Faisal Rahman v. Michael J. Burton, et al.

What the court wrote

Verbatim from the court's document (public domain). Ellipses mark omitted text; nothing is paraphrased.

R. Civ. P. 11(b) (emphasis added). Rule 11 applies to pro se plaintiffs, and filing documents containing citations to nonexistent cases or arguments wholly unsupported by the record violates Rule 11. In both his complaint and his opposition to defendants’ motions to dismiss, Rahman cites cases that do not exist. See, e. g. , [38] at 4 (citing a case supposedly called Swayne that does not exist at plaintiff’s citation), [38] at 51 (citing a case supposedly from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals called Kitchen, that does not exist at plaintiff’s citation). Case: 1:25-cv-08489 Document #: 51 Filed: 04/30/26 Page 4 of 15 PageID #:1179 Failure to comply with Rule 11 obligations in the future will result in sanctions, including dismissal of lawsuits, monetary sanctions, and a restriction on filing any new cases with the court. Rahman must not submit any filing to the court that contains false or misrepresented citations (cases that do not exist or cases that do not say what Rahman claims they say), and Rahman cannot repeat the results of computer-assisted research without personally certifying and verifying the truthfulness and accuracy of his briefs.

Authorities cited in the passage: Fed. R. Civ. P. 11