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Incident 1724: Oklahoma Judge Reportedly Used ChatGPT-Generated Fictitious Case Citations in Family-Law Order

Description: Stephens County, Oklahoma, Associate District Judge Lawrence Wheeler reportedly used ChatGPT for legal research while preparing a family-law order that cited at least two nonexistent cases. The order denied a request for a psychological evaluation and reprimanded the requesting attorney; Wheeler later vacated it after the attorney challenged it before the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

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Alleged: OpenAI , Chatbot developers and Large language developers developed an AI system deployed by Lawrence Wheeler , District Court of Stephens County (Oklahoma) , Judges and Legal professionals, which harmed Michael Beason , Parties to legal proceedings , Judicial integrity , Epistemic integrity and Adriane Capers.
Alleged implicated AI systems: ChatGPT , Large language models and Chatbots

Incident Stats

Incident ID
1724
Report Count
3
Incident Date
2025-11-19
Editors
Daniel Atherton

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

Incident Occurrence+2
Oklahoma judge used AI in ruling that contained false citations, prosecutor says
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Oklahoma judge used AI in ruling that contained false citations, prosecutor says

Oklahoma judge used AI in ruling that contained false citations, prosecutor says

reuters.com

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Oklahoma judge used AI on order that cited cases that don’t exist

Oklahoma judge used AI on order that cited cases that don’t exist

molawyersmedia.com

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Oklahoma judge admitted to citing fake ChatGPT cases in court order, investigators say

Oklahoma judge admitted to citing fake ChatGPT cases in court order, investigators say

kfor.com

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Oklahoma judge used AI in ruling that contained false citations, prosecutor says
reuters.com · 2026

WASHINGTON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - An Oklahoma judge has acknowledged that a ruling he issued contained fictitious citations generated by artificial intelligence, according to state records, adding to a growing number of cases in which judges ​…

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Oklahoma judge used AI on order that cited cases that don’t exist
molawyersmedia.com · 2026

A southwestern Oklahoma judge has admitted that he used an artificial intelligence tool to prepare a court order that ended up having citations to two cases that do not exist.

Stephens County Associate District Judge Lawrence Wheeler could …

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Oklahoma judge admitted to citing fake ChatGPT cases in court order, investigators say
kfor.com · 2026

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) --- A Stephens County judge admitted to state investigators he cited at least two cases in a court order that do not exist---cases he says he found through ChatGPT.

The incident goes back to November, when Stephens Coun…

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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