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ARTICLE · 03 JULY 2023

Judge Castel Sanctions Lawyers Who Submitted Fake Cases Generated By ChatGPT

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On Thursday, Judge Castel sanctioned two lawyers and their law firm $5,000 in connection with their widely publicized submission of fake cases generated by ChatGPT.

United StatesTechnology
Meghan Newcomer
Meghan Newcomer

On Thursday, Judge Castel sanctioned two lawyers and their law firm $5,000 in connection with their widely publicized submission of fake cases generated by ChatGPT.

The relevant events began on March 1, when the plaintiff's lawyers submitted an "affirmation" in opposition to the defendant's motion to dismiss, which first cited the fake cases. On March 15, the defendant a reply brief questioning the existence of many of the cases cited in plaintiff's "affirmation."

After reading the reply and being unable to locate a number of the cases himself, Judge Castel ordered plaintiff's lawyers to produce the cases cited in their opposition. Plaintiff's counsel submitted an affidavit attaching the excerpts of the "cases" on April 25th. Judge Castel reviewed the "purported decisions" and described them as showing "stylistic and reasoning flaws that do not generally appear in decisions" from federal courts and containing legal analysis that was "gibberish." On May 4, he

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