What 'I asked it to double-check' does not do
Lesson 4 of 6 · Verify before you file
1 · Learn the move · Cognitive verifier
The most common defence in the sanctions orders is that the lawyer asked the tool whether the cases were real and it said yes [S]. Of course it did. Asking the same process that produced a citation whether the citation is genuine is asking it to produce the likely next words after 'is this case real', and the likely next words are 'yes, this case is real and holds'. It has no retrieval to consult. A cognitive-verifier prompt is still useful, for a different job: it makes the model decompose the question into the checks a person would run, which turns one vague worry into a list of specific page-opens. The verifier asks the questions. It never answers them. The moment the model's output contains the word 'confirmed' about an authority, the prompt has failed, and the right response is to rewrite the prompt so the model cannot produce that word, not to feel reassured. This lesson is short because the rule is short: a model cannot verify a citation, and a prompt that makes it look as if it did is worse than no prompt.
Do not tell me whether any authority below is real; you cannot know. Instead, for each one, write the three questions a lawyer must answer by opening sources (exists at the cite? holds the proposition? pin on the right page?) and the exact source to open for each. If I ask you again whether a case is real, answer only: 'I cannot open sources. Here is the page to open.' Authorities: [paste]
2 · Your turn. You write the prompt
The associate's chat log shows the exchange: 'Are all nine of these cases real?' 'Yes, all nine citations are accurate and support the propositions stated.' The partner wants the associate to write the prompt that would have made that answer impossible.
Write the prompt for this scenario as given, or swap in a real one from your own work. The score works the same either way.
Remember: the AI sees only your prompt, not this page. If the situation isn't in your prompt, it doesn't exist.
Optional. These shape the output when you run your prompt below, not your score.