Courts on AI / Fabricated or misquoted citations
Medal v. Amazon.com Services, LLC
United States District Court for the Western District of Washington · Federal district courts · WA · · No. Case 2:23-cv-01975-JHC · order
Western District of Washington on 2026-03-04 in Medal v. Amazon.com Services, LLC found counsel's opening brief included erroneous citations generated by AI-based search engines, combining captions, unrelated citations, and unsupported principles. The court ordered counsel to show cause why sanctions, striking, or referral should not issue for the defective authorities.
- Disposition
- The court ordered counsel to show cause why sanctions, striking, or referral should not issue for the defective authorities.
- Recorded conduct
- Counsel's opening brief included erroneous citations generated by AI-based search engines, combining captions, unrelated citations, and unsupported principles. — outcome: pending; actor: lawyer
- Canonical record
- Incident tracker entry — verified outcome, regulator disposition and related rules
What the court wrote
Verbatim from the court's document (public domain). Ellipses mark omitted text; nothing is paraphrased.
3 GRANTS the Motion and ORDERS Plaintiffs’ counsel to explain: (1) each signatory’s role in 4 the use of the “juxtaposed” language and accompanying false citation in Plaintiffs’ Opposition to 5 Defendant’s Motion to Stay (Dkt. No. 122) (“Opposition”); (2) whether and how the drafting or 6 research for the Opposition was aided by the use of generative AI; and (3) what verification 7 mechanisms were in place for use of generative AI. This explanation must be filed on or before 8 March 18, 2026. 9 IT IS SO ORDERED. 10 DATED this 4th day of March, 2026. 11 12 _ 13 JOHN H. CHUN UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
Authorities cited in the passage: 21 U.S.C. § 343(r)(6)(D)
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