Judge Kevin Castel on Thursday issued an opinion and order on sanctions that found Peter LoDuca, Steven A. Schwartz, and the law firm of Levidow, Levidow & Oberman P.C. had “abandoned their responsibilities when they submitted non-existent judicial opinions with fake quotes and citations created by the artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT, then continued to stand by the fake opinions after judicial orders called their existence into question.”
To punish the attorneys, the judge directed each to pay a $5,000 fine to the court, to notify their client, and to notify each real judge falsely identified as the author of the cited fake cases.
They should have just plain been disbarred. They were, de facto, lying in court.
They still can be. The state bar has to decide on that.
Exactly this. I imagine the New York bar was waiting for this opinion to get started. Also, I get that Rule 11 sanctions are rare but $5000 seems low given the equities at stake.