The appellate panel identified the bogus citations before the trial judge issued her ruling, yet the judge incorporated them anyway. The attorney responsible has been criticized as engaging in egregious misconduct; separate reports indicate the lawyer was a government attorney who ignored the court's prior admonitions and rulings on the matter.
The reversal signals that appellate courts are treating citation integrity as a threshold issue of procedural fairness—serious enough to vacate judgments and warrant disciplinary referrals. Attorneys should note the heightened scrutiny now applied to legal citations in filings, particularly when courts have flagged concerns before a ruling issues. The case reflects a broader trend of appellate sanctions for fabricated or unreliable citations, making citation verification a critical practice management issue.