New York lawyers face sanctions for using Chat GPT for legal research, citing fake cases

Two New York attorneys are facing sanctions after citing nonexisting case law in a court filing that had been provided by Chat GPT, an internet chatbot that conducts research upon request.

Steven Schwartz and Peter LoDuca of Levidow, Levidow & Oberman, P.C., were representing an individual who accused Avianca Airlines of negligence after he was injured during a flight.

Mr. Schwartz consulted Chat GPT for legal research as he drafted documents for the case.

According to court papers, Mr. Schwartz is accused of citing roughly half a dozen fake cases to support his legal arguments. Opposing counsel caught the fabrications and challenged the citations.

Judge P. Kevin Castel, who is overseeing the dispute, set a hearing for next week, June 8, to consider imposing sanctions on the lawyers for their use of false case law.

“The Court is presented with an unprecedented circumstance,” he wrote in an order on May 4.

Mr. Schwartz admitted in a court filing that he did not confirm the sources provided by the artificial intelligence bot.

Lawyers representing the attorneys ahead of their discipline hearing did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Times.

This is not the first time Chat GPT has come under scrutiny for providing fake information.

Some legal scholars have claimed the AI bot could face defamation challenges for providing false reports about individuals.

Earlier this year, Brian Hood, a mayor in an area northwest of Melbourne, Australia, made news when he threatened to sue OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which falsely reported he’s guilty of a foreign bribery scandal. The false accusations allegedly occurred in the early 2000s with the Reserve Bank of Australia.

A spokesperson from Open AI, which owns Chat GPT, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.