A federal judge in Puerto Rico has ordered two attorneys to pay more than $24,400 in penalties after their filings in a lawsuit tied to professional soccer were riddled with bogus legal citations—55 of them, to be exact.
The case centers on claims that FIFA conspired to limit sanctioned matches and tournaments on the island, narrowing opportunities for players. Representing the Puerto Rico Soccer League, attorneys José Olmo-Rodríguez and Ibrahim Reyes found themselves on the wrong side of Chief U.S. District Judge Raúl Arias-Marxuach’s patience.
The judge noted that while the lawyers denied turning to artificial intelligence to draft their documents, the avalanche of faulty references suggested otherwise. “The sheer number of inaccurate or nonexistent citations suggests otherwise,” his order stated.
Defense firms Paul Weiss and Sidley Austin, among others, had demanded nearly $60,000 in legal fees. Arias-Marxuach trimmed the request, saying such a figure was unsupported in any comparable case. After scrutinizing billing practices, he awarded $8,425 to Paul Weiss and $4,435 to Sidley Austin, applying Puerto Rico rates rather than the higher figures typical of major U.S. markets.
The sanctioned lawyers argued their errors were minor, inadvertent, and caused no harm, but the court wasn’t persuaded. Arias-Marxuach had already signaled back in April that sanctions were coming, and on Tuesday he finalized the decision.
The ruling adds to a growing wave of judicial crackdowns on sloppy or unverified use of AI in legal practice. From New York to California, judges have warned that copy-pasting machine-generated text without proper checks can carry real costs.
As the judge put it, the sanctions are meant to send a message: attorneys practicing in Puerto Rico should think twice before letting unvetted AI shape their filings.
The case is Puerto Rico Soccer League NFP et al v. Federación Puertorriqueña de Fútbol et al, No. 3:23-cv-01203-RAM.
