Angelica E. Cruz et al. v. United States of America
C.D. California · Dec 16, 2025
- Jurisdiction
- federal
- Court
- C.D. California
- Record ID
- angelica-e-cruz-et-al-v-united-states-of-america-2025-12-16
- Observed outcome
- The court issued an Order to Show Cause requiring plaintiffs' counsel to explain why sanctions should not be imposed for the citation of a hallucinated case and the untimely filing of an opposition.
- Known monetary consequence
- Not recorded
Why this matter warrants attention
The court issued an Order to Show Cause under Rule 11(b) after plaintiffs' counsel submitted a brief containing a non-existent case citation. Counsel admitted to signing the filing without verifying the citations, blaming outside counsel for the error. The court deemed this conduct unacceptable and required a written response within three days.
Fabricated: Case Law | Plaintiffs' opposition cited 'Kennedy v. United States, 2022 WL 17684317, at *4 (C.D. Cal. Oct. 3, 2022)'; Defendant and the Court were unable to locate any such case; counsel admitted not checking citations and attributed it to outside counsel; Court ordered show cause under Rule 11.
Outsourcing a brief doesn't outsource Rule 11 — you own every citation outside counsel submits under your name.
Failure modes and consequences
- Fake Citations
- Tort
- Trial
- Ordered To Show Cause
- AI attribution
- Implied
- Recorded tool
- unspecified
- Known monetary consequence
- Not recorded
- Procedural posture
- Order to Show Cause issued by the court on December 16, 2025, following a hearing on a motion to exclude expert testimony.
Damien Charlotin case archive
Publisher document archive. The recorded document is hosted in the upstream publisher archive.
Open underlying sourceA recorded source link is not a substitute for checking the underlying order, filing, opinion, or disciplinary record.
What this record does—and does not—establish
The source does not name a specific tool, implying AI usage through the nature of the hallucination.
Retained unchanged after audit: the existing summary is source-specific, non-placeholder, and supported by the recorded source link. Read the underlying source before relying on it for legal advice or a filing.
Latest evidence review: Primary Document Verified (high confidence).
Controls suggested by the public record
- Verify each cited authority, quotation, and proposition against the underlying source before filing.
- Assign a responsible reviewer for AI-assisted research and drafting.
- Retain a matter-level record of source checks and corrections.