Litigants

Incidents Harmed By

Incident 16001 Report
Purportedly AI-Generated False Citations in Arizona Probate Appeal Reportedly Led to Sanctions Against Self-Represented Appellant

2025-09-11

Self-represented appellant Jeffrey Kotchka reportedly used purported AI tools to prepare an opening brief in a probate dispute involving his late mother's estate. The Arizona Court of Appeals found six of its eight citations deficient, including two nonexistent cases, and said Kotchka had made no effort to verify them. The court affirmed the appointment of his sister, Kim Dineen, as personal representative, ordering Kotchka to pay her attorney fees attributable to addressing the false citations.

Incidents involved as Deployer

Incident 16001 Report
Purportedly AI-Generated False Citations in Arizona Probate Appeal Reportedly Led to Sanctions Against Self-Represented Appellant

2025-09-11

Self-represented appellant Jeffrey Kotchka reportedly used purported AI tools to prepare an opening brief in a probate dispute involving his late mother's estate. The Arizona Court of Appeals found six of its eight citations deficient, including two nonexistent cases, and said Kotchka had made no effort to verify them. The court affirmed the appointment of his sister, Kim Dineen, as personal representative, ordering Kotchka to pay her attorney fees attributable to addressing the false citations.

Related Entities

Jeffrey Kotchka

Incidents Harmed By

Incidents involved as Deployer

Pro se litigants

Incidents Harmed By

Incidents involved as Deployer

Large language model developers

Incidents involved as Developer

Kim Dineen

Incidents Harmed By

Judicial integrity

Incidents Harmed By

Epistemic integrity

Incidents Harmed By

Arizona Court of Appeals

Incidents Harmed By

Large language models

Incidents implicated systems

AI-assisted legal research systems

Incidents implicated systems