{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-26T08:52:26.223Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"professional-discipline","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"core","evidence":"","year":"","response":"regulatory","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":1,"coverage":{"cases":1,"countries":1,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":0,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":1,"minors":0,"coreRelations":1,"contextualRelations":0,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":0,"relationPending":0,"relationUnknown":0},"countingNote":"Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.","affectedCountNote":"Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.","source":"AI incidents","publisher":"NOPE","url":"https://nope.net/incidents","license":"CC BY 4.0"},"incidents":[{"id":"2023-colorado-lawyer-suspended-after-motion-cited-fictitious-cases-from-chatgpt-and-he-blamed-an-intern","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'cited case law that he found through the artificial intelligence platform, ChatGPT'; 'discovered that the cases from ChatGPT were either incorrect or fictitious'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'The motion cited three cases to support'; 'that were made up by the generative AI program, which the lawyer didn’t realize until it was too late.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The lawyer cited case law found through ChatGPT in a client's motion to set aside a judgment without reading or verifying it, and the cited cases were incorrect or fictitious; Law Week Colorado reports three non-existent Court of Appeals decisions.","causal_attribution":"The disciplinary summary attributes the fictitious citations to ChatGPT; the lawyer's affidavit says the same."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'falsely attributed the mistakes to a legal intern'; 'Six days after the hearing'; 'did not alert the court to the sham cases at the hearing. Nor did he withdraw the motion.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'I think all my cases cited from chatGPT are garbage'; 'the morning he was set to appear in front of the court May 5'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"On the morning of the hearing the lawyer realised the ChatGPT citations were fabricated, did not alert the court or withdraw the motion, and falsely attributed the mistakes to a legal intern; six days later he filed an affidavit saying he had used ChatGPT.","causal_attribution":"Findings in the stipulated disciplinary summary and the lawyer's own filed messages."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'denied the motion and ordered'; 'his decision to deny the motion wasn’t based on the made-up cases'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The judge denied the motion, ordered the lawyer to explain why he should not be sanctioned and reported to attorney regulators, and later stated that the denial was not based on the made-up cases.","causal_attribution":"Law Week Colorado's report of the court's orders."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'for one year and one day, with ninety'; 'The suspension took effect November 22, 2023.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'with 90 days to be served and the remainder to be stayed upon'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"The Presiding Disciplinary Judge approved a stipulation suspending the lawyer for one year and one day, with 90 days served and the remainder stayed on two years of probation, effective 22 November 2023.","causal_attribution":"The disciplinary summary and its relay; one origin."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'it never even dawned on me that this technology could be deceptive'; 'he was “overwhelmingly impressed” by ChatGPT’s capabilities after the program gave him accurate responses to a number of questions he asked as a test'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"In his affidavit the lawyer said earlier accurate answers from ChatGPT had made him trust its case citations.","causal_attribution":"The lawyer's own account in his affidavit, as quoted by Law Week Colorado."}],"effects":[{"label":"motion cited three fictitious cases supplied by ChatGPT","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"},{"label":"lawyer suspended for one year and one day, 90 days served","claim_id":"c4","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.cobar.org/Portals/COBAR/Repository/Family%20Law%20Section%20Folder/AI%20EXHIBITS%20-%20Combined.pdf","kind":"court_record_reproduction","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-26 from an Internet Archive capture of the Colorado Bar Association PDF (the live file returned HTTP 403); page 1 reproduces the Presiding Disciplinary Judge's summary of 23PDJ067.","independence_group":"colorado-pdj-23pdj067-summary"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.lawweekcolorado.com/article/colorado-lawyer-cited-fake-cases-in-motion-written-with-chatgpt/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-26 (HTTP 200, full article body).","independence_group":"lawweek-colorado-2023-06-21"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://www.lawweekcolorado.com/article/court-opinions-presiding-disciplinary-judge-opinions-for-oct-31-nov-22/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-26 (HTTP 200); relays the disciplinary opinion, so it shares s1's independence group.","independence_group":"colorado-pdj-23pdj067-summary"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["work","justice"],"unknowns":["Whether the lawyer's employment with his firm ended because of the motion; the firm did not answer Law Week Colorado's questions.","Which version of ChatGPT was used.","The full stipulation and opinion text beyond the published summary."],"geography":{"basis":"The motion was filed in a Colorado district court by a lawyer working in his firm's Colorado Springs office (Law Week Colorado), and the discipline was imposed by Colorado's Presiding Disciplinary Judge.","court_countries":["US"],"event_countries":["US"],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published because ChatGPT supplied fictitious case citations that a lawyer filed unchecked, and Colorado's Presiding Disciplinary Judge suspended him, with the misconduct findings including his false statement blaming an intern. The disciplinary summary records the ChatGPT use and the sanction.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-26"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The Presiding Disciplinary Judge's summary records that the lawyer cited case law he found through ChatGPT, that the cases were incorrect or fictitious, and that he later filed an affidavit saying he used ChatGPT; Law Week Colorado reports from the affidavit that ChatGPT supplied three non-existent appellate decisions. The fabricated citations, together with his failure to check them and his false statement about an intern, led to the suspension.","status":"supported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"Colorado lawyer suspended for a year and a day, 90 days served, after filing a motion with fictitious ChatGPT case citations and blaming an intern","summary":"A Colorado lawyer who had recently moved into civil litigation used ChatGPT in April and May 2023 to find case law for a client's motion to set aside a judgment and cited three Colorado Court of Appeals decisions that did not exist, without reading or checking them. On the morning of the 5 May hearing he realised the cases were fabricated but did not tell the court or withdraw the motion, and when the judge raised concerns he falsely blamed a legal intern; six days later he filed an affidavit saying he had used ChatGPT. The judge denied the motion, said the denial did not rest on the invented cases, and ordered him to show cause why he should not be sanctioned and reported to attorney regulators. On 22 November 2023 Colorado's Presiding Disciplinary Judge approved a stipulation suspending him for one year and one day, with 90 days served and the rest stayed on two years' probation, for violating rules on competence, diligence, candour to the tribunal and honesty.","incidentDate":"2023-05-01","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"month","exposurePattern":"repeated_interactions","reportedDate":"2023-06-21","aiSystem":"ChatGPT, which the lawyer used to find case law for the motion and which supplied three citations to decisions that did not exist","aiProduct":"ChatGPT","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["professional_harm","legal_harm"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"A lawyer who relied on unchecked ChatGPT case citations, then misled the court about them, was suspended from practice for a year and a day, with 90 days served, by Colorado's Presiding Disciplinary Judge.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"established","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person: the lawyer, who used ChatGPT himself and was suspended. The client's motion was denied, but the judge stated the denial did not rest on the fabricated cases, so no harm to the client is counted.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"US-CO","platformType":"other","outcomeType":"regulatory_action","outcomeStatus":"resolved","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.cobar.org/Portals/COBAR/Repository/Family%20Law%20Section%20Folder/AI%20EXHIBITS%20-%20Combined.pdf","primarySourceLabel":"Colorado Bar Association exhibit reproducing the Presiding Disciplinary Judge's summary, 23PDJ067, 22 November 2023","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-26T03:14:58.604934+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-26T03:14:58.604934+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["legal","lawyer","chatgpt","fabricated-citations","professional-discipline","own-use","work"]}]}