{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-12T08:20:28.756Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"federal_court","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"contextual","evidence":"","year":"2026","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":1,"coverage":{"cases":1,"countries":1,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":0,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":1,"regulatory":0,"minors":0,"coreRelations":0,"contextualRelations":1,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":0,"relationPending":0,"relationUnknown":0},"countingNote":"Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.","affectedCountNote":"Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.","source":"AI incidents","publisher":"NOPE","url":"https://nope.net/incidents","license":"CC BY 4.0"},"incidents":[{"id":"2026-arizona-federal-court-dismisses-apparently-ai-generated-workplace-complaint-bars-ai-drafting","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'The complaint appears to have been generated'; 'by artificial intelligence (“AI”) as it resembles other AI-generated complaints the court has'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The court stated that the complaint appears to have been generated by artificial intelligence because it resembles other AI-generated complaints the court has encountered.","causal_attribution":"Statement in the court's order of 6 October 2026; the order records an appearance, not an admission or a finding of who drafted the complaint."},{"id":"c2","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'complaint qualifies as a forbidden “shotgun pleading.”'; 'is prohibited from using AI to draft her'; 'IT IS ORDERED the complaint (Doc. 1) is DISMISSED. No later than October'; '19, 2026, plaintiff shall file an amended complaint of no more than 25 pages that is not'; 'drafted using AI tools. The Clerk of Court is directed to enter a judgment of dismissal with'; 'prejudice in the event no amended complaint is filed by that date.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The court dismissed the complaint as a shotgun pleading, granted leave to file an amended complaint of no more than 25 pages by 19 October 2026, prohibited the plaintiff from using AI to draft it and directed entry of a judgment of dismissal with prejudice if none is filed.","causal_attribution":"Disposition stated in the court's order; the AI-drafting prohibition is the court's response to the complaint's apparent AI origin."},{"id":"c3","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'filed a 67-page complaint that'; 'includes 199 separate paragraphs.'; 'brings this action principally under Title'; 'claim as one for “hostile work environment.”'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The complaint, filed on 11 September 2026, ran to 67 pages and 199 paragraphs and was brought principally under Title VII's anti-retaliation provision, while also describing a hostile work environment claim.","causal_attribution":"Description of the complaint in the court's order."},{"id":"c4","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'with filings in this matter must attach to the subject filing a separate declaration disclosing'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The order also sets the judge's standing requirement that any party using generative AI in filings attach a declaration disclosing that use and certifying personal review of the filing.","causal_attribution":"Case-management requirement stated in the order; context, applies to all parties."}],"effects":[{"label":"workplace complaint dismissed and the plaintiff barred from using AI to draft the amended complaint","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.azd.1517524/gov.uscourts.azd.1517524.6.0.pdf","kind":"court_record","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in full in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-12 from the RECAP copy of the order (text extracted with pdftotext); no translation was involved and no human reviewer read the order. HTTP 200.","independence_group":"d-ariz-cv-26-08218-order-doc-6"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["unknown"],"contexts":["justice","work"],"unknowns":["Whether the plaintiff or anyone else used an AI tool to draft the complaint, and which tool; the order states only that the complaint appears AI-generated.","Whether the plaintiff is self-represented; the order does not say.","The plaintiff's employer and workplace; the order names only the defendant and does not describe the employment.","Whether an amended complaint will be filed by 19 October 2026 and what follows."],"geography":{"basis":"The event is the filing and dismissal of the complaint in the US District Court for the District of Arizona (order caption and text), so the filing and the court's decision took place in the US. The order gives no residence or workplace location for the plaintiff, so affected_person_countries is left empty.","court_countries":["US"],"event_countries":["US"],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a consequential-response case on the court's own order: a federal judge in Arizona dismissed a workplace complaint that the court said appeared to be AI-generated and barred the plaintiff from using AI to draft the amended complaint. The dismissal and the prohibition are documented by the order; the AI origin is the court's stated appearance, recorded as suspected. The plaintiff is a private party and is not named in the public text.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-12"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The reported harm is the court's response to the complaint's apparent AI origin. The order states that the complaint 'appears to have been generated by artificial intelligence' because it resembles other AI-generated complaints the court has encountered, dismisses it for the defects the court describes (voluminous, repetitive allegations, shifting claims, discussions of law and missing exhibits) and prohibits the plaintiff from using AI to draft the amended complaint. The apparently AI-generated text informed the court's decision about the plaintiff (informed_decision_about): the court read the complaint, attributed its form to AI, dismissed it and imposed an AI-specific drafting restriction. The court's attribution rests on its comparison with other complaints; no admission, tool or drafter is identified, so the status is suspected.","status":"suspected"},"person_relations":["informed_decision_about"]},"name":"Arizona federal court dismisses a Title VII complaint it says appears AI-generated and bars the plaintiff from using AI to draft the amended complaint","summary":"On 6 October 2026 a judge of the US District Court for the District of Arizona dismissed a 67-page, 199-paragraph workplace complaint filed on 11 September 2026, saying it appeared to have been generated by artificial intelligence because it resembled other AI-generated complaints the court had encountered. The court dismissed it as a shotgun pleading that did not give the defendant or the court sufficient notice of the claims, which it said shifted between Title VII retaliation, hostile work environment and retaliatory hostile work environment. It granted leave to file an amended complaint of no more than 25 pages by 19 October 2026, prohibited the plaintiff from using AI to draft it and directed entry of a judgment of dismissal with prejudice if no amended complaint is filed. The order does not establish who drafted the complaint or name any AI tool.","incidentDate":"2026-10-06","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"day","exposurePattern":"unknown","reportedDate":"2026-10-09","aiSystem":"Unidentified generative AI tool that the court said the complaint appeared to have been generated by; no tool is named and the plaintiff's use is not established in the order","aiProduct":"Unidentified AI drafting tool (suspected)","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["legal_harm"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The plaintiff's employment complaint was dismissed with leave to amend, and the court barred the plaintiff from using AI to draft the amended complaint, which must be filed by 19 October 2026 in no more than 25 pages or the case will be dismissed with prejudice (D. Ariz. order, 6 October 2026). The court said the complaint appeared to be AI-generated; the order does not establish who drafted it.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":1,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person: the plaintiff whose complaint was dismissed and who was barred from using AI to draft the amended complaint. Counted outside direct AI users because the order says only that the complaint appears to have been generated by AI and does not establish who drafted it. The defendant is not counted.","victimAgeRange":"unknown","jurisdiction":"US","platformType":"other","outcomeType":"lawsuit_dismissed","outcomeStatus":"pending","primarySourceUrl":"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.azd.1517524/gov.uscourts.azd.1517524.6.0.pdf","primarySourceLabel":"US District Court, D. Ariz., No. CV-26-08218-PCT-KML, order (Doc. 6) signed 6 Oct 2026, filed 7 Oct 2026","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-12T03:12:35.558091+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-12T03:12:35.558091+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["apparent_ai_generated_filing","courts","dismissal","federal_court","employment","united_states","arizona"]}]}