Overview

• In Oakland federal court, Palo Alto attorney Jack Russo acknowledged citing nonexistent cases, and Judge Jeffrey White preliminarily ordered him to cover part of the opposing side’s fees.
• A May filing by Latham & Watkins lawyer Ivana Dukanovic in San Jose included hallucinated material attributed to Claude.ai, leading Judge Susan van Keulen to strike part of the record.
• Researcher Damien Charlotin has logged 113 U.S. matters since mid-2023 where courts confronted AI-fabricated citations, with frequency still rising.
• Judges have imposed financial penalties in dozens of cases, including amounts up to $31,000 and a California record $10,000 fine reported last month.
• Even as enforcement tightens, the American Bar Association reports law‑firm use of generative AI rose to 30% last year, with ChatGPT the most used tool.