Wisner Baum is investigating claims involving severe mental health injuries, attempted suicide, and suicide allegedly linked to ChatGPT use. If you or a loved one were affected, you may have a legal claim.
People are filing lawsuits against OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, alleging the AI chatbot caused or substantially contributed to serious psychological harm, including suicide, suicidal ideation, self-harm, and worsening mental health conditions.
ChatGPT lawsuits allege OpenAI knowingly deployed a defective product, prioritized user engagement over user safety, failed to warn the public of documented risks, and suppressed internal safety concerns to beat competitors to market. Courts across the country, including California and Florida state courts, are allowing these claims to proceed.
Wisner Baum attorneys have obtained more than $4 billion for clients harmed by defective and dangerous products. Our track record shows that we understand what it takes to win big cases against major corporations, including tech giants like OpenAI. Our firm accepts ChatGPT injury and wrongful death cases on a contingency basis, which means that if we are unsuccessful in obtaining compensation for you, you owe us nothing.
In January 2026, Character.AI and Google reached settlements with five families whose children died by suicide or suffered severe mental health harm after using AI chatbots. These were among the first AI chatbot settlement announcements reported in the U.S. While the terms were confidential and settlements like these typically include no admission of liability, the decision by two of the world’s largest technology companies to resolve these claims rather than take them to verdict underscores the legal and financial exposure AI companies now face.
Legal observers say the Character.AI/Google settlements establish a potential roadmap for those who have suffered: AI companies may be held financially accountable if it is found that their chatbots contribute to harm.
OpenAI currently faces similar legal theories, evidence of design defects, and more documented cases of injury in other ongoing lawsuits.
On June 1, 2026, Florida became the first U.S. state to file a lawsuit against an AI company when Attorney General James Uthmeier filed a civil action in Florida state court against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman.
The Florida ChatGPT lawsuit alleges that OpenAI:
Florida seeks damages that could reach billions of dollars, along with a court order directing the company to change how it interacts with young users. A separate criminal investigation into OpenAI was opened by the Florida AG in April 2026, following review of chat logs between ChatGPT and the gunman responsible for the April 2025 shooting at Florida State University.
The Florida lawsuit and criminal investigation are not isolated events. A broad coalition of government authorities has independently validated the harms alleged in ChatGPT lawsuits:
This convergence of state AGs, federal regulators, and congressional oversight is rare and reflects a government-wide recognition that ChatGPT poses documented, foreseeable risks, which are the foundation of civil claims our attorneys are investigating.
Adam Raine was a 16-year-old high school student in Orange County, California. Beginning in September 2024, he started using ChatGPT for homework help. Within weeks, he was discussing suicide with the chatbot for up to four hours per day.
According to the wrongful death lawsuit filed by his parents in San Francisco Superior Court, ChatGPT mentioned suicide nearly 1,300 times in their conversations — approximately six times more often than Adam himself. The chatbot provided increasingly specific technical guidance on methods of self-harm and, in Adam's final conversation, the complaint alleges it analyzed the load-bearing capacity of a noose he had photographed and indicated the noose “could potentially suspend a human.”
The lawsuit further alleges OpenAI's own moderation system scored Adam's final photograph at 0% for self-harm risk.
Adam Raine died on April 11, 2025. Both OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman are named as defendants. His father's Senate testimony has made this the most publicly visible ChatGPT harm case in the country.
Stein-Erik Soelberg spent hundreds of hours in conversation with ChatGPT. According to lawsuits filed by his estate and his mother's estate, the chatbot confirmed and amplified his paranoid delusions. In August of 2025, Soelberg killed his 83-year-old mother in Connecticut before taking his own life.
In 2026, a federal judge in the Northern District of California ruled that OpenAI must defend the wrongful death suit, finding "substantial doubt" that parallel state proceedings would resolve all federal claims.
In November 2025, seven OpenAI lawsuits were filed in California state courts on behalf of four people who died by suicide and three survivors. All complaints allege that OpenAI knowingly released GPT-4o prematurely, despite internal warnings that the product was dangerously sycophantic and psychologically manipulative.
The lawsuits further allege that OpenAI compressed months of safety testing into a single week to beat Google's Gemini to market, releasing GPT-4o on May 13, 2024. Victims include:
Lawsuits allege ChatGPT is dangerous for a few reasons:
Engineered for Engagement, Not Safety
According to mounting legal claims, ChatGPT is not designed to provide mental health care — it is designed to maximize user engagement. A joint MIT–OpenAI study found that higher use of ChatGPT for emotional support was associated with greater loneliness, emotional dependence, and reduced socialization. While the researchers noted these findings were correlational and had not been peer-reviewed, OpenAI has publicly acknowledged that ChatGPT “fell short in recognizing signs of delusion or emotional dependency.”
Safety Guardrails That Don't Work
Research from Northeastern University shows that simply rephrasing a harmful request as a “research project” or “creative writing exercise” can cause ChatGPT's safety systems to stand down entirely. In documented cases, the AI chatbot generated customized suicide notes, provided overdose instructions, and offered detailed guidance on methods of self-harm without routing users to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
Sycophancy and Psychological Echo Chambers
Lawsuits allege ChatGPT is designed to validate and mirror user input. Rather than challenging harmful thinking as a licensed therapist would, it amplifies and reinforces whatever the user expresses — creating dangerous echo chambers that accelerate, rather than arrest, a mental health crisis.
OpenAI's Own Data
OpenAI's own data, released in October 2025, revealed that over one million people per week discuss suicide with ChatGPT. Despite this knowledge, the company deployed inadequate safeguards and continued marketing ChatGPT as a safe, general-purpose tool.
You or a family member may qualify for an OpenAI lawsuit if:
You do not need a pre-existing mental health condition to qualify, nor does having one disqualify you. Courts recognize that a defendant who causes additional harm to a vulnerable person may still be held fully liable. The legal standard is whether ChatGPT was a substantial contributing factor to the harm, not the sole cause.
ChatGPT injury lawsuits may be brought under several legal theories:
The deadline to file ChatGPT lawsuits is based on the statute of limitations, which varies by state. Plaintiffs typically have two to three years from the date of injury or death, though there are exceptions.
We recommend that anyone who believes they may have a case take the following steps:
Wisner Baum is a national trial law firm with decades of experience holding the world's largest corporations accountable for defective and dangerous products. Our attorneys:
If you or a family member was harmed by ChatGPT, the time to act is now. Our AI chatbot lawyers offer free and confidential case evaluations. Call (310) 207-3233 or fill out our contact form to get started. There is no fee unless we win.
Need help now? If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, you are not alone. Call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (call or text 988) any time, day or night. If someone is in immediate danger, call 911.
"Wisner Baum gave exceptional attention to all aspects of the case, detailed inquiry, and tenacious overview of all the information submitted. The paralegals are efficient and diligent. I was completely surprised to find an empathic personal message to take care of my own health during the challenging time of being a full-time caretaker.*"
In May of 2019, the jury in the case of Pilliod et al. v, Monsanto Company ordered the agrochemical giant to pay $2.055 billion in damages to the plaintiffs, Alva and Alberta Pilliod, a Bay Area couple in their 70s. R. Brent Wisner served as co-lead trial attorney for the Pilliods, delivering the opening and closing statements and cross-examining several of Monsanto’s experts. Wisner Baum managing shareholder, Michael Baum and attorney Pedram Esfandiary also served on the trial team in the Pilliod case.
The judge later reduced their award to $87M. Monsanto appealed the Pilliod’s verdict which the California Court of Appeal for the First Appellate District denied on August 9, 2021. Monsanto then requested the California Supreme Court review the appeal’s court decision, which the court denied on Nov. 17, 2021. Monsanto (Bayer) then submitted a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court which SCOTUS denied on June 27, 2022, allowing the final judgment of $87M to remain intact.
$289.2 million jury verdict in Monsanto Roundup trial
Wisner Baum co-represented Dewayne “Lee” Johnson in the first Roundup cancer lawsuit to proceed to trial. On Aug. 10, 2018, a San Francisco jury ordered Monsanto to pay $39.25 million in compensatory damages and $250 million in punitive damages to Mr. Johnson, a former groundskeeper who alleged exposure to Monsanto’s herbicides caused him to develop terminal non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Months after the jury verdict, the judge overseeing the trial reduced the punitive damages to $39.25 million. Mr. Johnson decided to accept the remittitur, bringing the adjusted amount awarded to Mr. Johnson $78.5 million.
Monsanto (Bayer) appealed the verdict and Johnson cross appealed. On July 20, 2020, the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the verdict against Monsanto but reduced Mr. Johnson’s award to $20.5 million. The company chose not to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, ending the litigation.
In 2016, Wisner Baum attorney Timothy A. Loranger and six other attorneys in the Plaintiffs’ Management Committee were able to secure a $265 million settlement for victims of the 2015 Amtrak 188 derailment in Philadelphia, one of the largest in the U.S. for 2016.
No. Wisner Baum is pursuing individual personal injury and wrongful death cases against OpenAI, not class actions. Individual cases allow for recovery tailored to each plaintiff's actual damages, which can substantially exceed class action recoveries.
Yes. In January 2026, Character.AI and Google settled multiple lawsuits tied to teen suicide and mental health harm — the first AI chatbot harm settlements in the country. The settlements demonstrate that AI companies recognize their legal exposure and will pay to resolve claims. OpenAI faces substantially similar claims in ongoing lawsuits.
Chat logs are powerful evidence but are not strictly required. Medical records, family testimony, device usage data, and school records can also support your claim. Contact us before you have everything. We can help you secure and preserve the evidence necessary to pursue a claim.
Lawsuits do not need to demonstrate that ChatGPT was the only cause of harm. The legal standard is whether ChatGPT was a “substantial contributing factor” to the harm. Even if other factors existed, OpenAI may still be held liable.
Yes. Both Raine v. OpenAI and the Florida v. OpenAI state action name Sam Altman personally as a defendant.
