FLORIDA LAW WEEKLY

VOLUME 50 NUMBER 50

CASES FROM THE WEEK OF DECEMBER 19, 2025

COURT REFERS ATTORNEY TO FLORIDA BAR FOR CITING CASES THAT DID NOT EXIST OR DID NOT STAND FOR WHAT COUNSEL REPRESENTED THEM TO SAY

Russell v. Mills, 50 Fla. L. Weekly D2609 (Fla. 2d DCA Dec. 10, 2025):

In a case litigated between an attorney and a pro se litigant, the attorney filed an answer brief containing 3 case citations. Only 2 were actual cases published in the Southern Reporter, and both were misquoted in the answer brief (including attributing quoted text from one case that was actually found in another). The 3rd citation was completely made up.

Because the 3rd case citation appeared to have been “hallucinated,” as the court noted, generated by artificial intelligence, and because the other two case citations were misquoted, the court issued an order to show cause requiring appellee’s counsel to explain how the citations and quotations were generated. The court also asked counsel to show cause why sanctions should not be imposed.

In her response, the attorney stated that the 3 case citations were researched through computer-generated searches, and she acknowledged that she failed to fully vet those searches. In substance, counsel advised the court that her computer-generated searches misstated the law, but she did not intend to mislead the court.