Lawyers who used ChatGPT AI now have to pay a fine after a New York federal judge sanctioned them for citing fake AI-generated cases in a court filing.
Besides the fine, Judge P. Kevin Castel also sanctioned the two lawyers to contact the judges mentioned in the AI-made cases.
Lawyers Using ChatGPT Fined by Judge
Two lawyers found themselves in hot water after an AI-written court filing they submitted contained fake citations. The incident has raised concerns about the growing use of artificial intelligence in legal practices and the need for human oversight.
The lawyers involved were promptly sanctioned for their deceptive actions. As per a report by CNBC, a judge has sanctioned two lawyers who used AI to write a legal filing that contained fake citations.
In a landmark ruling, New York federal judge P. Kevin Castel has fined the two lawyers who used the viral AI tool, Peter LoDuca and Steven Schwartz. He notes that the attorneys have "abandoned their responsibilities after submitting the fake AI-writing court filing.
The NY federal judge further argued that the lawyers, under the Levidow, Levidow, and Oberman law firm, "continued to stand by the fake opinions" even after judicial orders questioned the integrity of the cited cases. And as such, Judge Castel slapped Schwartz, LoDuca, and their law firm with a sanction, which ordered them to pay fines of $5,000.
On top of paying their fines, the judge's order also required the two attorneys to contact the judges, who were identified as the authors of the fake case rulings, to notify them about the sanction. However, Judge Castel no longer asked the two ChatGPT lawyers to apologize to them.
His order states, "The Court will not require an apology from Respondents because a compelled apology is not a sincere apology." He adds that he leaves the decision for any apology to the two sanctioned lawyers.
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Law Firm Disagrees With the Findings
According to the Associated Press, the law firm of the two lawyers agreed to comply with the groundbreaking ruling of the New York Judge.
However, Levidow, Levidow, and Oberman disagreed with Judge Castel's findings. The law firm says, "We respectfully disagree with the finding that anyone at our firm acted in bad faith."
It further stressed that they "made a good faith mistake in failing to believe that a piece of technology could be making up cases out of whole cloth."
In the meantime, the law firm told AP News that they are still considering whether they would move forward to appeal the ruling of Judge Castel.
As Forbes reports, Schwartz used the AI tool ChatGPT to conduct his legal research for his court filing against Avianca Airlines. However, instead of accurately helping him, the chatbot provided him with bogus cases.
