Incident Tracker / United States (federal)
Potterf v. Wessels, No. 1:26-cv-10860-MFL-PTM (E.D. Mich.)
·US District Court, Eastern District of Michigan·US-FEDWarning
In the Eastern District of Michigan, self-represented plaintiffs admitted using artificial intelligence to draft objections with fictitious or erroneous citations and an invented Supreme Court quotation. Judge Leitman denied relief based on the defective objections and warned that future papers with false, hallucinated or inaccurate citations could bring sanctions, including dismissal.
- Court
- US District Court, Eastern District of Michigan
- Date
- 2026-08-26
- Who used the AI
- Litigant in person
- AI tool
- artificial intelligence (admitted by litigants)
- Conduct
- Self-represented plaintiffs Krystal and David Potterf acknowledged using artificial intelligence to prepare objections that contained fictitious or erroneous citations, an invented Supreme Court quotation, and misread authorities. The court denied relief based on the defective objections and warned that further false or hallucinated citations may bring sanctions.
- Outcome
- Warning
- Penalty
- No monetary penalty recorded
- Regulatory outcome
- No separate regulatory disposition recorded
- Status
- Verified against listed sources
- Last checked
- 2026-09-04
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, “Potterf v. Wessels, No. 1:26-cv-10860-MFL-PTM (E.D. Mich.)”, safelegalai.com/tracker/potterf-v-wessels (accessed 2026-09-04). Data: CC BY 4.0.