Incident Tracker / United States (state)
Southland Homes & Real Estate and Investment, LLC v. Lam, No. 30-2026-01569207 (Cal. Super. Ct. App. Div., Orange County)
·Superior Court of California, County of Orange, Appellate Division·US-STATESanctions
In California's Orange County appellate division, Law Office of Vincent W. Davis & Associates attorneys filed a supersedeas petition with four suspicious AI-fabricated authorities. In an order filed 4 August 2026, modified 5 August, the court imposed $2,500 on supervising counsel and $1,500 on associate counsel and directed notice and self-reporting to the State Bar.
- Court
- Superior Court of California, County of Orange, Appellate Division
- Date
- 2026-08-04
- Who used the AI
- Lawyer
- AI tool
- ChatGPT and Google Gemini
- Conduct
- The Law Office of Vincent W. Davis & Associates and attorneys Vincent W. Davis and Zach Mejia filed a supersedeas petition with fabricated authorities and erroneous legal propositions in May 2026. Mejia admitted using ChatGPT and Google Gemini; the court held both the associate and supervising attorney responsible for failing to verify the citations.
- Outcome
- Sanctions
- Penalty
- US$4,000
- Regulatory outcome
- State Bar of California: The appellate division directed the clerk to serve the sanctions order on the State Bar after remittitur and ordered Vincent W. Davis and Zach Mejia to report the sanctions personally. Referral/notice only — no State Bar disposition is yet on record. (2026-08-05)
- Status
- Verified against listed sources
- Last checked
- 2026-09-11
Primary sources for this incident
Related regulation records for this incident
No related regulation record has been linked to this incident yet.
Similar incidents on the record
- In re Stephen Aarons (Supreme Court of New Mexico, murder appeal; case number not located)2026-08-21 · Supreme Court of New Mexico · SanctionsThe Supreme Court of New Mexico held veteran defence lawyer Stephen Aarons in contempt, ordered him to pay USD 5,000 to the client protection fund, removed him from a murder appeal and referred him to the state Discipli…
- Kleyman Law Group, P.C. v. Kaloidis, Index No. 502644/2025 (N.Y. Sup. Ct., Kings County)2026-08-04 · Supreme Court of the State of New York, Kings County · SanctionsIn a fee suit against a client's estate, the Supreme Court of New York, Kings County, found that plaintiff-lawyer Alex Kleyman had cited 23 nonexistent decisions and misrepresented 83 real ones across 19 filings drafted…
- TOV Realty, LLC v. Suarez; Kosel Equity, LLC v. MacGregor, No. SC21183 (Conn.)2026-07-31 · Connecticut Supreme Court · SanctionsThe Connecticut Supreme Court sanctioned a landlord's lawyer whose Lexis-verified briefs acquired fabricated citations when he pasted them into ChatGPT for editing. It ordered six hours of CLE, USD 1,000 each from couns…
- State ex rel. Schnell v. Richardson, No. ED114731 (Mo. Ct. App.)2026-09-08 · Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District · SanctionsIn the Missouri Court of Appeals, relator's counsel Jenna Rohr Conley admitted using generative AI to research a mandamus petition and failing to verify two cases that did not exist. The court denied the writ and impose…
Summary record: the facts above are verified against the listed sources, but the court's reasoning and later dispositions have not yet been written up. It is excluded from search indexes until that is done.
Cite this record
SafeLegalAI Global Legal AI Incident Tracker, “Southland Homes & Real Estate and Investment, LLC v. Lam, No. 30-2026-01569207 (Cal. Super. Ct. App. Div., Orange County)”, safelegalai.com/tracker/southland-homes-v-lam (accessed 2026-09-11). Data: CC BY 4.0.