{"id":6047,"date":"2025-10-18T13:45:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T13:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/woman-wins-court-case-chatgpt-lawyer\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T13:45:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T13:45:00","slug":"woman-wins-court-case-chatgpt-lawyer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/woman-wins-court-case-chatgpt-lawyer\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman Wins Court Case by Using ChatGPT as a Lawyer"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A woman in California successfully used AI tools, including ChatGPT, to overturn her eviction notice and avoid tens of thousands of dollars in penalties over several months of litigation.<\/p>\n

As NBC News<\/em> reports<\/a>, Lynn White was behind on rent and initially lost a jury trial after facing an eviction notice. Instead of continuing to work with a local tenant advocacy network, she consulted ChatGPT and the AI search platform Perplexity to represent herself in court.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s almost always a bad idea. But according to NBC<\/em>, the chatbot identified potential errors in a judge\u2019s procedural decisions for White, informed her what actions to take, and drafted responses to the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t overemphasize the usefulness of AI in my case,\u201d she told the broadcaster. \u201cI never, ever, ever, ever could have won this appeal without AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

White is one of several litigants NBC <\/em>spoke to who represented themselves with the help of AI and came out on top. Another is Staci Dennett, a home fitness business owner in New Mexico, who used AI to successfully negotiate a settlement over unpaid debt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would tell ChatGPT to pretend it was a Harvard Law professor and to rip my arguments apart,\u201d she told NBC<\/em>. \u201cRip it apart until I got an A-plus on the assignment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The output was eerily convincing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the law is something you\u2019re interested in as a profession, you could certainly do the job,\u201d the opposing lawyers reportedly told her in an email.<\/p>\n

However, the tools aren\u2019t always successful in overturning decisions or winning legal cases. AI tools are known to spit out made-up and misleading information that could get a pro se litigant in trouble \u2014 like energy drink mogul Jack Owoc, who was sanctioned in August after filing a motion<\/a> filled with hallucinated citations. Owoc was ordered to complete ten hours of community service, per NBC<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Perhaps more worryingly, even a growing number of professional lawyers have been caught<\/a> red-handed<\/a> submitting filings that include hallucinated court cases, resulting in penalties and embarrassment.<\/p>\n

Case in point, just earlier this week, 404 Media<\/em> reported<\/a> that a New York attorney who was caught using AI in court was then caught submitting an AI-generated explanation for his gaffe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case adds yet another unfortunate chapter to the story of artificial intelligence misuse in the legal profession,\u201d the disappointed judge overseeing the case wrote in a scathing decision<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In August, a California attorney was issued a \u201chistoric\u201d $10,000 fine<\/a> for submitting an AI-generated court appeal. Twenty-one of the 23 quotes from cases it cited were found to be fabricated.<\/p>\n

Despite the dangers of potentially misleading courts, the advent of easily accessible AI tools has led to a slew of people representing themselves in court.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen more and more pro se litigants in the last year than I have in probably my entire career,\u201d Thorpe Shwer paralegal Meagan Holmes told NBC<\/em>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s despite companies like Google warning users outright<\/a> not to rely on AI for legal advice. In its terms of service<\/a>, for instance, Elon Musk\u2019s xAI warns users not to use its services to make \u201chigh-stakes automated decisions that affect a person\u2019s safety, legal or material rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, existing guardrails aren\u2019t stopping tools like ChatGPT from spitting out detailed answers when presented with queries pertaining to legal proceedings, for better or for worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can understand more easily how someone without a lawyer, and maybe who feels like they don\u2019t have the money to access an attorney, would be tempted to rely on one of these tools,\u201d attorney Robert Freund told NBC<\/em>. \u201cWhat I can\u2019t understand is an attorney betraying the most fundamental parts of our responsibilities to our clients\u2026 and making these arguments that are based on total fabrication.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on lawyers using AI:<\/strong> Lawyer Gets Caught Using AI in Court, Responds in the Worst Possible Way<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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The post Woman Wins Court Case by Using ChatGPT as a Lawyer<\/a> appeared first on Futurism<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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