{"schema_version":"0.10.0","id":"LR-2026-0577","record_version":1,"title":"Judge throws out case after lawyers admit AI briefs with fake citations","verification":{"human_verified":false,"method":"automated_gate","auto_verified":true,"score":41.6,"score_breakdown":{"source_authority":12.1,"independent_corroboration":7.0,"implicated_party_confirmed":0.0,"citation_integrity":14.0,"specificity":0.0,"completeness":1.92,"unhedged_language":4.55},"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":"Only a republished copy: Yahoo · subject to change","original_document":null,"reports_total":1,"reports_independent":0,"reports_derivative":1,"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":"Only a republished copy: Yahoo · subject to change"}]},"sources_hash":"40a9b228818eb79a5d6f239724a320d69518cf23b9a06764df75a7e7986bf859"},"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":"2026-06-15","incident_class":"hallucination","failure_class":null,"agent_involved":null,"secondary_failure_classes":[],"trigger":"unknown","duration":null,"detection_method":"unknown","summary":"A civil dispute in federal court in Mississippi over allegedly unpaid legal fees, brought by attorney Tom Withers of Aberdeen, Mississippi, became a case about AI-assisted legal research. Lawyers for both parties said they had used AI-assisted research and filed documents containing false information. Withers's two lawyers acknowledged they submitted AI-generated material before verifying it, and Aberdeen's lawyers had done the same. Senior U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock responded with sanctions, pausing the case, removing all four lawyers from the matter and imposing fines, and barring one lawyer from each side from appearing before the court for two years. A law researcher's tracker, cited by press, counts 1,598 matters involving AI-made citations in legal filings.","tags":[],"date_detected":null,"near_miss":null,"root_cause":null,"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},"impact":{"direct_loss_usd":null,"remediation_hours":null,"records_exposed":null,"third_parties_affected_count":null,"severity":"minor","severity_because":"Minor test: the effect is contained to one case, and the only parties the source names as affected are the two sides and the court; no outside third party is stated as 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.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/judge-throws-entire-case-lawyers-181300731.html","publisher":"Yahoo","date":"2026-06-15","type":"press","title":"Judge throws out entire case after lawyers admit to using AI briefs full of errors, fake citations - Yahoo","archived_url":null,"attachment":"first_report","independence":"derivative"}],"per_field_confidence":{"event.incident_class":"D","impact.severity":"D","impact.severity_because":"D","event.summary":"C","system.autonomy_level":"D","system.deployment_context":"D","event.trigger":"D","event.detection_method":"D","context.country":"D","system.developer":"D","event.date_disclosed":"D","context.denominator_available":"D"},"field_citations":{"event.incident_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"A Mississippi federal judge has provided one of the starkest examples yet of AI's dangers in the courtroom, showing that filings stuffed with made-up case citations can put an entire case at risk."}],"impact.severity":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Aberdeen's lawyers had done the same, leaving the court to deal with inaccurate AI-assisted filings from both sides."}],"impact.severity_because":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Aberdeen's lawyers had done the same, leaving the court to deal with inaccurate AI-assisted filings from both sides."}],"event.summary":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Withers had filed suit over allegedly unpaid legal fees."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"As 404 Media first reported, cited by Gizmodo, the dispute involving attorney Tom Withers and Aberdeen, Mississippi, escalated after lawyers for both parties said they had used AI-assisted research and filed documents containing false information."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"According to a court filing cited by 404 Media, his two lawyers acknowledged that they submitted AI-generated material before verifying it."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Aberdeen's lawyers had done the same, leaving the court to deal with inaccurate AI-assisted filings from both sides."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Senior U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock responded with sanctions."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"404 Media reported that she paused the case, took the trial off the calendar for now, removed all four lawyers from the matter, and fined them between $1,000 and $3,500."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"One lawyer from each side was also barred from appearing before the court for two years."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"404 Media reported that law researcher Damien Charlotin says he has tracked 1,598 matters involving AI-made citations in legal filings."}]},"notes_on_gaps":"Single press source (Yahoo, citing 404 Media and Gizmodo); no primary court filing or order was provided. The AI model, developer, tool, and deployment details are not stated, so no system fields are given. The sources do not say whether an autonomous agent was involved, so agent_involved and failure_class are omitted. No detection method, date of occurrence, or disclosure date is stated (the article date is publication, not disclosure), so those are omitted. The fine is a range, not a single amount, so no direct loss value is recorded. No remediation by the parties is reported; the sanctions are court actions, not remediations. Root cause 'oversight' and responsible party 'deployer' are my judgements from the lawyers filing AI material unverified. Severity 'minor' is my judgement. The 1,598-matter count refers to other cases tracked by a researcher, not this incident, and was not used as impact data. Control I7 is marked missing from the lawyers' acknowledged failure to verify before filing; no other controls are 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 (Only a republished copy: Yahoo · subject to change)]"},"context":{"industry":null,"org_size_band":null,"country":"unknown","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":"Withers's two lawyers acknowledged they submitted AI-generated material before verifying it.","quote":"According to a court filing cited by 404 Media, his two lawyers acknowledged that they submitted AI-generated material before verifying it.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"reached","text":"Aberdeen's lawyers did the same, so the court received inaccurate AI-assisted filings from both sides.","quote":"Aberdeen's lawyers had done the same, leaving the court to deal with inaccurate AI-assisted filings from both sides.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"caught","text":"The presiding judge responded to the filings with sanctions.","quote":"Senior U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock responded with sanctions.","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.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/judge-throws-entire-case-lawyers-181300731.html"]},"analysis":{"sections":{"timeline":[{"text":"Withers filed suit over allegedly unpaid legal fees.","quote":"Withers had filed suit over allegedly unpaid legal fees.","source_index":0,"when":null},{"text":"Withers's two lawyers submitted AI-generated material before verifying it.","quote":"According to a court filing cited by 404 Media, his two lawyers acknowledged that they submitted AI-generated material before verifying it.","source_index":0,"when":null},{"text":"Aberdeen's lawyers submitted inaccurate AI-assisted filings in the same way.","quote":"Aberdeen's lawyers had done the same, leaving the court to deal with inaccurate AI-assisted filings from both sides.","source_index":0,"when":null},{"text":"Judge Aycock responded with sanctions.","quote":"Senior U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock responded with sanctions.","source_index":0,"when":null},{"text":"The case was paused, the trial was taken off the calendar for now, all four lawyers were removed, and they were fined.","quote":"404 Media reported that she paused the case, took the trial off the calendar for now, removed all four lawyers from the matter, and fined them between $1,000 and $3,500.","source_index":0,"when":null},{"text":"One lawyer from each side was barred from appearing before the court for two years.","quote":"One lawyer from each side was also barred from appearing before the court for two years.","source_index":0,"when":null}]},"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/judge-throws-entire-case-lawyers-181300731.html"]}}