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The AI-fabricated-citation problem, tracked honestly: sanctions decisions, verification practice, real data. Every claim sourced.
July 12, 2026 — A fraudulent site can be gone by tomorrow, so capture the whole page in context now, write down the URL and time, keep the original file unaltered with a hash (FRE 901, 902(14)), then report to the FTC and IC3 — a practical guide for the moment right after you realize you've been scammed.
July 11, 2026 — A Pennsylvania federal chief judge fined an attorney $1,500 and suspended him six months for AI-hallucinated citations, and singled out his attempt to shift the blame — a reminder that the Rule 11 certification is personal and can't be delegated to a tool. Which failures a check catches (fabricated cites, name mismatches) and which it can't (misdescribed holdings).
July 10, 2026 — Capture the full post in context now, expect a higher authentication bar for social media (Griffin v. State), record who/what/when/how, and keep the file unaltered with a hash (FRE 901, 902(14)) — a practical guide for the moment before it disappears.
July 9, 2026 — Lnu v. Blanche, the Ninth Circuit's first published AI-hallucination sanctions order (each attorney $2,500 + six-month suspension), draws the line that matters: a fabricated case a machine can flag, and a real case cited for a proposition it never held — the "inaccuracy" only a human can catch.
July 8, 2026 — Capture the online listing before it's edited (it's the landlord's own words under FRE 801(d)(2)), keep a dated log, photograph move-in and move-out, preserve the login-gated paper trail yourself, and authenticate with hashes (FRE 901, 902(14)).
July 7, 2026 — Whiting v. City of Athens: $15,000 per attorney plus full fees and double costs, the five ways the briefs' citations failed, why "smaller fines have plainly been inadequate," and an honest accounting of which failure modes an automated check catches (two of five).
July 6, 2026 — Preserve first, report second: full-page captures with the profile and context, a dated harassment log, hashes under FRE 902(14), where third-party tools stop, and § 2703(f) preservation requests for what's already gone.
July 5, 2026 — Inside Landberg v. City of New York: the Second Department's $10,500 sanction, the fake Court of Appeals quote that stated the opposite of the law, why the panel — not opposing counsel — caught it, and what candor would have cost instead.
July 5, 2026 — Capture now, keep the full page, record when and how, and why a hash matters: a practical, honest guide to preserving online evidence, with the rules (FRE 901, 902(14)) that make it hold up.
July 3, 2026 — A tribunal’s rulings built on AI-fabricated precedents, the tracker’s 24 judge-party cases, and why citation verification now runs in every direction — your drafts, opposing papers, and the orders themselves.
July 2, 2026 — The tracker's count, its growth in the first half of 2026, why the mismatch is the failure mode that does the damage, and a five-step verification checklist.