A Quebec man must pay his ex-wife $1,000 after filing court arguments that cited four fake legal cases generated by ChatGPT. The Quebec Court of Appeal ordered the payment in an Aug. 11 decision, saying the man knowingly used the non-existent decisions in a dispute over the division of assets following his divorce.
The man was representing himself in the appeal. According to the court, two of the fabricated cases were presented as Supreme Court of Canada decisions. The court said the man learned the cases did not exist during a consultation with a lawyer, but he still filed his arguments without removing them.
Court discovers fabricated citations
The judges only discovered the false citations after questioning the man during the hearing. At that point, the man explained the cases had come from ChatGPT.
The court said knowingly citing fake cases was a serious breach that caused unnecessary work for the court and for the man's ex-wife. The $1,000 payment compensates the ex-wife for her time and work, and comes on top of the appeal costs.
The case adds to a growing list of incidents where lawyers and self-represented litigants have submitted AI-generated citations that turned out to be fabricated. Courts in Canada and the United States have issued warnings about the practice, and some jurisdictions now require lawyers to verify any AI-generated legal research before filing it.
Why this matters for legal professionals
This decision confirms that Canadian courts will treat knowingly filed fake citations as misconduct, even when the filer is not a lawyer. For legal professionals, the practical takeaway is straightforward: AI tools can produce confident, detailed citations that do not exist. Any case law generated by an AI assistant must be verified against a reliable legal database before it goes into a filing.
Training on the limits of AI tools is becoming a practical necessity for legal work. Courses on AI for Legal professionals cover how to use these tools responsibly, including how to check outputs for accuracy and avoid the kind of error that led to this sanction.
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