ChatGPT-using lawyer punished for citing fake testimony from made-up witnesses
New Mexico Supreme Court holds lawyer in contempt for filing a ChatGPT-generated brief citing fabricated witness testimony; fined $5,000 and referred to disciplinary board.
The New Mexico Supreme Court held criminal defense lawyer Stephen Aarons in direct contempt for filing a murder-appeal brief containing false testimony from wholly fabricated witnesses, including Officer Michelle Amarillo and Officer Sanchez, plus misrepresented legal authority. Aarons admitted feeding a computer-generated trial transcript into ChatGPT, powered by the OpenAI o3 model, and filing the output without verifying factual claims or telling his client. He was fined $5,000, referred to a disciplinary board, and barred from appearing before the court pending proceedings; the court struck all briefs and ordered new counsel for client Oscar Renee Sandoval.
- Aarons fed a trial transcript into ChatGPT (OpenAI o3) and filed without verifying output
- Court struck briefs, ordered new counsel, and barred Aarons pending disciplinary proceedings
- Justice cited eight or nine code of conduct violations and a lack of remorse
- Case adds to a multi-year pattern of sanctions over AI-generated legal citations
- Vendors
- OpenAI
- Products
- ChatGPT
- Organizations
- New Mexico Supreme Court
- Countries
- United States
- AI models
- OpenAI o3
From the original article
8 min read at arstechnica.com
"I didn't know that AI could hallucinate facts," New Mexico defense lawyer says.
By Jon Brodkin · arstechnica.com
A short excerpt; the article and its images belong to the publisher. Summary, key facts and assessment above are AI-written from the article and can be wrong.