# Tribunale di Siracusa n. 338/2026: ~€30,206 in awards after four Cassation citations with fabricated holdings, court infers unverified generative-AI use

> An Italian first-instance court (Siracusa, sentenza n. 338/2026, 20 Feb 2026, G.U. Spitaleri) rejected a claim and imposed €14,103 in costs, a further €14,103 in reckless-litigation damages under art. 96 c.3 c.p.c., and €2,000 to the Cassa delle Ammende under art. 96 c.4, after the plaintiff's brief cited four real Cassation docket numbers whose quoted holdings existed in no judgment. The court held the only plausible explanation was uncritical use of a generative-AI tool without verifying the output against primary sources.

- Verification status: verified
- Case type: deployment
- Provider: Tribunale di Siracusa, Sezione Civile (G.U. Dott. Alfredo Spitaleri)
- Client: A. S.r.l. in liquidazione v. D.C. (parties anonymised), Legal / civil litigation (Italy) (named)
- Sector: legal / IT / cross
- Verified on: 2026-08-27
- Canonical URL: https://theinternetninja.com/stories/italy-tribunale-siracusa-338-2026-spitaleri-30206-euro-ai-fabricated-citations-lite-temeraria/
- Source: The Internet Ninja (theinternetninja.com), independent verified-proof platform

## Outcomes

| Metric | Before | After |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Legal-fee costs to the defendant (compensi, before statutory add-ons) |  |  |
| Reckless-litigation damages (art. 96, co. 3 c.p.c.) |  |  |
| Payment to the Cassa delle Ammende (art. 96, co. 4 c.p.c.) |  |  |
| Total of the three awards (per Il Sole 24 Ore) |  |  |
| Cassation citations with fabricated holdings |  |  |

## Verification method

Tier-1 signed decision (PDF) fetched, byte-tied (sha1 fc96021b…, 61,364 B) and text-extracted this session; all quotes bind under quotecheck. Il Sole 24 Ore (NT+Diritto) is the one independent newsroom carrying the three-award breakdown. Court-adjudicated public record.

## Full case file

## The problem

Before the Tribunale di Siracusa (R.G. n. 1244/2025), the plaintiff **A. S.r.l. in
liquidazione** sued **D.C.** in a civil damages matter, and to argue the
inapplicability of art. 1957 c.c. to liability under art. 38 c.c. its counsel cited
four Court of Cassation judgments — Cass. nn. **1216/2000, 8379/2006, 14795/2003 and
4553/2004** — each accompanied by a quoted holding in the style of a literal citation
([source](https://www.ecnews.it/app/uploads/sites/4/2026/03/tribunale-siracusa-sez-ii-sent-20-02-2026-n-338.pdf)).

## What was found

The defendant produced the full texts of the four cited judgments, and none of them
contained the quoted passages: the court found that "In tutti e quattro i casi i
passaggi tra virgolette non trovano riscontro in alcuna pronuncia esistente"
([source](https://www.ecnews.it/app/uploads/sites/4/2026/03/tribunale-siracusa-sez-ii-sent-20-02-2026-n-338.pdf)).
It noted that the two lead citations, "le sentenze nn. 1216/2000 e 8379/2006,
invocate a sostegno della tesi dell'inapplicabilità dell'art. 1957 c.c.", did not
carry the quoted language and addressed unrelated subjects
([source](https://www.ecnews.it/app/uploads/sites/4/2026/03/tribunale-siracusa-sez-ii-sent-20-02-2026-n-338.pdf)).
Il Sole 24 Ore's read-through records the same finding, that "I virgolettati, nella
loro formulazione autentica, non trovano riscontro in alcuna pronuncia"
([source](https://ntplusdiritto.ilsole24ore.com/art/quattro-sentenze-fantasma-e-conto-30000-euro-quando-l-utilizzazione-acritica-dell-ia-entra-tribunale-AIW7MlmB)).
Real docket numbers, fabricated holdings.

Reasoning by exclusion, the court concluded the only residual and most plausible
explanation was "che il difensore si sia avvalso di uno strumento di intelligenza
artificiale generativa senza sottoporre gli output ottenuti alla doverosa verifica
sulle fonti primarie" — generative-AI use **inferred by the court, not admitted by
counsel**
([source](https://www.ecnews.it/app/uploads/sites/4/2026/03/tribunale-siracusa-sez-ii-sent-20-02-2026-n-338.pdf)).
ICT Security Magazine's independent account reaches the same conclusion, that "il
difensore si era affidato a uno strumento di intelligenza artificiale generativa e
aveva riportato negli atti ciò che il sistema gli aveva restituito, senza verificarlo
sulle fonti primarie"
([source](https://www.ictsecuritymagazine.com/notizie/sentenza-siracusa-338-2026-ai/)).
The court added that Large Language Models "non 'sanno' né 'ricordano' alcunché, ma si
limitano a produrre sequenze di testo statisticamente plausibili", and are not
case-law databases
([source](https://www.ecnews.it/app/uploads/sites/4/2026/03/tribunale-siracusa-sez-ii-sent-20-02-2026-n-338.pdf)).

## The outcome

Holding that the plaintiff had litigated "con colpa grave, se non con mala fede"
([source](https://www.ecnews.it/app/uploads/sites/4/2026/03/tribunale-siracusa-sez-ii-sent-20-02-2026-n-338.pdf)),
the Tribunale di Siracusa (**sentenza n. 338/2026**, deposited **20 February 2026**,
G.U. Dott. **Alfredo Spitaleri**) rejected the claim and imposed three awards. It set
**€14,103.00** in legal-fee costs (compensi) to the defendant, "che si liquidano in
complessivi Euro 14.103,00 per compensi"
([source](https://www.ecnews.it/app/uploads/sites/4/2026/03/tribunale-siracusa-sez-ii-sent-20-02-2026-n-338.pdf)).
It added a further **€14,103.00** as reckless-litigation damages, "dell'ulteriore
importo di Euro 14.103,00 ex art. 96, co. 3, c.p."
([source](https://www.ecnews.it/app/uploads/sites/4/2026/03/tribunale-siracusa-sez-ii-sent-20-02-2026-n-338.pdf)).
And it ordered **€2,000.00** to the Cassa delle Ammende under art. 96, co. 4 c.p.c.,
"la sanzione in favore della cassa delle ammende nella misura, prossima alla metà del
massimo edittale, di Euro 2.000,00"
([source](https://www.ecnews.it/app/uploads/sites/4/2026/03/tribunale-siracusa-sez-ii-sent-20-02-2026-n-338.pdf)).
Il Sole 24 Ore totals the three bare figures: "Il prezzo dell'incoscienza: 30.206 euro
in tre voci"
([source](https://ntplusdiritto.ilsole24ore.com/art/quattro-sentenze-fantasma-e-conto-30000-euro-quando-l-utilizzazione-acritica-dell-ia-entra-tribunale-AIW7MlmB)).
ICT Security Magazine independently records the same breakdown of "14.103 euro di
spese legali, ad altrettanti 14.103 euro ex art. 96, comma 3, c.p.c. e a ulteriori
2.000 euro in favore della Cassa delle ammende ex art. 96, comma 4, c.p.c."
([source](https://www.ictsecuritymagazine.com/notizie/sentenza-siracusa-338-2026-ai/)).

**Weakest load-bearing source.** The three component awards are each stated verbatim
in the Tier-1 signed decision; the round **€30,206 total is not** — that figure is Il
Sole 24 Ore's own sum of the three bare awards (a Tier-2 secondary), quoted verbatim
rather than computed here, and the €14,103 costs are "per compensi" before the
statutory 15% forfait, 4% CPA and 22% IVA
([source](https://ntplusdiritto.ilsole24ore.com/art/quattro-sentenze-fantasma-e-conto-30000-euro-quando-l-utilizzazione-acritica-dell-ia-entra-tribunale-AIW7MlmB)).
The court component figures do not depend on that aggregation.

**Verification status: IN CHECKING — not publish-ready, not verified.** Court-origin
build; a green badge is a human-only step.

## How this was verified

**Method.** The Tier-1 signed decision PDF was fetched, byte-tied (sha1
`fc96021ba7676a061e7c999363c638c1732c001d`, 61,364 bytes) and text-extracted this
session; every quoted figure and holding above binds to it under quotecheck. Two
independent newsrooms — Il Sole 24 Ore (NT+Diritto) and ICT Security Magazine
(published 22 April 2026) — carry the three-award breakdown and the court's
AI-inference finding firsthand, corroborating the critical claims at two_independent.
AI use is **inferred by the court by exclusion**, not admitted by counsel, and the
four docket numbers point to real Cassation decisions whose quoted holdings were
fabricated. **Date verified:** 5 August 2026. This is a court-adjudicated public
record; the badge stays below green pending the owner's human sign-off.

## Sources

1. **Tribunale di Siracusa** · Sentenza n. 338/2026 (G.U. Dott. Alfredo Spitaleri), signed decision PDF · 20 Feb 2026 · https://www.ecnews.it/app/uploads/sites/4/2026/03/tribunale-siracusa-sez-ii-sent-20-02-2026-n-338.pdf — **Tier 1** (primary, signed decision)
2. **Il Sole 24 Ore (NT+Diritto)** · "Quattro sentenze fantasma e conto da 30.000 euro: quando l'utilizzazione acritica dell'IA entra in tribunale" · 2026 · https://ntplusdiritto.ilsole24ore.com/art/quattro-sentenze-fantasma-e-conto-30000-euro-quando-l-utilizzazione-acritica-dell-ia-entra-tribunale-AIW7MlmB — **Tier 2** (independent newsroom)
3. **ICT Security Magazine** · "Sentenza Siracusa 338/2026: l'uso acritico dell'IA in tribunale" · 22 Apr 2026 · https://www.ictsecuritymagazine.com/notizie/sentenza-siracusa-338-2026-ai/ — **Tier 2** (second independent newsroom)

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