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Incident Tracker / United States (state)

JMOR Properties, LLC v. Artist Alley Townhomes, LLC, No. 4D2026-1787 (Fla. 4th DCA)

·Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal·US-STATERegulatory referral

After dismissing a certiorari petition that cited a fabricated Fourth District decision, Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeal considered counsel's show-cause response and imposed the sanction of referral to The Florida Bar. The court said it felt compelled to do so under Florida's amended Rule 2.515(d)(2), which requires signers to certify that cited authorities exist.

Court
Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal
Date
2026-08-12
Who used the AI
Lawyer
AI tool
Not identified in the record
Conduct
Attorney Barry M. Leff's petition for certiorari cited a nonexistent Fourth District opinion and cited real cases for propositions they did not support. After dismissing the petition, the court ordered counsel to show cause and considered his response before imposing a sanction.
Outcome
Regulatory referral
Penalty
No monetary penalty recorded
Regulatory outcome
The Florida Bar: Court referred counsel to The Florida Bar under Fla. R. Gen. Prac. & Jud. Admin. 2.515(d)(2) and Bar Rule 3-7.18(a)(2). No disposition on record. (2026-08-12)
Status
Verified against listed sources
Last checked
2026-09-03

What was fabricated or misused

  • non-existent Fourth District case allegedly granting certiorari review of orders vacating clerk's defaults; the opinion did not name it
  • other cited cases that did not support the proposition that the Fourth District repeatedly entertained and granted certiorari review of orders vacating clerk's defaults
  • additional false citations acknowledged in counsel's response; the opinion did not list them

What the court said

“Counsel filed a certiorari petition in this case that is riddled with false citations and arguments, including an unsupported allegation that this Court has “repeatedly entertained, and granted, certiorari review of orders vacating clerk’s defaults.””
Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal, p. 1
“Counsel’s response acknowledges the false citations identified in our order and identifies additional false citations.”
Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal, p. 2
“Counsel’s explanation that he mistakenly submitted the wrong draft of the petition does not excuse the failure to verify the accuracy of all citations in his filing.”
Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal, p. 2
“Accordingly, we refer this matter to the Florida Bar for consideration of disciplinary proceedings.”
Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal, p. 3

Timeline

  1. Court dismissed the certiorari petition and ordered counsel to show cause.
  2. Counsel filed a response acknowledging false citations and accepting responsibility.
  3. Court referred counsel to The Florida Bar for disciplinary consideration.

Why this case matters

JMOR is the Florida counterpart to records such as Russell v Mells and Wadsworth v Walmart. The court did not impose a money sanction; it used referral to The Florida Bar as the sanction after Florida's amended certification rule required lawyers to certify that cited authorities exist. The wrong-draft explanation also links the case to Coomer v Lindell, where a claimed version-control failure did not answer Rule 11 duties. For the tracker, JMOR records how a short appellate order can turn a fabricated case into a licensing issue even after counsel accepts responsibility.

Practice note

Version control must be part of citation review. Before filing, compare the final PDF against the verified draft, not just the word-processing file. Under Florida Rule 2.515(d)(2), the signer should keep a list showing each authority was opened, exists, and supports the proposition in the filed version.

Primary sources for this incident

Related regulation records for this incident

No related regulation record has been linked to this incident yet.

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Cite this record

SafeLegalAI Global Legal AI Incident Tracker, “JMOR Properties, LLC v. Artist Alley Townhomes, LLC, No. 4D2026-1787 (Fla. 4th DCA)”, safelegalai.com/tracker/jmor-properties-v-artist-alley (accessed 2026-10-07). Data: CC BY 4.0.

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