Incident Tracker / United States (federal)
Barteca Holdings LLC v. Tacobarn Newtown LLC, No. 3:26-cv-00250 (D. Conn.)
·US District Court for the District of Connecticut·US-FEDSanctions
In a restaurant trade-dress dispute, the US District Court for the District of Connecticut sanctioned defense counsel USD 3,500 and referred him for discipline after a brief polished with Open Law, Claude and ChatGPT misquoted Ashcroft v. Iqbal and other cases. Judge Vernon Oliver said using AI does not diminish counsel's duty to verify every cited authority.
- Court
- US District Court for the District of Connecticut
- Date
- 2026-08-04
- Who used the AI
- Lawyer
- AI tool
- Open Law, then Claude and ChatGPT (per counsel)
- Conduct
- Defense counsel Hilary Miller's motion-to-dismiss briefing in a trade-dress case contained four false quotations attributed to Ashcroft v. Iqbal, Landscape Forms, Yurman and other cases, and four misrepresented holdings. The court held a show-cause hearing on 25 June 2026 before imposing sanctions.
- Outcome
- Sanctions
- Penalty
- US$3,500
- Regulatory outcome
- State disciplinary authority (Connecticut; body not named verbatim in the extract): Court referred counsel to the state disciplinary authority in its Order Imposing Sanctions (ECF 43). No disposition on record. (2026-08-04)
- Status
- Verified against listed sources
- Last checked
- 2026-09-03
Primary sources for this incident
Related regulation records for this incident
No related regulation record has been linked to this incident yet.
Cite this record
SafeLegalAI Global Legal AI Incident Tracker, “Barteca Holdings LLC v. Tacobarn Newtown LLC, No. 3:26-cv-00250 (D. Conn.)”, safelegalai.com/tracker/barteca-v-tacobarn (accessed 2026-09-04). Data: CC BY 4.0.