Canaries Court Investigates Lawyer for AI-Generated Fake Legal Citations
A lawyer in Spain's Canary Islands used an AI tool to generate fake legal citations in a court appeal, citing at least seven non-existent Supreme Court rulings and a fabricated judiciary report. The Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Canarias opened an investigation into the lawyer's breach of procedural good faith and referred the case for possible disciplinary sanctions.
What happened
The Criminal Chamber of the Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Canarias (TSJC) detected that a lawyer included at least seven citations to Supreme Court rulings and one report from the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) in an appeal that do not appear in official databases.
The lawyer submitted the appeal in a sexual assault case heard in July 2026 at the Provincial Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The court found the citations were spurious or apocryphal and concluded the lawyer relied without review on what AI algorithms proposed, omitting verification of the cited materials.
Reported impact
The TSJC concluded the conduct suggested gross negligence by a professional expected to be expert in procedural norms and respectful of professional ethics.
Index analysis
The court stated the abundance of fake references appeared designed to pass undetected or to lend false authority to the lawyer's assertions, which themselves may have been AI-generated.
Governance controls
The TSJC ordered a separate proceeding to determine the lawyer's liability under Article 247 of the Civil Procedure Law and the Organic Law of the Judiciary. The court indicated the professional college should be informed to consider disciplinary sanctions.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
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