AI hallucination cases by state and court, Q3 2026: 358 decisions
Decisions dated Jul 1, 2026 to Sep 30, 2026, from the 2,202-case AI Vortex dataset recorded through Oct 22, 2026.
Date basis: the decision date of each court ruling, not the date it entered our dataset. Provisional: 62 of these 358 decisions (17.3%) were entered after Sep 30, 2026, so late-reported decisions will raise the count. The final figure is due Dec 29, 2026.
Against Q2 2026
Q2 2026 holds 420 decisions dated Apr 1, 2026 to Jun 30, 2026, as currently recorded. That quarter has had more time to collect late-reported decisions, so do not read the gap to 358 as a trend until Q3 2026 is final.
By US state
254 of 274 US decisions record a state (the state of the court). 20 do not: federal appeals courts, federal agencies and similar.
| State | Decisions |
|---|---|
| California | 25 |
| New York | 22 |
| Texas | 21 |
| Illinois | 18 |
| Arizona | 14 |
| Florida | 14 |
| Michigan | 14 |
| Pennsylvania | 12 |
| Indiana | 8 |
| Maryland | 8 |
| Washington | 8 |
| Colorado | 7 |
| Connecticut | 7 |
| Mississippi | 7 |
| Utah | 6 |
| Ohio | 5 |
| Delaware | 4 |
| Minnesota | 4 |
| Oregon | 4 |
| Tennessee | 4 |
| Alabama | 3 |
| District of Columbia | 3 |
| Maine | 3 |
| Missouri | 3 |
| North Carolina | 3 |
| Nevada | 3 |
| Arkansas | 2 |
| Georgia | 2 |
| Massachusetts | 2 |
| New Jersey | 2 |
| New Mexico | 2 |
| Virginia | 2 |
| Vermont | 2 |
| Wisconsin | 2 |
| Hawaii | 1 |
| Iowa | 1 |
| Idaho | 1 |
| Kentucky | 1 |
| Louisiana | 1 |
| North Dakota | 1 |
| Nebraska | 1 |
| New Hampshire | 1 |
| With a state | 254 |
By court
Courts with 5 or more decisions, as the dataset labels them. 176 other courts hold 255 decisions. 192 distinct court labels in all; one court can appear under more than one label.
| Court | Decisions |
|---|---|
| E.D. Michigan | 11 |
| S.D. New York | 10 |
| CA Texas | 8 |
| C.D. California | 6 |
| CA Illinois | 6 |
| D. Arizona | 6 |
| D. Connecticut | 6 |
| D. Utah | 6 |
| Federal Court | 6 |
| N.D. Illinois | 6 |
| SC New York | 6 |
| W.D. Washington | 6 |
| CA California (4d) | 5 |
| D. Maryland | 5 |
| E.D. California | 5 |
| SC California | 5 |
| All other courts (176) | 255 |
| Total | 358 |
By court system
The dataset classifies each court as federal, state or international (courts outside the United States).
| Court system | Decisions |
|---|---|
| federal | 167 |
| state | 106 |
| international | 85 |
| Total | 358 |
By jurisdiction
A decision naming several jurisdictions counts under each.
| Jurisdiction | Decisions |
|---|---|
| United States | 274 |
| Canada | 29 |
| Australia | 20 |
| United Kingdom | 9 |
| India | 4 |
| Poland | 4 |
| France | 3 |
| Israel | 3 |
| Brazil | 2 |
| China | 2 |
| South Africa | 2 |
| Argentina | 1 |
| Hong Kong | 1 |
| Namibia | 1 |
| Netherlands | 1 |
| South Korea | 1 |
| Spain | 1 |
| Tanzania | 1 |
By recorded response
The sanction or outcome type recorded for each decision. A decision can carry several, so rows overlap. Types come from the record; none is inferred.
| Response | Decisions |
|---|---|
| none-adjudicated | 126 |
| warning | 118 |
| monetary | 56 |
| bar-referral | 25 |
| professional | 25 |
| ordered-to-show-cause | 24 |
| struck-filing | 19 |
| case-dismissed | 12 |
| ordered-to-explain | 1 |
Sanctions with an amount
49 decisions record an amount and link a source. Grouped by the currency the source states; never added across currencies.
| Currency | Decisions | Total |
|---|---|---|
| USD | 39 | USD 222,214 |
| CAD | 3 | not summed |
| currency not stated | 2 | not summed |
| EUR | 2 | not summed |
| AUD | 1 | not summed |
| BRL | 1 | not summed |
| ILS | 1 | not summed |
Largest USD amount: USD 46,511.
Questions this report answers
- How many AI hallucination court decisions are dated in Q3 2026?
- 358 decisions in the AI Vortex dataset carry a decision date from Jul 1, 2026 to Sep 30, 2026, counting records entered through Oct 22, 2026. The report is provisional until Dec 29, 2026: 62 of these decisions were entered after the quarter ended, so the count is expected to rise.
- Is this counted by decision date or by the date a case was added?
- Quarters are counted by decision date (the date recorded for the court decision), not by the date a case entered the dataset. Decisions are often reported weeks later, so the count for a recent quarter keeps rising until the report is final.
- Which US states have the most Q3 2026 decisions?
- California (25), New York (22), Texas (21) lead among the 254 US decisions with a recorded state. 20 US decisions have no state recorded (federal appeals courts, federal agencies and similar).
- Are sanction amounts added up across countries?
- No. Amounts are grouped by the currency the source states, and only records that link a source count. 39 decisions record a US dollar amount, totalling USD 222,214. Other currencies, and amounts with no stated currency, are counted but never summed.
Method and limits
Quarters are counted by decision date (the date recorded for the court decision), not by the date a case entered the dataset. Decisions are often reported weeks later, so the count for a recent quarter keeps rising until the report is final. Entry dates (first_seen) before 2026-10-20 were reconstructed from the dataset's commit history; from 2026-10-20 the refresh stamps them. They are used only to say how many decisions of the quarter were recorded after it ended. Window 2026-07-01 to 2026-09-30; records entered through 2026-10-22; 0 records without a decision date cannot be placed in any quarter. Every figure on this page is recomputed from the dataset by a second, independent script before the report is committed. Source: Damien Charlotin, AI Hallucination Cases Database, CC BY 4.0. Counts are recorded incidents in the dataset, not usage-adjusted rates and not a measure of how often AI is used in filings. Verify against the linked decision before relying on a case. Monthly counts by entry date are on the monthly statistics.