As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly common in law offices, a new legal technology startup is betting that one of the profession’s biggest challenges won’t be generating legal documents—it will be making sure the citations inside them are real.
BrentWorks Inc. has launched CiteSentinel, a verification platform designed to identify potentially fabricated, inaccurate, or hallucinated legal citations before they make their way into court filings.
The tool arrives as courts across the country continue to confront a growing problem tied to generative AI. While AI-powered writing tools can quickly produce legal briefs and research summaries, they have also become notorious for creating convincing-looking court cases, statutes, and legal authorities that simply do not exist.
For attorneys, the consequences can be severe. Judges have increasingly sanctioned lawyers who submit filings containing fake citations, regardless of whether the errors originated from AI software, support staff, or outside contractors.
According to BrentWorks co-founder Brent Britton, the issue goes beyond lawyers who actively use AI.
“Many attorneys believe they are insulated from this problem because they don’t personally use AI,” Britton said. “The reality is that associates, contract attorneys, paralegals, and even opposing counsel may be using these tools every day.”
CiteSentinel was developed to address that risk by scanning legal documents and verifying whether cited authorities correspond to actual cases, statutes, and legal sources. Rather than functioning as a research platform that helps lawyers find more legal information, the software focuses on confirming that the information already included in a document is accurate.
The platform can be used to review a firm’s own filings before submission, evaluate work prepared by colleagues or support staff, and even analyze opposing counsel’s documents for citation errors.
That final capability could provide a strategic advantage in litigation, allowing attorneys to identify and challenge questionable authorities before they influence a case.
BrentWorks says the technology is intended to serve as a safeguard at a time when legal professionals face increasing pressure to work faster while maintaining ethical and professional standards.
The company was founded by Brent Britton, a technology attorney, entrepreneur, and MIT-trained engineer, alongside Brent Hunter, a veteran technologist who has worked on major transformation projects for companies including Disney, Wells Fargo, GE, and Warner Bros. Discovery.
As AI continues to reshape the legal profession, tools like CiteSentinel highlight a new reality for attorneys: the challenge is no longer simply finding legal authority, but verifying that it exists.
For law firms navigating the rapidly evolving AI landscape, that extra layer of protection could become an increasingly important part of risk management in the digital age.