Puerto Rico’s Supreme Court fined two self-represented litigants $1,000, $500 each, after finding that filings in an inheritance dispute cited fabricated legal authorities and made baseless accusations against members of the judiciary. In a decision issued October 28, the court sanctioned siblings Víctor Manuel Velázquez Feliciano and Mercedes Velázquez Feliciano, concluding their filings repeatedly cited nonexistent cases and misrepresented judicial precedents; the justices said the conduct appeared linked to AI-generated content submitted without independent verification.
The case arose from litigation over the distribution of a family estate. After their attorney withdrew, the siblings chose to continue without legal representation. A trial judge found they lacked sufficient knowledge of procedural rules and ordered them to retain counsel within 30 days; instead they challenged the ruling, alleging the presiding judge committed ethical misconduct, that an official court recording had been altered, and that judicial officials manipulated the record.
The trial judge later recused himself, and the Court of Appeals rejected their arguments. The Supreme Court found numerous filings contained fabricated citations, including references to nearly 25 cases that did not exist or inaccurately described Supreme Court decisions. Associate Justice Raúl Candelario López, concurring, said the citations appeared artificially generated and that false citations consume judicial resources.
The court relied in part on Rules 9.4 and 44.2 of Puerto Rico’s Rules of Civil Procedure. The justices stressed AI itself is not prohibited, distinguishing its use as a drafting tool from submitting unverified AI-generated information. Associate Justice Camille Rivera Pérez, in a separate concurrence, said courts should not have to sift through filings to identify invented authorities.
The ruling extends to self-represented parties a principle applied in recent decisions sanctioning attorneys for AI-generated false citations.