Incident 1138: South African Legal Team Reportedly Relied on Unverified ChatGPT Case Law in Johannesburg Body Corporate Defamation Matter

Description: In a defamation case at the Johannesburg Regional Court, Rodrigues Blignaut Attorneys, representing plaintiff Michelle Parker, reportedly relied on purportedly non-existent legal judgments generated by ChatGPT to help argue their case. Magistrate Arvin Chaitram reportedly found the case names and citations were fictitious, causing a two-month delay. The court issued a punitive costs order and rebuked the plaintiff's legal team for uncritically accepting AI-generated research.
Editor Notes: Timeline note: This incident ID takes 03/01/2023 as its incident date, but it was added to the database on 07/05/2025. The reported timeline is as follows: Reportedly, sometime in March 2023, plaintiff Michelle Parker's legal team argued a defamation claim against the Parkwood body corporate using purportedly non-existent judgments generated by ChatGPT; the magistrate postponed the case to late May to locate the cases; after two months of failed searching, the court found the citations were fictitious and issued a punitive costs order in early July 2023.

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Incident Stats

Incident ID
1138
Report Count
4
Incident Date
2023-03-01
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Magistrate rebukes lawyers over ChatGPT 'bogus cases'
timeslive.co.za · 2023

Lawyers acting for a woman who claimed she was defamed by a body corporate in Parkwood, Johannesburg, were left red-faced when it emerged they tried to use non-existent judgments generated by ChatGPT to bolster her case.

“The names and cita…

South African lawyers use ChatGPT to argue case — get nailed after it makes up fake info
mybroadband.co.za · 2023

Lawyers arguing a case at the Johannesburg regional court have been called out in a judgement for using fake references generated by ChatGPT.

"The names and citations are fictitious, the facts are fictitious, and the decisions are fictitiou…

South African court calls out lawyers for using ChatGPT references
techpoint.africa · 2023

AIID editor's note: Please visit the original source for the full article. What has been excerpted here is the relevant subsection.

Lawyers called out for using ChatGPT

A woman's lawyers have been chastised by a South African court --- the …

Does AI dream of electric sheep? Magistrate cautions against blind trust in AI-generated content
moonstone.co.za · 2023

Don't believe everything you read on the internet.

The lawyers acting for a woman, Michelle Parker, who claimed she was defamed by a body corporate in Parkwood, Johannesburg, were embarrassingly reminded of this platitude recently when it w…

Variants

A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
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