A New York attorney has been accused of using ChatGPT for legal research as part of a lawsuit against a Colombian airline.
Steven Schwartz, an attorney with the New York law firm Levidow, Levidow & Oberman, was engaged by Robert Mata to pursue a claim for damages against Avianca Airlines.
According to a May 28 CNN Business report, Mata claims he was injured on a flight with the airline in 2019 .
However, after a judge noted inconsistencies and factual errors in the case file, Schwartz has now admitted to using ChatGPT for his legal research, according to a May 24 affidavit .
He claims it was the first time he used ChatGPT for legal research and was "unaware of the possibility that its content could be false."
In an April 5 court letter, the judge presiding over the case stated:
"Six of the cases submitted appear to be false court decisions with false citations and false internal citations."
The judge further stated that some of the cases referred to in the letters did not actually exist, and there was a case where the file number in the submission was mixed up with another court submission.
