"Was There Such a Precedent?"... US Lawyer Embarrassed After Writing Brief with ChatGPT

Lawyers Presenting False Precedents Fined $5,000
"Must Ensure Accuracy of Submissions When Using AI Tools"

American lawyers who submitted briefs written using the interactive artificial intelligence (AI) ChatGPT were fined.

[Photo by Yonhap News]

On the 22nd (local time), according to CNBC in the United States, P. Kevin Castel, a judge at the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, ordered two lawyers who falsely cited non-existent case law using ChatGPT to pay fines of $5,000 (approximately 6.5 million KRW).

Judge Castel also imposed the same fines on the law firm Levito, Levito & Oberman, to which the lawyers Peter Roduka and Steven Schwartz belong.

Judge Castel stated, "(The two lawyers) continued to assert false opinions even after the court questioned the authenticity of the case law," and noted that if the two lawyers had honestly disclosed that they cited AI-generated case law, they might not have been punished.

He said the two lawyers acted "irresponsibly" and ordered that the judges falsely listed as authors of the non-existent case law in the briefs be individually notified of the sanctions.

Earlier, the two lawyers filed a lawsuit against Avianca Airlines on behalf of a plaintiff who was injured on the knee by an in-flight meal tray on an international flight in 2019.

The lawyers representing Avianca Airlines raised concerns that the case law and other legal citations listed in the briefs submitted by the two lawyers did not actually exist, revealing that the briefs were poorly prepared.

Judge Castel emphasized responsibility, stating, "While it is not inherently inappropriate to use reliable AI tools as an aid in an era where technological advances have become commonplace, current regulations impose a gatekeeping role on lawyers to ensure the accuracy of their submissions.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.