Florida referral expands AI risk beyond fabricated citations

On October 21, 2026, Reuters reported that Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal referred lawyer Jaclyn Soroka to the Florida Bar for possible discipline after describing filings as excessively long, unfocused and containing apparent AI-generated “gibberish.” The court’s concern was not limited to invented authorities; it focused on failure to exercise independent professional judgment over the overall work product. That distinction matters for mid-sized firms because citation checkers alone do not address relevance, proportionality, tone or strategic coherence. Quality controls should require substantive owner review and escalation criteria for abnormal length or structure, with audit records showing who approved the final filing.