On June 22, 2023, District Judge Hon. P. Kevin Castel of the Second District of New York issued an unprecedented sanctions order in Mata v. Avianca, No. 22-CV-1461 (PKC), 2023 WL 4114965 (S.D.N.Y. June 22, 2023), arising from counsel’s citations to fictional cases fabricated by OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot.
Despite wide publicity of this order, fabricated cases continue to appear in litigation nationwide (the authors are aware of approximately a dozen federal and state proceedings where filings or orders mention nonexistent cases). In a July 2023 habeas denial, a perplexed Texas judge noted several apparently fictitious cases cited in the petition (Ex parte Lee, 673 S.W.3d 755, 756 (Tex. App.—Waco Jul. 19, 2023)).
