly quoted Chambers v. Time Warner, Inc., 282 F.3d 147, 152-53 (2d Cir. 2002) — the court found the cited quotation/case did not exist in the form presented. || False Quotes: Case Law | Objections purportedly quoted language attributed to Foman v. Davis, 371 U.S. 178, 182 (1962) that the court determined was not an accurate quotation from that opinion.

Sanction teardown · S.D. New York, USA · 2025-10-18

Mitchell Taylor Button & Dusty Button v. Juliet Doherty et al.

What happened

In S.D. New York, USA, a filing relied on an unnamed/unconfirmed AI tool to help draft legal argument. The court identified the following problems with the citations in that filing:

Misrepresented (Exhibits & Submissions)

References to findings that the judge in charge did not make.
False Quotes (Case Law)

Objections purportedly quoted language attributed to Howell v. New York Post Co., 81 N.Y.2d 115, 122 (N.Y. 1993) that the court found was not an accurate quotation from that opinion.
Fabricated (Case Law)

Objections purportedly quoted Chambers v. Time Warner, Inc., 282 F.3d 147, 152-53 (2d Cir. 2002) — the court found the cited quotation/case did not exist in the form presented.
False Quotes (Case Law)

Objections purportedly quoted language attributed to Foman v. Davis, 371 U.S. 178, 182 (1962) that the court determined was not an accurate quotation from that opinion.

Which AI tool

an unnamed/unconfirmed AI tool. Note: Charlotin's public database records tool attribution only where a court order, brief, or reporting on the matter states it explicitly; "unidentified" or "implied" means the record indicates AI use but does not name a specific product — we do not guess.

Outcome

Certification requirement for future AI-assisted filings.

How Citation Safe would have caught this

Citation Safe runs three deterministic layers before a brief is filed: (1) does the citation exist against CourtListener's database of published opinions, (2) if quoted, does that exact language appear in the source, (3) does the cited case actually support the proposition it is cited for. Fabricated case citations fail Layer 1. Fabricated or misattributed quotations fail Layer 2 even when the underlying case is real. Misrepresented holdings — a real case cited for a proposition it does not support — are the target of Layer 3. None of these checks involve asking another language model whether the citation looks right; they are lookups and text-matches against the actual source, which is why a hallucinated citation has to survive a direct lookup against the authoritative source — not another model's opinion — to earn a VERIFIED stamp; our measured false-verify rate is published live at /quality.

Check a brief before you file it → · See our live false-verify rate

Source: https://www.damiencharlotin.com/documents/859/Button_v._Doherty_et_al._USA_30_September_2025.pdf, via Damien Charlotin's public AI Hallucination Cases Database (CC0).

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