New Mexico Supreme Court fined lawyer for AI hallucinations in a murder case appeal
A New Mexico court fined lawyer Stephen Aarons 5 000 dollars for contempt of court after his appeal in a murder case contained fictitious witnesses and false descriptions of the suspect generated using ChatGPT.
The New Mexico Supreme Court fined lawyer Stephen Aarons 5 000 dollars and found him guilty of contempt of court for including facts generated by ChatGPT without verification in an appeal against his client's murder conviction. According to the court, the filing contained "false testimony from entirely fictitious witnesses" and false information about the shooter's clothing and appearance. The court stated that Aarons had not verified the factual claims and legal authorities contained in his AI-generated filing.
At an August hearing, Aarons admitted that he had used ChatGPT and believed the tool would produce a "bulletproof summary" of the court proceedings. Justice C. Shannon Bacon asked him whether he followed the news, because, according to her, the problem of lawyers relying on AI hallucinations is an almost daily topic in the media. In a statement, Aarons said he was "remorseful" but hoped the disciplinary board would take into account that it was an honest mistake.
In its ruling, the court referred to similar cases from last year, when a court criticized two law firms for filings containing "numerous false, inaccurate and misleading citations and quotations" and when lawyers representing Mike Lindell (MyPillow) were also fined for including AI-generated inaccurate citations in filings.
Why it matters
For lawyers and firms using AI tools to prepare documents, this is another documented case in which unchecked AI-generated facts led to sanctions and harm to a client in a criminal case. It shows that courts impose sanctions for insufficient verification of AI outputs regardless of good intentions.
Two audiences, two different impacts
What this means
For individuals
Anyone using AI tools such as ChatGPT to prepare legal or other official documents must fact-check every claim, name and citation – relying on the tool to "safely summarize" source material has proven misguided.
For a business
Law firms and other entities filing official documents face the risk of fines and sanctions for contempt of court if they do not introduce internal checks to verify AI-generated content before using it in filings.
Risks and complianceCheck the original
Event sources
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