Flycatcher v. Affable Avenue
S.D. New York · Feb 5, 2026
- Jurisdiction
- federal
- Court
- S.D. New York
- Record ID
- flycatcher-v-affable-avenue-2026-02-05
- Observed outcome
- The Court struck the defendant's filings and entered default judgment against Affable Avenue LLC.
- Known monetary consequence
- Not recorded
Why this matter warrants attention
The Court sanctioned counsel for repeatedly filing submissions containing AI-hallucinated case citations and false quotes. Finding that counsel acted in bad faith and failed to verify authorities despite multiple warnings, the Court struck the filings and entered default judgment against the client, Affable Avenue LLC.
Fabricated: Case Law | Affable's motion to dismiss included numerous non-existent case citations generated by AI; Opposing counsel identified at least 13 fabricated cases and the Court found 14 of 60 citations to be fake. || Fabricated: Case Law | Proposed reply brief cited a nonexistent "Himmelstein v. Comcast of the D.C., LLC, 908 F.3d 49; aff'g 44 F. Supp. 3d 1 (D.D.C. 2012)"—citations that do not exist and were inconsistent with the intended New York Court of Appeals decision. || False Quotes: Case Law | Response to Order to Show Cause quoted a passage presented as from Mata v. Avianca but the quoted language was actually from a secondary article by Christopher F. Lyon; counsel failed to attribute the quote properly. || Misrepresented: Case Law | Reply brief and subsequent explanations showed misattributed/mismatched reporter citations (e.g., counsel relied on a Google Scholar result for Himmelstein that returned unrelated D.D.C. citations like 931 F. Supp. 2d 48), reflecting AI- or search-induced misrepresentation of the authoritative source.
Paid legal-AI tools (vLex, Paxton, NotebookLM) do not cure verification duty; bad-faith denial converts sanctions into default judgment.
Failure modes and consequences
- Fake Citations
- Fabricated Quotes
- Misrepresented Authority
- Contract
- Trial
- Struck Filing
- AI attribution
- Admitted
- Recorded tool
- NotebookLM, vLex, Paxton AI
- Known monetary consequence
- Not recorded
- Procedural posture
- The Court issued an Order to Show Cause regarding Rule 11 violations, held a sanctions conference, and subsequently entered default judgment against the defendant.
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
Counsel admitted using vLex and other internal tools.
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.
- Do not treat a paid legal-research product as a substitute for source verification.
- Escalate and correct a suspect filing promptly, with a documented response.
- Retain a matter-level record of source checks and corrections.