New York / Citation decisions
Landberg v City of New York
App. Div., 2d Dept
2026 NY Slip Op 03935
What happened
In an appeal arising from a sidewalk fall, the plaintiff’s brief cited three fictitious cases, attributed invented quotations to the Court of Appeals and misrepresented what real cases had decided. Some of the invented language stated the opposite of the Court of Appeals’ treatment of the governing law. The Second Department raised sanctions on its own motion.
At oral argument, counsel declined an offered recess to investigate the citations and said they came from conventional research sources. In a later affirmation, counsel acknowledged that the citations likely originated in AI-assisted research. The court found a failure both to review the generated work and to be candid when questioned about it. The firm’s policy against the conduct did not prevent a sanction on the firm whose name appeared on the brief.
Sanction or disposition
$8,000 on counsel and $2,500 on the firm, payable to the Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection.
From the opinion
“Thus, the plaintiff’s brief contained a fictitious quote, from a fictitious Court of Appeals case, which was directly contrary to what the Court of Appeals has actually said.”
“Sanders wholly failed to fulfill his obligation to review the work of GenAI to prevent the submission to this Court of a brief containing significant misrepresentations of the law.”