Litigants

Afectado por Incidentes

Incidente 16001 Reporte
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

Incidente 16001 Reporte
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

Afectado por Incidentes

Incidents involved as Deployer

Pro se litigants

Afectado por Incidentes

Incidents involved as Deployer

Large language model developers

Incidents involved as Developer

Kim Dineen

Afectado por Incidentes

Judicial integrity

Afectado por Incidentes

Epistemic integrity

Afectado por Incidentes

Arizona Court of Appeals

Afectado por Incidentes

Large language models

Incidents implicated systems

AI-assisted legal research systems

Incidents implicated systems