Lawyers’ Use of ChatGPT in a Case Backfires, Resulting in Major Consequences
Two New York lawyers have been fined after submitting a legal brief with fake case citations generated by ChatGPT.
Steven Schwartz, of law firm Levidow, Levidow & Oberman, admitted using the chatbot to research the brief in a client’s personal injury case against airline Avianca.
He had used it to find legal precedents supporting the case, but lawyers representing the Colombian carrier told the court they could not find some examples cited – understandable, given they were almost entirely fictitious.
Several of them were completely fake, while others misidentified judges or involved airlines that did not exist.
District judge Peter Kevin Castel said Schwartz and colleague Peter LoDuca, who was named on Schwartz’s brief, had acted in bad faith and made “acts of conscious avoidance and false and misleading statements to the court”.
Portions of the brief were “gibberish” and “nonsensical”, and included fake quotes, the judge added.
Source: Sky News