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NY Judge: ChatGPT Records Are Legal Work Product
24 Jun
Summary
- Judge Fischer ruled AI chat logs are protected legal research.
- Subpoena for OpenAI user's ChatGPT records was rejected.
- This ruling is one of the first on AI data in civil cases.
A New York state judge has determined that records from a user's ChatGPT activity are protected as legal work product. Justice Rhonda Fischer of Nassau County Supreme Court rejected a subpoena that aimed to obtain these chat logs for use in a private lawsuit. This decision, made public last week, is among the first judicial rulings addressing whether AI companies must surrender user data in civil court proceedings.
The lawsuit was initiated in 2024 by Alpha Tech Lending and its founder against former company president John Recchio III and others, alleging breach of contract and unfair competition. Recchio denied the accusations.
Alpha Tech Lending had sought a range of data from Recchio's ChatGPT usage, including prompts, uploaded materials, and generated outputs, arguing their relevance to the accuracy of his claims. Recchio, representing himself, fought the subpoena, calling it a "fishing expedition" that intruded on his "private litigation workspace."
Justice Fischer agreed, applying "work product" protections to Recchio's AI conversations. She referenced a prior Colorado ruling where a federal court acknowledged that a self-represented litigant's AI use could resemble confidential, strategy-laden work product, emphasizing that AI data collection does not eliminate privacy expectations or protections.
