Sebastian Rako v. VMware LLC (1)
N.D. California · Nov 25, 2025
- Jurisdiction
- federal
- Court
- N.D. California
- Record ID
- sebastian-rako-v-vmware-llc-1-2025-11-25
- Observed outcome
- The court dismissed the False Claims Act retaliation claim with leave to amend and imposed a mandatory footnote requirement for all future AI-assisted citations.
- Known monetary consequence
- Not recorded
Why this matter warrants attention
The court ordered the pro se plaintiff to include a mandatory footnote reading 'Located through AI; Checked' for every future citation in the litigation that was identified using an AI tool, following the plaintiff's submission of fabricated case law in opposition briefs.
Fabricated: Case Law | Plaintiff's opposition briefs cited non-existent case law; Notices of Errata submitted 'corrected' citations that differed substantially from originals; court found likely AI-generated citations.
This record documents a Pro Se Litigant filing issue in N.D. California, with the listed outcome: Order to include a footnote reading 'Located through AI; Checked' for each future citation.
Failure modes and consequences
- Hallucinated_case_law
- Lack_of_verification
- Pro Se
- Fake Citations
- Civil Rights
- Trial
- AI attribution
- Explicitly Recorded
- Recorded tool
- AI (unspecified)
- Known monetary consequence
- Not recorded
- Procedural posture
- Order on motions to dismiss; the court granted the defendants' motion to dismiss the False Claims Act retaliation claim with leave to amend and issued a standing order regarding 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 refers to AI tools generally.
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.