I used ChatGPT to sue a Norwegian airline from New York and get $4760

I actually touch on this exact risk at the very end of the post. AI can automate drafting and knowledge retrieval, but that is only a fraction of the overall process.

The legal system is fundamentally slow, by design. It still took 11 months of waiting for agencies, airlines, and courts to move. That inherent slowness is creating friction to filter out low-effort "slop"; that latency partially accomplishes that.

Re: I used ChatGPT to sue a Norwegian airline from New York and get $4760

#5

Post by Panos » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 4:57 PM UTC

OP here. I wrote this up because the discourse around AI in legal contexts usually swings between "it replaces everyone" and "it hallucinates case law and gets you sanctioned." This was the case in the middle, where it actually shone: navigating an international dispute in a foreign conciliation court (the Norwegian Forliksråd), where even finding a human lawyer with all the necessary knowledge would be challenging, and paying one would be completely inefficient.

As I note at the end, the AI eliminated the knowledge bottleneck, but it still took 11 months of waiting for companies, agencies, and courts to reply.

Happy to answer questions about the routing or the EU261 technicalities. And to preempt the obvious one: a credit card chargeback only covers the original ticket cost. This was about getting the statutory €600/passenger penalty plus our overnight care expenses (and it was mainly the latter that prompted the whole story; Norse would probably have saved money if it had just arranged hotel rooms instead of handing us a $25 voucher).

Re: I used ChatGPT to sue a Norwegian airline from New York and get $4760

#6

Post by bcye » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 5:11 PM UTC

Small note for others: It’s not this complex everytime, luckily, you mostly just need a bit of persistence (and once you filed a complaint, while it might not even be legally binding, for example in Switzerland, the airline might just send the money at some point during the procedure as the chance someone files a complaint also goes to court and generates more costs is high —- so it’s always worth it trying the official way before going to agencies).

Re: I used ChatGPT to sue a Norwegian airline from New York and get $4760

#7

Post by mint5 » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 5:16 PM UTC

Panos wrote: post #5

OP here. I wrote this up because the discourse around AI in legal contexts usually swings between "it replaces everyone" and "it hallucinates case law and gets you sanctioned." This was the case in the middle, where it actually shone: navigating an international dispute in a foreign conciliation court (the Norwegian Forliksråd), where even finding a human lawyer with all the necessary knowledge would be challenging,…

Does that Norwegian guy really want his email floating around the internet for bots to scrape and randos to spam?

Re: I used ChatGPT to sue a Norwegian airline from New York and get $4760

#8

Post by protimewaster » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 5:16 PM UTC

bcye wrote: post #6

Small note for others: It’s not this complex everytime, luckily, you mostly just need a bit of persistence (and once you filed a complaint, while it might not even be legally binding, for example in Switzerland, the airline might just send the money at some point during the procedure as the chance someone files a complaint also goes to court and generates more costs is high —- so it’s always worth it trying the offic…

> It’s not this complex everytime, luckily

I'm glad it was straightforward when it come up for me. In my case, I was dealing with an airline based in my county of residence, and I just emailed them saying that the law says I get the money and they just said "okay, we're sending it" and then I had the money.

Re: I used ChatGPT to sue a Norwegian airline from New York and get $4760

#9

Post by Panos » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 5:37 PM UTC

mint5 wrote: post #7

Panos wrote: post #5

OP here. I wrote this up because the discourse around AI in legal contexts usually swings between "it replaces everyone" and "it hallucinates case law and gets you sanctioned." This was the case in the middle, where it actually shone: navigating an international dispute in a foreign conciliation court (the Norwegian Forliksråd), where even finding a human lawyer with all the necessary knowledge would be challenging,…

Does that Norwegian guy really want his email floating around the internet for bots to scrape and randos to spam?

Given that it took me some time to locate someone willing to act as my representative, I consider that a way to send him more business. I can point to his LinkedIn page, but not sure if he checks messages there.

Re: I used ChatGPT to sue a Norwegian airline from New York and get $4760

#10

Post by Panos » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 5:53 PM UTC

bcye wrote: post #6

Small note for others: It’s not this complex everytime, luckily, you mostly just need a bit of persistence (and once you filed a complaint, while it might not even be legally binding, for example in Switzerland, the airline might just send the money at some point during the procedure as the chance someone files a complaint also goes to court and generates more costs is high —- so it’s always worth it trying the offic…

I think this "we ignore you" behavior is specific to Norse, behaving like a low-cost airline in financial trouble. Whatever they can save from such incidents by ignoring customer complaints benefits their bottom line.