US District Court, Northern District of Mississippi (Judge Sharion Aycock)

Withers v. City of Aberdeen

Sanctioned · 8 June 2026

SectorLegal

CountryUnited States

Document typeCourt briefs — three filings, two by the City and one by the plaintiff

ConsequenceSanctioned

What was fabricated

Hallucinated case citations across three briefs filed by both opposing sides in the same matter; the court, not opposing counsel, discovered them. One out-of-state attorney admitted she had filed further pleadings before the same court containing undiscovered fictitious citations, and had continued citing hallucinated cases in other jurisdictions after the problem surfaced. The order does not state a total citation count.

What happened as a result

Pro hac vice admissions revoked for both out-of-state counsel and both barred from appearing before the Northern District of Mississippi for two years, fined $3,500 and $2,500 respectively; both local counsel disqualified from the case and fined $1,000 each for signing and filing without verifying; one attorney ordered to complete AI legal education; all four referred to the Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas bar disciplinary authorities.

Sources

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