Lawyers Face Sanctions for Citing Hallucinated Precedents in Case

A court in the Southern District of New York has issued sanctions against a law firm and its lawyers after it was discovered that they had submitted fake judicial opinions as part of a case. In a ruling against Peter LoDuca, Steven A. Schwartz, and the law firm of Levidow, Levidow & Oberman P.C., the court found bad faith on the part of the individual respondents based upon acts of conscious avoidance and false and misleading statements to the court. The court also noted the many harms that can result from submitting fake opinions, including wasting opposing parties’ time and money, taking up the court’s time, and potential harm to the reputation of judges and courts falsely invoked as authors of the bogus opinions and to the reputation of a party attributed with fictional conduct. The sanctions are to deter repetition of the conduct or comparable conduct by others similarly situated.