Incident Tracker / South Africa
Parker v Forsyth NNO and Others (1585/20) [2023] ZAGPRD 1
·Regional Court, Johannesburg (Gauteng Regional Division)·ZAOtherunverified
Widely cited as one of the world's earliest AI-fabricated-citation cases, this Gauteng Regional Court (South Africa) matter reportedly involved counsel citing fictitious authorities produced by an AI chatbot. The neutral citation is corrected to [2023] ZAGPRD 1 (a Regional Court, not High Court, matter); the judgment body remains to be confirmed against a primary source.
- Court
- Regional Court, Johannesburg (Gauteng Regional Division)
- Date
- 2023-06-29
- Who used the AI
- Not recorded
- AI tool
- Not identified in the record
- Conduct
- One of the world's earliest reported AI-fabricated-citation cases: plaintiff's counsel is reported to have cited fictitious authorities — fictional names, citations and holdings — apparently produced by an AI chatbot, and the court criticised over-reliance on technology. Details are not yet confirmed against the primary judgment.
- Outcome
- Other
- Penalty
- No monetary penalty recorded
- Regulatory outcome
- No separate regulatory disposition recorded
- Status
- Unverified — pending primary-source confirmation
- Last checked
- Not separately recorded
Primary sources for this incident
Related regulation records for this incident
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Cite this record
SafeLegalAI Global Legal AI Incident Tracker, “Parker v Forsyth NNO and Others (1585/20) [2023] ZAGPRD 1”, safelegalai.com/tracker/parker-v-forsyth (accessed 2026-09-16). Data: CC BY 4.0.