By: Bryan Tropeano
Legal tech keeps moving fast, but the legal profession moves on trust. That tension is starting to show.
A new tool from BrentWorks Inc. takes aim at one of the biggest emerging risks in modern law practice: fake citations generated by AI. The company just launched CiteSentinel, a platform built to catch hallucinated case law before it ever reaches a courtroom.
And right now, that problem is not theoretical.
Courts across the country have already sanctioned attorneys for filing briefs that cite cases that simply do not exist. These errors often come from generative AI tools that produce convincing but fabricated legal authority. The result is more than just a bad filing. It puts reputations, client relationships, and even careers on the line.
CiteSentinel steps directly into that gap. Instead of helping lawyers find more cases, it focuses on something more fundamental: making sure the cases they already cite are real. The platform scans legal documents and flags anything that looks fabricated, misstated, or unverifiable.
That shift matters. Legal research tools have always been about discovery. This is about verification.
Even attorneys who avoid AI entirely are not immune to the issue. Work flows through teams. Associates draft. Paralegals assist. Contract attorneys contribute. Opposing counsel files their own briefs. At any point in that chain, AI can enter the process without disclosure. When something goes wrong, responsibility does not follow the tool. It follows the name on the filing.
That reality is forcing a new kind of question into legal workflows. Not whether the argument is strong, but whether the authorities behind it actually exist.
Brent Britton, co-founder of BrentWorks, puts it plainly. AI does not just make mistakes. It produces answers that sound right even when they are completely wrong. That makes blind trust dangerous, especially in a profession where precision is everything.
CiteSentinel gives attorneys a way to move quickly without sacrificing that precision. Lawyers can scan their own drafts before filing. They can review work from colleagues and outside contributors. They can even analyze opposing counsel’s submissions and challenge citations that do not hold up.
That last use case adds an interesting layer. Verification is not just defensive anymore. It can be strategic.
The timing makes sense. Deadlines keep shrinking, workloads keep growing, and AI tools continue to gain traction across the legal industry. But while drafting has accelerated, verification has lagged behind. That imbalance is exactly where problems start.
Tools like CiteSentinel aim to rebalance that equation. They do not replace legal judgment. They reinforce it.
The bigger picture is hard to ignore. A few years ago, the idea that lawyers would need to double check whether cited cases were real would have sounded absurd. Today, it is becoming part of basic professional responsibility.
That shift says a lot about where the industry is heading. AI is not going anywhere. But neither are the standards that define legal practice.
The firms that adapt will not be the ones that avoid AI entirely. They will be the ones that build systems around it, making sure speed never comes at the cost of accuracy.
CiteSentinel is one of the first tools built specifically for that purpose. It likely will not be the last.
About the author: Bryan Tropeano is a senior producer and a regular reporter for NewsWatch. He lives in Washington D.C. and loves all things Tech.
