Incident Tracker / United States (state)
Varma v. The Bank of New York Mellon, No. E085566 (Cal. Ct. App.)
·California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Division Two·US-STATESanctions
The California Court of Appeal sanctioned self-represented appellants in Varma after their opening brief used nonexistent cases, false quotations and unsupported propositions the court attributed to generative AI hallmarks. The court ordered them to pay respondent's appellate fees in an amount to be set by the trial court and sent the opinion to the State Bar.
- Court
- California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Division Two
- Date
- 2026-08-27
- Who used the AI
- Litigant in person
- AI tool
- Not identified in the record
- Conduct
- Self-represented appellants filed an opening brief containing nonexistent cases, false quotations and unsupported propositions. The court attributed those features to generative AI hallmarks, sanctioned the appellants by ordering them to pay respondent's appellate attorney fees, and remanded for the trial court to set the amount.
- Outcome
- Sanctions
- Penalty
- No monetary penalty recorded
- Regulatory outcome
- State Bar of California: The court directed the clerk to send a copy of the opinion to the State Bar for investigation of possible unauthorized practice of law related to the opening brief. No disciplinary disposition is yet on record. (2026-08-27)
- 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, “Varma v. The Bank of New York Mellon, No. E085566 (Cal. Ct. App.)”, safelegalai.com/tracker/varma-v-bank-of-new-york-mellon (accessed 2026-09-04). Data: CC BY 4.0.