{"schema_version":"0.10.0","id":"LR-2026-0368","record_version":1,"title":"Lawyer sanctioned over hallucinated material in OnlyFans case","verification":{"human_verified":false,"method":"automated_gate","auto_verified":true,"score":43.5,"score_breakdown":{"source_authority":12.1,"independent_corroboration":7.0,"implicated_party_confirmed":0.0,"citation_integrity":14.0,"specificity":0.0,"completeness":3.2,"unhedged_language":5.0},"checks":{"schema_valid":true,"every_field_cited":true,"quotes_verbatim":true,"source_fetched":true,"distinct_incident":true,"dates_plausible":true,"sources_agree":true,"source_describes_incident":true,"severe_backed_by_source":true,"record_integrity":true,"eligible":true,"about_this_case":true},"gate_version":"gate-2026-10-18.7","cross_check_model":null,"cross_check_agreement":null,"duplicate_of":null,"verified_by":null,"verified_at":"2026-11-01","extraction_run_id":null,"evidence_level":{"level":"preliminary","reason":"Publisher not yet named · subject to change","original_document":null,"reports_total":1,"reports_independent":0,"reports_derivative":0,"developing":false,"disputed":false,"rules_version":"evidence-2026-10-29.1","computed_at":"2026-11-01","history":[{"date":"2026-11-01","from_level":null,"to_level":"preliminary","reason":"Publisher not yet named · subject to change"}]},"sources_hash":"8416fad839e872466a82a6a1bab5fd47af2fe242f872167aa58c3dc60c8be92f"},"system":{"model_name":null,"model_version":null,"developer":"unknown","harness":null,"tools_granted":[],"permissions_scope":null,"autonomy_level":"unknown","guardrails_present":[],"deployment_context":"unknown","tier":null,"lifecycle_stage":null,"integration_type":null,"intended_use":null,"safeguard_state":null,"production_intended":null},"event":{"date_occurred":null,"date_disclosed":"2025-12-16","incident_class":"hallucination","failure_class":null,"agent_involved":null,"secondary_failure_classes":[],"trigger":"unknown","duration":null,"detection_method":"unknown","summary":"A federal judge in California fined a plaintiffs law firm and one of its partners $10,000 for misusing artificial intelligence in a lawsuit involving the parent company of OnlyFans. The judge also imposed a $3,000 sanction on co-counsel Celeste Boyd, who he said used ChatGPT to draft and edit portions of the briefs without verifying the material. The judge found the firm violated a rule requiring legal arguments to be warranted by existing law when four briefs included hallucinated material. The firm's partner, Robert Carey, said no one at Hagens Berman used AI when preparing the briefs and that outside co-counsel added the fake citations without adherence to the firm's AI protocols. Neither the firm nor Boyd responded to Reuters' request for comment.","tags":[],"date_detected":null,"near_miss":null,"root_cause":null,"root_cause_detail":"Co-counsel used ChatGPT to draft and edit portions of the briefs and did not verify the material","failure_class_detail":null,"responsible_party":null,"adversarial_actor":null,"input_provenance":null,"time_to_contain":null,"operations_paused":null,"remediation":null,"precursor_events":null,"primary_risk":"RK14"},"impact":{"direct_loss_usd":null,"remediation_hours":null,"records_exposed":null,"third_parties_affected_count":null,"severity":"minor","severity_because":"Test: minor (contained to one deployer or one evaluation). Fact: the sanctions fall on one law firm and one lawyer in one lawsuit, and the source states no third party's data or systems were touched.","harm_class":[],"affected_description":null,"protected_class_involved":null,"data_categories_exposed":[],"loss_range_usd":null,"reversibility":null,"downstream_exposure_count":null},"evidence":{"sources":[{"url":"https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/plaintiffs-firm-fined-for-filing-hallucinated-material-in-onlyfans-case","publisher":"ABA Journal","date":"2025-12-16","type":"press","title":"Plaintiffs firm fined for filing 'hallucinated' material in OnlyFans case - ABA Journal","archived_url":null,"attachment":"first_report"}],"per_field_confidence":{"event.incident_class":"C","event.root_cause_detail":"C","context.country":"C","context.industry":"C","impact.severity":"D","impact.severity_because":"D","event.primary_risk":"D","event.summary":"C","system.autonomy_level":"D","system.deployment_context":"D","event.trigger":"D","event.detection_method":"D","system.developer":"D","event.date_disclosed":"D","context.denominator_available":"D"},"field_citations":{"event.incident_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"U.S. District Judge Fred Slaughter of the Central District of California found on Friday that Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro and partner Robert Carey violated a rule that requires legal arguments to be “warranted by existing law” when filing four briefs that included “hallucinated” material, Reuters reports."}],"event.root_cause_detail":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The judge additionally imposed a $3,000 sanction on co-counsel Celeste Boyd, who he said used ChatGPT to draft and edit portions of the briefs but failed to verify the material, Reuters also reports."}],"context.country":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"U.S. District Judge Fred Slaughter of the Central District of California found on Friday that Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro and partner Robert Carey violated a rule that requires legal arguments to be “warranted by existing law” when filing four briefs that included “hallucinated” material, Reuters reports."}],"context.industry":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"A federal judge in California fined a plaintiffs law firm and one of its partners $10,000 for misusing artificial intelligence in a lawsuit involving the parent company of OnlyFans, the adult content social media site."}],"impact.severity":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"A federal judge in California fined a plaintiffs law firm and one of its partners $10,000 for misusing artificial intelligence in a lawsuit involving the parent company of OnlyFans, the adult content social media site."}],"impact.severity_because":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"A federal judge in California fined a plaintiffs law firm and one of its partners $10,000 for misusing artificial intelligence in a lawsuit involving the parent company of OnlyFans, the adult content social media site."}],"event.summary":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"A federal judge in California fined a plaintiffs law firm and one of its partners $10,000 for misusing artificial intelligence in a lawsuit involving the parent company of OnlyFans, the adult content social media site."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The judge additionally imposed a $3,000 sanction on co-counsel Celeste Boyd, who he said used ChatGPT to draft and edit portions of the briefs but failed to verify the material, Reuters also reports."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"U.S. District Judge Fred Slaughter of the Central District of California found on Friday that Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro and partner Robert Carey violated a rule that requires legal arguments to be “warranted by existing law” when filing four briefs that included “hallucinated” material, Reuters reports."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"He said the fake citations were added by outside co-counsel “without adherence to Hagens Berman’s AI protocols.”"}]},"notes_on_gaps":"The sources do not give the date of the ruling or the date of disclosure beyond the article date, so no event dates are set. No autonomous agent is described; ChatGPT was used by a human co-counsel to draft text, so agent_involved, failure_class and autonomy fields are left out. The ChatGPT model version and developer are not stated, so only the model name is recorded. The sanctions are court fines, not a loss, so no direct_loss_usd is set. Carey's account that no one at the firm used AI is his own statement and is not verified by the source; the I4 link reflects his claim that AI protocols existed and were not followed, and the outcome is a judgement. Severity 'minor' is my judgement: the effects are confined to one lawsuit and one firm, and the source states no third party data or systems were touched. Country US is taken from the federal court's location in California. Industry legal services is inferred from the plaintiffs law firm. No remediations are stated in the sources. Detection method and responsible party are not stated. [case created by the backfill: read by claude-haiku-5-5, backfill-2026-11-01.2, 2026-11-01; not yet reviewed] [2026-11-01: evidence level set: Preliminary (Publisher not yet named · subject to change)]"},"context":{"industry":"legal services","org_size_band":null,"country":"US","denominator_available":false,"denominator":null,"related_incident_ids":[],"systemic_exposure":null,"shared_model_id":null,"upstream_incident_id":null,"incident_evidence":null,"regulatory":null,"coverage":null},"narrative":{"steps":[{"step":"went_wrong","text":"Co-counsel used ChatGPT to draft and edit portions of the briefs and did not verify the material, according to the judge.","quote":"The judge additionally imposed a $3,000 sanction on co-counsel Celeste Boyd, who he said used ChatGPT to draft and edit portions of the briefs but failed to verify the material, Reuters also reports.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"caught","text":"The judge found that four briefs included hallucinated material and that the firm violated a rule requiring legal arguments to be warranted by existing law.","quote":"U.S. District Judge Fred Slaughter of the Central District of California found on Friday that Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro and partner Robert Carey violated a rule that requires legal arguments to be “warranted by existing law” when filing four briefs that included “hallucinated” material, Reuters reports.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"done","text":"The judge fined the firm and one partner $10,000 and imposed a $3,000 sanction on co-counsel.","quote":"A federal judge in California fined a plaintiffs law firm and one of its partners $10,000 for misusing artificial intelligence in a lawsuit involving the parent company of OnlyFans, the adult content social media site.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"}],"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/plaintiffs-firm-fined-for-filing-hallucinated-material-in-onlyfans-case"]}}