Verification of record for papers filed in California courts
On January 1, 2027, “personally verified” becomes something you can be asked to prove.
Senate Bill 574 requires the responsible attorney to personally verify every citation in every paper filed in a California court, and to disclose the use of generative AI to the court. WritLock creates the record that you did so: citation by citation, signed by the attorney, sealed to the exact document filed.
The seal shown is an illustration.
Three questions a court can now put to you
“Who verified this citation?”
Amended section 128.7 looks to the responsible attorney, personally. A cite-checking report shows that software ran. It does not show that you read the page.
“Where is the policy?”
In September 2026 an appellate court noted that a firm describing its AI policy “did not attach the policy.” Courts credit what counsel can produce, and discount what counsel can only describe.
“What did the firm do?”
The firm is jointly responsible. In 2025 a federal court declined to sanction a firm that could show its controls, and publicly reprimanded and disqualified the individual attorneys.
A record, not another checker.
Your firm already licenses research tools that find bad citations. WritLock does not compete with them, and it applies no generative AI to your unfiled drafts. It records four things, and nothing else.
- Who handled the draft. Each person who touched the document signs for what they did and which AI tools, if any, they used.
- That the responsible attorney verified each citation. One at a time, with the source on screen, in the attorney’s own voice. There is no “approve all.”
- That the paper filed is the paper verified. The final PDF is fingerprinted and independently timestamped before filing. A later edit reopens only what it touched.
- What the court is told. A one-page certificate carries the AI disclosure and the verification statement, signed by the attorney.
What the absence of a record has cost
Public trackers now list more than two thousand decisions worldwide addressing fabricated authority. The amounts are rarely the point. The record that follows the attorney is.
In Noland, the court also declined to award fees to opposing counsel, who had not detected the fabricated citations. WritLock reviews the briefs you receive for that reason.
See it on a brief your firm has already filed.
Forty-five minutes. You verify five citations yourself, seal the document and export the record a court would ask for. Demonstrations are available from October 23, 2026.
Request a demonstration