Fifth Circuit sanctions lawyer $2,500 for AI-hallucinated citations, says problem "getting worse"
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit sanctioned attorney Heather Hersh $2,500 after finding her brief contained 16 fabricated quotations and five additional serious misrepresentations of law or fact, all apparently AI-generated. The court expressed frustration that AI-hallucinated legal citations "have increasingly become an even greater problem in our courts" and that the issue "shows no sign of abating." Hersh initially denied using AI, then shifted to claiming she "relied on publicly available versions of the cases, which she believed were accurate."
Incident Details
Perpetrator:AI assistant
Severity:Facepalm
Blast Radius:First known federal appeals court sanction for AI hallucinations; court signals escalating judicial frustration nearly three years after the first high-profile case