AI Hallucination Cases

AI Use

Counsel from Levidow, Levidow & Oberman used ChatGPT for legal research to oppose a motion to dismiss a personal injury claim against Avianca airlines, citing difficulty accessing relevant federal precedent through their limited research subscription.

Hallucination Details

The attorneys' submission included at least six completely non-existent judicial decisions, complete with fabricated quotes and internal citations. Examples cited by the court include Varghese v. China Southern Airlines Co., Ltd., Shaboon v. Egyptair, Petersen v. Iran Air, Martinez v. Delta Airlines, Inc., Estate of Durden v. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, and Miller v. United Airlines, Inc.. When challenged by opposing counsel and the court, the attorneys initially stood by the fake cases and even submitted purported copies of the opinions, which were also generated by ChatGPT and contained further bogus citations.

Ruling/Sanction

Judge P. Kevin Castel imposed a $5,000 monetary sanction jointly and severally on the two attorneys and their law firm. He also required them to send letters informing their client and each judge whose name was falsely used on the fabricated opinions about the situation.

Key Judicial Reasoning

Judge Castel found the attorneys acted in bad faith, emphasizing their "acts of conscious avoidance and false and misleading statements to the Court" after the issue was raised. The sanctions were imposed not merely for the initial error but for the failure in their gatekeeping roles and their decision to "double down" rather than promptly correcting the record. The opinion detailed the extensive harms caused by submitting fake opinions. This case is widely considered a landmark decision and is frequently cited in subsequent discussions and guidance.

Unclear if any formal decision on the matter, the incident was reported in the Law Society Gazette in May 2023 (source).

"Mr Nash is unrepresented. He prepared the appellant's case himself, although it appears that he may have had some assistance with later submissions (including, perhaps, from an artificial intelligence program such as Chat GPT). Neither form of submission made coherent submissions as to why the trial judge's decision was affected by material error or otherwise gave rise to a miscarriage of justice. Nor did the material sought to be adduced by Mr Nash as additional evidence on the appeal disclose any miscarriage of justice.

[...]. There is otherwise no jurisdictional basis to transfer criminal proceedings under State law in this Court to the court of another State. The authorities cited by Mr Nash in support of such jurisdiction do not exist; they are fictitious."

The court dismissed the appeal, finding no merit in the grounds presented, and refused to admit additional evidence. No professional sanctions or monetary penalties were imposed as Nash was a pro se litigant.

Petitioner (an attorney) filed an amicus request accompanied by a 'fábula' co-written with ChatGPT. TSE held that amicus filings are inapplicable in electoral proceedings (Res.-TSE nº 23.478/2016), found the submission to evidence bad-faith litigation and manifestly unfounded intervention, ordered desentranhamento of the petition and imposed a monetary fine for litigância de má-fé.