Make a citation checklist
Copy each case name, court, year, citation, and link into a small table. Add columns labeled “found,” “passage checked,” “jurisdiction,” and “status unresolved.” Treat empty columns as open questions. A numbered footnote or a realistic reporter abbreviation does not make the reference authentic.
The Tulare County Law Library’s AI warning recommends checking case names, quotations, and citations against official sources. Start with the court’s published opinion or an official statute page. A secondary article can help locate an authority, but it should not substitute for reading the authority itself.
Verify what the document actually says
Search within the document for the phrase attributed to it. Read the surrounding paragraphs. Ask whether the statement is the court’s conclusion, a party’s argument, a quotation from another case, or background discussion. Those are different things.
An invented example shows the problem: an AI answer says a decision “guarantees reimbursement of every medical bill.” The underlying document instead says the claimant failed to prove the bill was related to the incident. The case exists, but it does not support the answer. Record that mismatch rather than asking the same model to reassure you.
Check relevance and later developments
Identify the court and state, the legal issue, and the factual setting. A federal procedure rule is not automatically a rule for a state small claims hearing. A decades-old decision may have been affected by later legislation or decisions. If you cannot confidently check that history, ask a law librarian or qualified lawyer for assistance.
The U.S. Courts’ access guide also explains limits on public case information, including confidential settlement material. An absent public settlement amount should remain unknown; it should not be filled with a guessed number.
Keep a verification note
Use this format: “Authority located at [official URL], checked on [date], supports [specific proposition], current applicability [confirmed by professional / unresolved].” Keep a copy of the passage for your own reference with its context intact. If any check fails, do not include the citation in a demand, filing, or statement to another person as if it were verified.