Lawyers filed ChatGPT’s imaginary cases; judge fined them

Jun 2023

In Mata v. Avianca, attorneys submitted a brief citing non-existent cases generated by ChatGPT. A federal judge sanctioned two lawyers, ordered a $5,000 penalty, and required notices to judges named in the fake citations.

Incident Details

Perpetrator:Legal Counsel

Severity:Facepalm

Blast Radius:Court sanctions; fines and mandated notices; reputational damage in legal community.

Tech Stack

ChatGPTLLMLegal brief drafting workflow

References

Reuters: New York lawyers sanctioned for using fake ChatGPT cases in legal brief ↗Court order: Mata v. Avianca, Inc., sanctions (S.D.N.Y. 6/22/2023) - Justia (Doc. 55) ↗Court docket overview - CourtListener ↗