{"schema_version":"0.10.0","id":"LR-2026-0477","record_version":1,"title":"Judge fines and sanctions two city lawyers over AI-generated citations","verification":{"human_verified":false,"method":"automated_gate","auto_verified":true,"score":46.6,"score_breakdown":{"source_authority":12.1,"independent_corroboration":7.0,"implicated_party_confirmed":0.0,"citation_integrity":14.0,"specificity":3.0,"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":"8831886fbb951bd6392f107ce2b9a806016636d62170647110de83642d3365e4"},"system":{"model_name":"ChatGPT","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":"2026-04-01","incident_class":"hallucination","failure_class":null,"agent_involved":null,"secondary_failure_classes":[],"trigger":"unknown","duration":null,"detection_method":"unknown","summary":"A law department in the City of New Orleans used ChatGPT to help research a motion in a federal civil rights lawsuit. The filing included nine made-up case citations generated by AI, and the attorney said he did not check whether the cases were real before adding them to the brief. A supervising deputy city attorney reviewed the motion before filing but did not question the strange formatting of the fake citations. The federal judge found the citations during the case and ordered the attorneys to appear in court. At a March 19 hearing one attorney admitted the AI use. The court ruled that the filing violated Rule 11, imposed fines of $250 and $1,000, and issued a formal warning to a third official. Both attorneys resigned, and the office adopted a written AI policy effective March 27, 2026.","tags":[],"date_detected":null,"near_miss":null,"root_cause":"oversight","root_cause_detail":null,"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: contained to one deployer (the city Law Department) with no third party touched; the sources state fines and resignations, not any wider effect.","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.wdsu.com/article/new-orleans-attorneys-resign-ai-investigation-roquemore-harris/70911303","publisher":"WDSU","date":"2026-04-01","type":"press","title":"Judge fines and sanctions two city lawyers over AI-generated citations - WDSU","archived_url":null,"attachment":"first_report"}],"per_field_confidence":{"system.model_name":"C","event.incident_class":"C","event.root_cause":"C","context.country":"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":{"system.model_name":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Assistant City Attorney Jalen Harris admitted during a March 19 hearing that he used ChatGPT to help research the motion."}],"event.incident_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The resignations follow sanctions issued by a federal judge, who ruled that both attorneys filed a motion that included nine made-up case citations generated by AI."}],"event.root_cause":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Harris said he did not check whether the AI‑generated cases were real and did not read them before adding them to the brief."}],"context.country":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier ordered the attorneys to appear in court after he discovered the false citations in a January 2026 motion filed in a lawsuit brought by Daniel Gentry."}],"impact.severity":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Two attorneys in the City of New Orleans Law Department have resigned after an investigation found they used artificial intelligence to create fake case citations in a court filing."}],"impact.severity_because":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Two attorneys in the City of New Orleans Law Department have resigned after an investigation found they used artificial intelligence to create fake case citations in a court filing."}],"event.summary":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The resignations follow sanctions issued by a federal judge, who ruled that both attorneys filed a motion that included nine made-up case citations generated by AI."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Harris said he did not check whether the AI‑generated cases were real and did not read them before adding them to the brief."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"As Harris’s supervisor, he reviewed the motion before it was filed but did not question the strange formatting of the fake citations, which appeared as bullet points."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier ordered the attorneys to appear in court after he discovered the false citations in a January 2026 motion filed in a lawsuit brought by Daniel Gentry."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"According to federal court records, Assistant City Attorney Jalen Harris admitted during a March 19 hearing that he used ChatGPT to help research the motion."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The court ruled that his actions violated Rule 11, which requires lawyers to make sure their filings are based on real law and facts."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The judge ordered Harris to pay a $250 fine and Roquemore to pay $1,000."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The court did not fine St. Raymond but issued him a formal warning about improper AI use in his department."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Two attorneys in the City of New Orleans Law Department have resigned after an investigation found they used artificial intelligence to create fake case citations in a court filing."}]},"notes_on_gaps":"Single press source (WDSU) reporting court records and a City Attorney statement. The sources describe ChatGPT as a research tool used by attorneys, not an autonomous agent, so agent_involved, failure_class and autonomy_level are left out. ChatGPT's developer, version and deployment details are not stated. The exact detection date, detection method and disclosure date are not stated; the judge discovered the citations before the March 19 hearing. The exact date of the resignations is not stated. The supervisor's failed review and the missing check by the attorney are not clearly mapped to a listed control; I7 is used for the missing verification and the supervisory review is not coded. Responsible party, trigger, adversarial actor, duration and time to contain are not stated and are left out. The severity tier 'minor' is my judgement on the stated scope (one city law department, no third party touched). The fines are recorded as harm class only; no direct loss figure is computed. The summary describes the third official's warning as formal, as the source states, and characterises the supervisor's review neutrally. [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":null,"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":"The attorney did not check whether the AI-generated cases were real and did not read them before filing.","quote":"Harris said he did not check whether the AI‑generated cases were real and did not read them before adding them to the brief.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"reached","text":"The filed motion included nine made-up case citations generated by AI.","quote":"The resignations follow sanctions issued by a federal judge, who ruled that both attorneys filed a motion that included nine made-up case citations generated by AI.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"caught","text":"The federal judge discovered the false citations and ordered the attorneys to appear in court.","quote":"U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier ordered the attorneys to appear in court after he discovered the false citations in a January 2026 motion filed in a lawsuit brought by Daniel Gentry.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"done","text":"The court fined Harris $250 and Roquemore $1,000, and both attorneys later resigned.","quote":"The judge ordered Harris to pay a $250 fine and Roquemore to pay $1,000.","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.wdsu.com/article/new-orleans-attorneys-resign-ai-investigation-roquemore-harris/70911303"]},"analysis":{"sections":{"timeline":[{"text":"Motion containing the false citations was filed in the Gentry lawsuit.","quote":"U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier ordered the attorneys to appear in court after he discovered the false citations in a January 2026 motion filed in a lawsuit brought by Daniel Gentry.","source_index":0,"when":"2026-01"},{"text":"At a hearing, Harris admitted he used ChatGPT to help research the motion.","quote":"According to federal court records, Assistant City Attorney Jalen Harris admitted during a March 19 hearing that he used ChatGPT to help research the motion.","source_index":0,"when":"2026-03-19"},{"text":"The City Attorney's Law Department AI policy took effect.","quote":"Effective March 27, 2026, the City Attorney implemented a Law Department Policy regarding the Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).","source_index":0,"when":"2026-03-27"}]},"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://www.wdsu.com/article/new-orleans-attorneys-resign-ai-investigation-roquemore-harris/70911303"]}}