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📝 Page Status: Draft — sourced but not yet reviewed

  • Status: draft
  • Sources: 4
  • Relationships: 5
  • Research debt items: 4

In re ChatGPT Product Liability Cases

Summary

In re ChatGPT Product Liability Cases, JCCP No. 5431 (Cal. Super. Ct., S.F. Cnty.), is the California coordinated proceeding for state-court product-liability and wrongful-death actions against OpenAI over ChatGPT. A February 3, 2026 coordination granted a petition covering twelve state actions, including the Adams estate suit related to Lyons v. OpenAI Foundation. The coordination is a pretrial-management device, not a finding of liability.

Verified Facts

  • On February 3, 2026, a California court granted a petition coordinating twelve state actions against ChatGPT that allege product-liability theories, including the Adams estate action filed December 11, 2025.1
  • Plaintiffs’ counsel reported the coordinated caption as ChatGPT Product Liability Cases, JCCP No. 5431, centralized in San Francisco Superior Court, covering actions from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Alameda, and San Diego and presenting common questions about whether GPT-4o is a defective product.2
  • Secondary legal journalism describes the same proceeding as In re ChatGPT Product Liability Cases, JCCP No. 5431, grouping claims that ChatGPT is unreasonably dangerous because of alleged sycophantic design, reinforcement of delusions or suicidal ideation, and inadequate safety testing.3
  • Raine v. OpenAI, Inc., filed August 26, 2025, in San Francisco Superior Court, is the earliest widely circulated complaint in that California cluster.4
  • The federal Lyons action was not absorbed into the JCCP; the Northern District of California declined to stay Lyons in favor of the coordinated Adams state case.1

Historical Context

JCCP 5431 is the state-court counterpart to copyright’s In re OpenAI, Inc., Copyright Infringement Litigation: a management vehicle for many similar complaints, not a single class judgment. Federal FSU and Soelberg-estate cases remain outside it.

Jurisdiction: California Superior Court, San Francisco, sitting as coordination court. Authority level: coordination grant as recited by a federal court and counsel reporting. The sources reviewed here do not include a merits ruling on product defect, speech, or Section 230.12

Coordination does not merge the plaintiffs’ damages claims. Each constituent action still has to prove causation for that user or decedent. OpenAI’s characterization of ChatGPT as a service rather than a product, noted in secondary commentary, remains an unresolved defense.3

Relationships

  • CASE-IN-RE-CHATGPT-PRODUCT-LIABILITY cites SRC-LYONS-V-OPENAI-MTD-2026.
  • CASE-IN-RE-CHATGPT-PRODUCT-LIABILITY related_to CASE-RAINE-V-OPENAI.
  • CASE-IN-RE-CHATGPT-PRODUCT-LIABILITY related_to CASE-LYONS-V-OPENAI.
  • CASE-IN-RE-CHATGPT-PRODUCT-LIABILITY related_to TOPIC-AI-HARM-LITIGATION.
  • CASE-IN-RE-CHATGPT-PRODUCT-LIABILITY related_to TOPIC-AI-LITIGATION.

Sources

  1. SRC-LYONS-V-OPENAI-MTD-2026: Lyons order reciting the February 3, 2026 coordination.
  2. SRC-TJLP-JCCP-5431-2026: Tech Justice JCCP update.
  3. SRC-NLR-CHATGPT-JCCP-2026: National Law Review overview.
  4. SRC-RAINE-V-OPENAI-COMPLAINT: Raine complaint.

Research Debt

  • Add the signed Order re Petition for Coordination PDF as a primary SRC.
  • List constituent captions from the coordination order rather than secondary roundups.
  • Add Case Management Order No. 1 and any later leadership or discovery orders from the San Francisco docket (CJC-25-005431).
  • Confirm which later-filed actions (for example Carrier or Parish, as reported in secondary trackers) were added on.

Document metadata

  • Decision date: 2026-02-03
  • Last verified: 2026-09-03

  1. SRC-LYONS-V-OPENAI-MTD-2026 — N.D. Cal. order (Apr. 13, 2026). Primary for the February 3, 2026 grant coordinating twelve state actions including Adams. ↩↩↩

  2. SRC-TJLP-JCCP-5431-2026 — Tech Justice update (Feb. 3, 2026). Counsel self-report of JCCP number and venue. ↩↩

  3. SRC-NLR-CHATGPT-JCCP-2026 — National Law Review (May 20, 2026). Secondary corroboration of caption and theories. ↩↩

  4. SRC-RAINE-V-OPENAI-COMPLAINT — Raine complaint (Aug. 26, 2025). Lead early pleading in the cluster. ↩