# kaal:claim:5541658-007

**Claim.** Retrieval-augmented generation reduces but does not eliminate hallucination: leading legal research tools including Lexis+AI and Westlaw AI-Assisted Research still generate false citations or facts in 17 to 33 percent of cases.

**Type.** failure  **Support.** evidenced

**Holds when.**

- RAG-based commercial legal research platforms
- as measured at the time of the cited study; the authors note rates are progressively improving

**Source quote.**

> the risk of "hallucinations," where AI generates false legal citations or facts, as observed in tools like Lexis+AI and Westlaw AI-Assisted Research, which hallucinate in 17–33% of cases.

**From.** Wulf A. Kaal, Morgan A. Gray, *The Evolving Role of Artificial Intelligence in Law* (2025), Transparency and Interpretability, page 22

**Cite as.** Wulf A. Kaal, Morgan A. Gray, The Evolving Role of Artificial Intelligence in Law (2025). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5541658

**Verify.** sha256 of source PDF `e543a2d698fcd522d4d02e034cc9ee1344d0015d2c824b40b9e05ab7c0728c60` at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wulfkaal/Academic-Papers/main/papers/pdf/Kaal%20and%20Gray%20-%202025%20-%20The%20Evolving%20Role%20of%20Artificial%20Intelligence%20in%20Law.pdf

**Failure mode.** residual hallucination under RAG  (family: ai-model-and-training-failure)

**Topics.** law-and-legal-systems

**Keywords.** hallucination, retrieval-augmented-generation, legal-research, reliability

**Superseded by.** A later claim revises this one. Prefer quoting: https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/6421319-022

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