Caught Red-handed! New York Lawyers In Trouble For Using ChatGPT In Court Filings

Us Lawyers Admit Using ChatGPT For Case Research

A New York lawyer is facing trial after confessing to using ChatGPT for legal research. In the case filings, the lawyer cited several cases which according to the prescinding judge, do not exist! That is ChatGPT completely made them up.

Lawyer Peter LoDuca was representing a man named Roberto Mata who was suing Avanca Airline. Mata claimed that he was injured when he was hit in the knee by a metal serving cart during a flight to Kennedy International Airport in New York.

The opposing counsel asked the judge to toss the case but LoDuca objected. In his defense, LoDuca submitted a 10-page brief that cited over six court decisions ‘relevant’ to the case.

These decisions according to the New York Times include Martinez v. Delta Air Lines, Zicherman v. Korean Air Lines, and Varghese v. China Southern Airlines.

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There was one problem, however, as it soon became clear that none of these cited cases actually exist. US District Judge Kevin Castel found that six of the supplied cases “appear to be bogus judicial decisions with bogus quotes and bogus internal citations.” This was after the opposing counsel had called attention to the same.

With the investigation into the case, it soon became apparent that the case filings were prepared by Steven A Schwartz, another lawyer at Levidow, Levidow, & Oberman, the same firm as Mr. LoDuca.

Mr. Schwartz, who had prepared the brief, admitted to using ChatGPT which had produced the ‘bogus’ citations. He even told the judge that he had asked the program to verify that the cases were real and it said yes.

Consequences For The Lawyers

Stephen A. Schwartz, who has been a lawyer for over 30 years, is without a doubt in trouble. Mr. Schwartz currently works at the firm Levidow, Levidow, & Oberman and has thrown himself at the mercy of the court.

In a written statement, Mr. Schwartz said he “greatly regrets” using the AI chatbot adding that he was completely “unaware that its content could be false”.

Both lawyers, Steven A. Schwartz, and Peter LoDuca will face a hearing on June 8th, 2023. The court has ordered them to explain why they should be pardoned following the incident and not disciplined.

ChatGPT In Law

Since its debut in November 2022, ChatGPT has been used by millions of users. It may imitate various writing styles and respond to queries in language that seems natural and human. However, there is a disclaimer that comes with the AI chatbot.

And that is that the information provided could sometimes be incorrect making the chatbot unreliable for some situations. In law, for example, there have been cases where the chatbot has time and time again proven its unreliability before this case.

Last month, ChatGPT erroneously included a respectable and innocent US law professor on a list of legal experts who had previously mistreated students sexually as part of a research study.

The said professor was Jonathan Turley, Shapiro Chair of Public Interest Law at George Washington University who was left ‘shocked’.

Other than ChatGPT as well as other AI models providing wrong information, they also present other issues in the field. This is because they bring about issues on ethical considerations, security, client privacy, and privilege.

Lawyers and even judges who choose to use AI models in their research have to familiarize themselves with the Terms of Use and Privacy policies of these models.