U.S. Magistrate Judge William Matthewman in the Southern District of Florida sanctioned pro hac vice counsel and local counsel this week to remind litigators that federal courts “take the submission of a hallucinated, fake case citation supposedly supporting a principle of law very seriously.”
“This case should be a warning to lawyers that your pleadings, motions, responses, replies, and other papers filed with any Court must be first checked and then double-checked,” Matthewman wrote in the 16-page order. “There is no room in our court system for the submission of fake, hallucinated case citations, facts, or law. And it is entirely preventable by competent counsel who do their jobs properly and competently.”