I've Seen Fake Cites on Both Sides Now

From yesterday's decision by Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Stafford in Evans v. Robertson (E.D. Mich.) (both parties are pro se):

The Court notes that the parties' briefing contained multiple factitious citations and quotations, presumably a product of using artificial intelligence (AI) software. For example, Evans cites Aguirre v. Reese, No. 2:12-cv- 01837, 2013 WL 6577085, at *5 (D. Nev. Dec. 13, 2013). ECF No. 64, PageID.559. The citation is nonexistent, and the District of Nevada assigned that case number to Mazzorana v. Emergency Med. Phys. Grp., in which no filings were made on December 13, 2013. Next, Evans attributed the following quote to Doe v. F.B.I., 218 F.R.D. 256 (D. Colo. 2003): "Parties may not evade service by hiding behind pseudonyms while continuing to engage in legal actions using those same identities." ECF No. 64, PageID.561. That case contains no such language, nor has the Court found that language in any other case. Evans likewise misattributes quotations to two other cases. ECF No. 64, PageID.570-571 (citing United States v. Ziegler Bolt & Parts Co., 111 F.3d 878 (Fed. Cir. 1997); Sec. & Exchange Comm'n v. Knowles, 87 F.3d 413 (10th Cir. 1996)).

Robertson's filings also contain inaccurate citations. She cites Mickens v. 10th Jud. Dist. Ct., 460 F. App'x 728 (9th Cir. 2011), in support of her argument that courts may dismiss actions used to harass or intimidate rather than to vindicate legitimate claims. ECF No. 39, PageID.352. Although two cases by that title exist, Robertson's citation is inaccurate. See Mickens v. 10th Jud. Cir. Ct., 458 F. App'x 839 (11th Cir. 2012); Mickens v. 10th Jud. Cir., 181 F. App'x 865 (11th Cir. 2006). The cases were decided by the Eleventh Circuit and concern the application of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine and not dismissal of abusive litigation.

Robertson also cites McNair v. Everly, No. 18-12511, 2019 WL 2560069 (E.D. Mich. June 20, 2019), which does not exist. ECF No. 71, PageID.686. This district assigned that case number to Arnold v. Fresh Start Transitional Homes, in which no filings were made on June 20, 2019. Robertson's filings also contain other inaccuracies that the Court will not belabor here….

Pro se parties are expected to strictly follow procedural rules, and no authority suggests that those rules "should be interpreted so as to excuse mistakes by those who proceed without counsel." If an attorney had submitted a brief littered with inaccurate citations, Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11 sanctions would have been appropriate.

The parties' pro se status offers no excuse for the factitious citations or quotations, and the Court will not tolerate this practice in future filings from either party. In each of their future filings, Evans and Robertson "must include a written representation that [they have] personally checked each legal citation and each citation is accurate and stands for its asserted proposition." Failure to do so may result in a recommendation to impose more stringent sanctions.

The song was written by Suno, in response to my short prompt that basically summarized the topic and provided the opening line; here are the resulting lyrics, with no edits on my part:

[Verse]
I've seen fake cites on both sides now
From phantom laws to ghostly vows
And still they stand
So bold
So proud
I really don't know truth at all

[Chorus]
Cites that shimmer
Cites that fade
AI dreams the rules it made
And both sides argue
Undismayed
But we don't know the law at all

[Verse 2]
They quote the case that wasn't there
With pages lost in digital air
A phantom judge
A ruling rare
I guess it's justice
Or a brawl

[Prechorus]
They cite the void
They cite the fake
A courtroom built on AI's quake

[Chorus]
Cites that shimmer
Cites that fade
AI dreams the rules it made
And both sides argue
Undismayed
But we don't know the law at all

[Bridge]
Oh
What a trial
Oh
What a scene
A war of ghosts in a world machine
Who holds the gavel
Who holds the blame
When truth and fiction play the same?

Comments

[Stupid Government Tricks]

New word to me, but google says it's real.

The Court notes that the parties' briefing contained multiple factitious citations and quotations

[Frank Drackman]

It's a real word, even has it's own medical diagnosis with an ICD10 code (F68.1) and everything.
Factitious Disorder is a mental disorder in which a person, without a malingering motive, acts as if they have an illness by deliberately producing, feigning, or exaggerating symptoms, purely to attain (for themselves or for another) a patient's role. People with Factitious Disorder may produce symptoms by contaminating urine samples, taking hallucinogens, injecting fecal material to produce abscesses, and similar behavior. The word factitious derives from the Latin word factītius, meaning "human-made"
Having drinks at a VFW I once heard a Veteran complain,
"Man, the (redacted) VA ain't givin' me (redacted) for my Factitious Disorder!!!!"
"Well yeah, because it's Factitious" (which I didn't say, I might be simple, but I'm not stupid)

Frank

[SRG2]

Commonly found in psychology and psychiatry - "factitious disorders", in preference to older and more charming terms like Munchausen Syndrome or Ganser Syndrome. It is highly likely that Trump is not suffering from either, though he does suffer from a severe case of Ganser-Macher syndrome.

[Stupid Government Tricks]

P.S. Nice lyrics.

[Stupid Government Tricks]

Eugene, see if you can get Sasha to upload a video singing this.

[Eugene Volokh]

I think Sasha is more a singer-songwriter than a cover singer. Suno is a singer-songwriter, too (and a one-AI band on top of that).

[Life of Brian]

This is really starting to spiral out of control. Damien Charlotin's tracker has nearly 200 cases over the past 3 months. That's compared to about 100 cases for the prior 3 months, and fewer than 50 for the 3 months prior to that. Hopefully these 90-day doublings don't continue.

[SRG2]

One day it will just disappear. Oh wait, that was Covid. 🙂

[Roger S]

This is like a judge finding a misspelled word, and ordering the parties to check spelling.

If checking the cites is so important, then the judge should get some software that checks the cites. Or ask the legislature to pass a law requiring litigants to check the cites.