BriefCatch Launches RealityCheck to Verify Legal Authorities Before Filing

New capability helps lawyers and courts detect fabricated citations, misstated holdings, and other authority errors

WASHINGTON, March 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- BriefCatch, the legal writing platform used by law firms and courts to improve clarity and persuasive impact, today announced the launch of RealityCheck, a new authority verification capability to help attorneys and judges identify fabricated quotations, misstated holdings, unsupported legal propositions, and hallucinated authorities.

The launch follows a surge in authority errors across the world's courts. A database maintained by legal researcher Damien Charlotin has already identified more than 1,000 legal decisions involving AI hallucinations. Courts have imposed monetary sanctions and, in some instances, have disqualified attorneys from cases.

RealityCheck works directly within the attorney's drafting and review workflow, helping legal teams verify authorities before a document is submitted to a court. BriefCatch is also making RealityCheck available to its federal and state court clients.

"Once courts are running filed briefs through RealityCheck, the calculus changes for every litigator," said Ross Guberman, the founder and CEO of BriefCatch and a leading legal-writing expert. "The question isn't whether to verify your citations. It's whether you want the court to find the errors before you do."

Two-Layer Verification Process

RealityCheck combines deterministic citation validation with AI-assisted authority analysis.

First, citations to cases and federal statutes are verified through lookups against authoritative legal databases, cross-checking reporter volume, court identifiers, and case names to detect phantom or misidentified authorities.

Second, AI models evaluate whether quoted language appears in the opinion and whether the authority supports the legal proposition for which it is cited, helping identify fabricated quotations, misstated holdings, and unsupported propositions.

When applied to a brief filed in Fletcher v. Experian Information Solutions, Inc., No. 25-20086 (5th Cir.), RealityCheck identified every legal-authority error later cited by the Fifth Circuit — plus seven other errors the court did not mention. The errors included fabricated quotations, misstated holdings, and a citation that resolved to an entirely different case. In a February 2026 opinion, Chief Judge Elrod found that counsel had used generative AI to draft the brief and "failed to check the brief for accuracy." Counsel was sanctioned $2,500.

"RealityCheck will help lawyers fix these errors before courts and opposing counsel find them," Guberman said. "We want to improve the integrity of filings across the country."

The launch expands the BriefCatch platform beyond writing improvement into citation verification and AI risk management. RealityCheck marks the company's latest platform expansion following a recent Series A funding round and its acquisition of WordRake's patented editing technology. RealityCheck is available as part of the BriefCatch Next platform and as a standalone offering for firms seeking citation verification capabilities.

For more information, visit www.briefcatch.com.

About BriefCatch

Founded by bestselling author, legal-writing authority, and trainer of all new federal judges, Ross Guberman, BriefCatch delivers expert-informed editing technology trusted by tens of thousands of law firms, courts, agencies, and legal professionals. Integrating directly into Microsoft Word, BriefCatch provides instant, practical guidance to improve the clarity, precision, and persuasive power of legal writing.

Every citation. Every holding. Every quote. Verified before you file.

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SOURCE BriefCatch