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Free tools · Sanctions tracker · Sixth Circuit

Whiting v. City of Athens, Tennessee

$30,000
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit·March 13, 2026·Plus fees and double costs
Court
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (Judges Stranch, Bush and Murphy)
Decided
March 13, 2026
Penalty
$15,000 in punitive sanctions from each of the two lawyers, paid to the court, plus the appellees’ reasonable attorney fees on appeal and double costs
What happened
Briefs across three consolidated appeals contained more than two dozen fake citations and misrepresentations of fact, a figure the panel itself called conservative. Some cases did not exist, some quotations were never written by any court, and some decisions were cited for holdings they do not contain.
Was AI involved?
The court did not decide that. It treated the fabricated authorities as misrepresentations of law that made the appeal frivolous, whatever produced them.
Primary source
Opinion, No. 24-5918/5919 (Sixth Circuit) →
Why it matters for a firm

An appeals court sanctioned each lawyer separately.

The penalty did not land on the firm as a single bill. Each lawyer on the briefs paid their own $15,000, on top of the other side’s appeal fees. And the panel never needed to know which tool wrote the bad citations. What mattered was that nobody caught them before filing. A firm that can show, matter by matter, which citations were flagged for a second look and which attorney signed off is in a far better position to answer that question than one relying on memory.

See how Candor keeps that record Back to the tracker
Common questions

How much were the sanctions?

$15,000 in punitive sanctions from each of the two lawyers ($30,000 in all), plus the appellees’ reasonable attorney fees on appeal and double costs.

Did the court find the lawyers used AI?

No. The opinion does not make a finding about generative AI. It sanctioned the filing of fabricated and misdescribed authority, which is the same duty whether a person or a tool drafted the brief.

This is a reference summary of a published decision, compiled from the opinion linked above and contemporaneous reporting. It is not legal advice and is not exhaustive. Confirm the details against the primary source. Candor is software, not a law firm.