Garcia v. City of Monte Vista, Colorado et al
D. Colorado · May 29, 2026
- Jurisdiction
- federal
- Court
- D. Colorado
- Record ID
- garcia-v-city-of-monte-vista-colorado-et-al-2026-05-29
- Observed outcome
- The Court denied or granted various motions to dismiss and announced it would issue an order to show cause regarding counsel's use of AI-generated citations.
- Known monetary consequence
- Not recorded
Why this matter warrants attention
The Court identified a fabricated quotation and citation in counsel's filing, which it attributed to the likely use of unverified generative AI. Consequently, the Court announced it would issue an order to show cause regarding this conduct.
The Court reasoned that the inclusion of non-existent language and citations in a legal filing, combined with the nature of the error, strongly suggested the use of unverified generative AI, necessitating a show-cause proceeding.
This case highlights the judicial scrutiny applied to filings containing hallucinated legal authority. It serves as a warning that courts are actively identifying and sanctioning the use of unverified AI-generated content in litigation.
Failure modes and consequences
- Fake Citations
- Fabricated Quotes
- Civil Rights
- Trial
- Ordered To Show Cause
- AI attribution
- Implied
- Recorded tool
- Generative artificial intelligence (unspecified)
- Known monetary consequence
- Not recorded
- Procedural posture
- Order on Defendants' Motions to Dismiss, with a separate order to show cause pending regarding counsel's use of AI-generated citations.
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 court suspected the citation was a product of generative artificial intelligence.
The record summarizes the outcome described in the linked public source. The recorded document is hosted in the upstream publisher archive. This page is not a substitute for the complete docket, subsequent history, or jurisdiction-specific advice.
Latest evidence review: Primary Document Verified (high confidence).
Controls suggested by the public record
- Verify the existence, citation, court, and precedential status of every authority before filing.
- Compare every quoted passage and pincite directly with the underlying opinion or filing.
- Apply the same source-checking controls to AI (implied, unspecified) output as to any other research input.
- Read the linked source and subsequent docket history before relying on this record for legal work.