Her legal arguments byte!
A baloney-spewing ChatGPT bot posed as a lawyer and sweet-talked an Illinois woman into firing her real attorney — while citing completely bogus case law, a wild new lawsuit claims.
The AI-powered chatbot urged Graciela Dela Torre, of Des Plaines, to reopen her already-settled disability case and file dozens of bizarre and illegitimate motions against her employer, Nippon Life Insurance Company, according to court papers filed against OpenAI, which owns the chatbot.
“ChatGPT is not an attorney. Although it was able to pass the Uniform Bar Examination with a combined score of 297, it has not been admitted to practice law in the State of Illinois or in any other jurisdiction within the United States,” the lawsuit, filed by Nippon Wednesday, said.
Dela Torre and her real lawyer first made a disability claim against the insurance company over the carpal tunnel and tennis elbow she suffered on the job in August 2019 — and won.
The claim was later tossed in November 2021 when she was found to no longer be disabled, so she sued and won a settlement payment, court papers show.
As part of that settlement, she agreed to give up all future claims against the company in January 2024.
When she tried to reopen the case a year later, her lawyer told her it wasn’t possible — so she turned to ChatGPT to ask if she’d been “gaslighted” by her attorney, papers filed in Northern District of Illinois court said.
She asked the bot lawyer how to undo her settlement, and it churned out a filing to reopen the case, which she submitted “pro se” — or without a lawyer — on Jan. 22, 2025.
A judge ultimately ruled on Feb. 13, 2025 that she couldn’t reopen the case. But that didn’t stop Dela Torre from filing a whole new suit against Nippon.
The bot spewed out at least 44 legal filings against the company on her behalf, including one citing the made-up case of Carr v. Gateway, Inc. 9, according to court docs.
“It only exists in Dela Torre’s papers and the ‘mind’ of ChatGPT,” the lawsuit said.
“Following the motion to reopen the lawsuit, Dela Torre filed 21 motions, one subpoena, and eight notices and statements onto the docket. All of Dela Torre’s motions, subpoenas and notices were compiled and drafted by ChatGPT,” according to the suit, which notes she went to on to file dozens more with the robot lawyer.
The whole ordeal has caused the insurance firm to rack up $300,000 in legal costs, according to the lawsuit, which seeks that amount plus $10 million in punitive damages.
“Dela Torre’s conduct throughout both lawsuits reveals a state of mind driven by sustained animosity rather than any objective legal purpose. She has consistently portrayed herself as impoverished, accused Nippon of financially starving her, and repeatedly blaming Nippon for her financial hardship,” the suit states.
Dela Torre is a senior logistics coordinator for the company, according to her LinkedIn profile. She is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit and didn’t return a request for comment.
A spokesperson for OpenAI told The Post Friday, “This complaint lacks any merit whatsoever.”