Incidents gathered from public reporting around the world. Each one links to the articles it came from. None of it is a finding that anyone broke the law.
Reports people file about their own experience are not shown here and never will be without their agreement. Tell us what happened to you.
92 incidents closest to “Protégé Legal AI” · matched on meaning · public reporting
The AI tool generated fictitious case law citations that were included in a court filing, affecting the plaintiff and the court.
1 source article · read the reporting →
The AI generated fabricated case law that was submitted to the court, affecting the legal proceedings.
1 source article · read the reporting →
Sullivan & Cromwell, an elite Wall Street law firm, used an AI tool to help draft a court filing in the Prince Group case. The filing contained inaccurate citations and misquoted the US bankruptcy code due to AI hallucinations. The errors were uncovered by opposing counsel Boies Schiller Flexner, and the firm apologised to the judge and filed a corrected version. The firm stated that its AI policies were not followed and its review process failed to catch the mistakes.
3 source articles · read the reporting →
Nippon Life Insurance Company of America filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that ChatGPT acted as an unlicensed attorney by advising a former disability claimant to reopen a settled case and drafting dozens of meritless motions. The insurer claims the AI's actions constitute unauthorized practice of law under Illinois statute and seeks $300,000 in compensatory damages. OpenAI has denied the allegations, calling the complaint meritless. The case is pending in federal court in Chicago.
2 source articles · read the reporting →
Deloitte used generative AI (Azure OpenAI GPT-4o) to help produce an independent assurance review for Australia's Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. The report, published in July 2025, contained multiple errors including non-existent academic references and a fabricated court case. After the errors were flagged, Deloitte acknowledged the AI use and agreed to refund the final instalment of the A$439,000 contract. The report was corrected, but its substance and recommendations remained unchanged.
5 source articles · read the reporting →
Jonathan Faridian, a paying customer of DoNotPay, alleges that the AI-powered legal service provided poorly drafted and unusable legal documents, including demand letters and court filings. He claims that DoNotPay is not a lawyer or law firm and engaged in unauthorized practice of law. The lawsuit, filed in California, seeks class action status and restitution for all paying customers in the state. DoNotPay denies the allegations, stating that the plaintiff had submitted successful cases and that the lawsuit is meritless.
2 source articles · read the reporting →
A criminal court in Esquel, Chubut, Argentina, annulled a sentence after discovering that Judge Carlos Rogelio Richeri had used ChatGPT to draft the decision. The judge accidentally left in the phrase 'Aquí tienes el punto IV reeditado, sin citas y listo para copiar y pegar,' revealing the AI's involvement. The appeals court ruled that delegating the judicial decision to AI violated the principle of a natural judge and ordered a new trial with a different judge, while the Superior Tribunal of Justice will investigate the judge's ethical lapse.
3 source articles · read the reporting →
The AI generated fake legal citations that were included in a court filing, potentially harming the plaintiff's case.
1 source article · read the reporting →
The AI generated fabricated case law that was included in a court filing, misleading the court and resulting in sanctions against the litigant.
1 source article · read the reporting →
Digital Minds, a Finnish recruitment company founded by psychologists, used IBM Watson AI to analyze job applicants' social media and email messages for personality assessments. The company obtained written consent but the Finnish Data Protection Ombudsman launched an investigation, suspecting violations of data protection laws and the secrecy of correspondence. The service was used on fewer than ten applicants and has been paused pending the investigation.
9 source articles · read the reporting →
Momus Analytics, a legal technology company, uses machine learning to rank potential jurors for attorneys. Experts and researchers who reviewed the company's patent application say the algorithm relies on demographic characteristics such as race, which may violate constitutional prohibitions against discriminatory jury selection. The company claims its software has helped secure verdicts worth over $940 million, but did not respond to requests for comment.
9 source articles · read the reporting →
AI-generated fake court precedents were included in a legal appeal, leading to sanctions against the litigant for bad-faith litigation.
1 source article · read the reporting →
The Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII) has filed a lawsuit in British Columbia Supreme Court against Caseway AI, alleging that the company's AI chatbot scraped approximately 3.5 million records from CanLII's database in bulk, violating its terms of service and copyright. CanLII claims it adds value to public court records through hyperlinks and corrections, which it says constitute protected copyrighted work. Caseway AI argues the information is public and accessible elsewhere, and that it did not use CanLII's enhancements. The lawsuit was settled in March 2026, with terms undisclosed.
5 source articles · read the reporting →
The AI generated legal briefs containing fabricated citations, which were submitted to the Connecticut Supreme Court.
1 source article · read the reporting →
The AI generated fabricated legal citations that were submitted to the bankruptcy court.
1 source article · read the reporting →
The AI system generated fake legal citations that were included in a court filing, misleading the court and opposing counsel.
1 source article · read the reporting →
Brazilian authorities are investigating federal judge Jefferson Rodrigues after he published a ruling that contained incorrect legal citations and precedents, which he attributed to the use of AI tool ChatGPT. The National Justice Council summoned the judge to explain the errors, which included wrongly attributing past decisions to the Superior Court of Justice. Rodrigues described the mistakes as a "mere mistake" caused by work overload. This is reported as the first such case in Brazil.
8 source articles · read the reporting →
The Authors Guild and a group of prominent authors filed a lawsuit against OpenAI Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on September 19, 2023. The complaint alleges that OpenAI infringed their copyrights by using their works to train its AI language models without permission. The case is ongoing.
8 source articles · read the reporting →
The AI chatbot provided inaccurate information to a user.
1 source article · read the reporting →
The FTC took action against DoNotPay, a company that claimed to offer an AI service that was 'the world's first robot lawyer.' The company promised to generate legal documents and replace human lawyers, but the FTC alleged it failed to test its AI output and did not hire any attorneys. DoNotPay agreed to a settlement requiring it to pay $193,000 and notify consumers about the limitations of its service.
7 source articles · read the reporting →
EvenUp, a legal tech startup valued at $1 billion, uses AI to draft personal injury demand letters. Former employees revealed that the AI system frequently makes errors, including missing injuries and fabricating medical conditions. The company defends its hybrid approach with human oversight, but critics allege overpromised AI capabilities.
6 source articles · read the reporting →
Two law firms submitted a supplemental brief containing fake legal citations generated by AI systems including Google Gemini and Westlaw's CoCounsel. Judge Michael Wilner imposed $31,000 in sanctions after discovering the citations were fabricated. The lawyers admitted using AI without proper review or disclosure.
5 source articles · read the reporting →
In January 2024, journalists and authors Nicholas Basbanes and Nick Gage sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement. The lawsuit alleges that the companies used their published journalism to train large language models without permission or compensation. The case has been folded into a class action brought by the Authors Guild. The AI firms have denied any wrongdoing, and the case is still making its way through the legal system.
8 source articles · read the reporting →
A Dutch privacy probe into election advice has appeared to expose early violations of the EU AI Act's rules for general-purpose AI models by OpenAI, xAI and Mistral, according to MLex. The companies' chatbots provided distorted voting advice to users. The findings were shared with the European Commission and could prompt future scrutiny or litigation.
6 source articles · read the reporting →
