Judge: CHA lawyers must pay $59K for citing ChatGPT-created cases

Lawyers who defended the Chicago Housing Authority in a case that resulted in more than $32 million in judgments to two families who claimed their children were sickened by lead paint in public housing, will themselves be on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars in sanctions, because they included fake quotes, rulings and legal citations in court filings prepared using ChatGPT.

In the sanctions order, entered Dec. 5, Cook County Circuit Judge Thomas Cushing directed the law firm of Goldberg Segalla, of Chicago, to pay a sanction of $49,500.

And Goldberg Segalla attorney Larry Mason was also ordered to personally pay $10,000 more.

The judge ordered the sums to be paid to the firm of Rapoport Sims Perry & VanOverloop, also of Chicago.

The Rapoport firm had represented plaintiffs Shana Jordan and Mogan Collins in a lawsuit filed in Cook County court against the CHA in 2022.