When Claude Hallucinates in Court: The Latham & Watkins Incident and What It Means for Attorney Liability

Latham & Watkins filed a declaration in Concord Music Group v. Anthropic that included a Claude-generated citation with the wrong title and authors.

The error made it into a court filing, was flagged by opposing counsel, and drew judicial scrutiny.

The court then required disclosure and stronger verification steps before AI-assisted citations are used in filings.

The episode underscores how AI can produce plausible but incorrect legal references, raising Rule 11 and professional-liability risks for attorneys.