In re: Sanctions Order of Kenney
CA Louisiana · Oct 23, 2025
- Jurisdiction
- state
- Court
- CA Louisiana
- Record ID
- in-re-sanctions-order-of-kenney-2025-10-23
- Observed outcome
- The court affirmed the trial court's order of $1,368 in attorney's fees and costs, and additionally ordered the attorney to complete three hours of CLE on AI ethics and referred the matter to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel.
- Known monetary consequence
- $1,368
Why this matter warrants attention
The court sanctioned an attorney for filing pleadings containing fabricated case law generated by AI. The attorney failed to verify the authenticity of citations, resulting in a $1,368 monetary penalty, a mandatory three-hour CLE requirement on AI ethics, and a referral to the state's disciplinary authority for further investigation into potential professional conduct violations.
The court reasoned that the attorney violated La. C.C.P. art. 863 by failing to perform an objectively reasonable inquiry into the law. The court emphasized that the duty to verify citations is non-delegable to AI tools and that the attorney's reliance on AI-generated summaries—which contained obvious disclaimers—was objectively unreasonable. The court further noted that the attorney's attempt to correct the record was haphazard and failed to address all fabricated citations, thereby compounding the initial error.
Stacking ChatGPT, Copilot, and Google without verification triggers costs, mandatory CLE, and disciplinary referral in one order.
Failure modes and consequences
- Fake Citations
- Fabricated Quotes
- Misrepresented Authority
- Bar Referral
- Tort
- Appellate
- AI attribution
- Admitted
- Recorded tool
- ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google
- Known monetary consequence
- $1,368
- Procedural posture
- The matter reached the Louisiana Court of Appeal, Fifth Circuit, via a writ application following a trial court's judgment granting a motion for sanctions under La. C.C.P. art. 863.
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 attorney admitted using ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Google.
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.
- Confirm that each authority supports the stated proposition and has not been mischaracterized.
- Escalate unresolved verification failures before filing and preserve the responsible reviewer's signoff record.