{"schema_version":"0.10.0","id":"LR-2026-0719","record_version":1,"title":"New Mexico lawyer fined for ChatGPT-generated fake testimony","verification":{"human_verified":false,"method":"automated_gate","auto_verified":true,"score":57.5,"score_breakdown":{"source_authority":12.1,"independent_corroboration":15.0,"implicated_party_confirmed":0.0,"citation_integrity":14.0,"specificity":6.0,"completeness":2.56,"unhedged_language":5.0},"checks":{"schema_valid":true,"every_field_cited":true,"quotes_verbatim":true,"source_fetched":true,"distinct_incident":true,"dates_plausible":true,"sources_agree":true,"source_describes_incident":true,"severe_backed_by_source":true,"record_integrity":true,"eligible":true,"about_this_case":true},"gate_version":"gate-2026-10-18.7","cross_check_model":null,"cross_check_agreement":null,"duplicate_of":null,"verified_by":null,"verified_at":"2026-11-01","extraction_run_id":null,"evidence_level":{"level":"preliminary","reason":"1 report: Newscord · subject to change","original_document":null,"reports_total":2,"reports_independent":1,"reports_derivative":0,"developing":false,"disputed":false,"rules_version":"evidence-2026-10-29.1","computed_at":"2026-11-01","history":[{"date":"2026-11-01","from_level":null,"to_level":"preliminary","reason":"1 report: Newscord · subject to change"}]},"sources_hash":"ae0f3166c8a2897c4624ec2aa62afe802d13b5c154dfb40099c6c81eee8cbf24"},"system":{"model_name":"ChatGPT","model_version":null,"developer":"OpenAI","harness":null,"tools_granted":[],"permissions_scope":null,"autonomy_level":"unknown","guardrails_present":[],"deployment_context":"unknown","tier":null,"lifecycle_stage":null,"integration_type":null,"intended_use":null,"safeguard_state":null,"production_intended":null},"event":{"date_occurred":null,"date_disclosed":"2026-09-11","incident_class":"hallucination","failure_class":null,"agent_involved":null,"secondary_failure_classes":[],"trigger":"unknown","duration":null,"detection_method":"unknown","summary":"A New Mexico defence lawyer, Stephen Aarons, used OpenAI's ChatGPT to summarise trial proceedings in a murder appeal. He said he did not understand how far the chatbot could hallucinate facts. The resulting appellate brief included made-up police testimony and fabricated witnesses. The New Mexico Supreme Court found the filing contained false testimony, fined him $5,000 and held him in contempt. The court questioned why he had not verified what ChatGPT produced before filing it. The court said it would refer him to a disciplinary board. Aarons called the episode an honest mistake. The appeal remains pending and was assigned to a public defender.","tags":[],"date_detected":null,"near_miss":null,"root_cause":null,"root_cause_detail":null,"failure_class_detail":null,"responsible_party":null,"adversarial_actor":null,"input_provenance":null,"time_to_contain":null,"operations_paused":null,"remediation":null,"precursor_events":null},"impact":{"direct_loss_usd":null,"remediation_hours":null,"records_exposed":null,"third_parties_affected_count":null,"severity":"moderate","severity_because":"Test: data or systems of others touched with a bounded scope stated. The filing in one criminal appeal touched the court and the client's case; the scope is one appeal.","harm_class":[],"affected_description":null,"protected_class_involved":null,"data_categories_exposed":[],"loss_range_usd":null,"reversibility":null,"downstream_exposure_count":null},"evidence":{"sources":[{"url":"https://newscord.org/article/new-mexico-supreme-court-fines-stephen-aarons-5000-for-chatgpt-fabricated-witnes--Story_20260911_ChatGPTusinglawyerpu88ac0974","publisher":"NewsCord","date":"2026-09-11","type":"press","title":"New Mexico Supreme Court Fines Stephen Aarons $5,000 for ChatGPT-Fabricated Witnesses in Sandoval Appeal - NewsCord","archived_url":null,"attachment":"first_report","independence":"independent"},{"url":"https://www.livemint.com/news/us-news/taking-ai-too-far-new-mexico-supreme-court-fines-lawyer-5-000-for-presenting-fake-testimony-chatgpt-generated-brief-11789198936558.html","publisher":"Livemint","date":"2026-09-12","type":"press","title":"Taking AI too far? New Mexico Supreme Court fines lawyer $5,000 for presenting ‘fake testimony’, ChatGPT-generated brief - Livemint","archived_url":null}],"per_field_confidence":{"system.developer":"C","system.model_name":"C","event.incident_class":"C","impact.severity":"D","impact.severity_because":"D","event.summary":"C","system.autonomy_level":"D","system.deployment_context":"D","event.trigger":"D","event.detection_method":"D","context.country":"D","event.date_disclosed":"D","context.denominator_available":"D"},"field_citations":{"system.developer":[{"source_index":1,"quote":"The New Mexico Supreme Court on Wednesday fined a defence lawyer $5,000 after he submitted a brief containing fake police testimony and fabricated witness statements generated by OpenAI's ChatGPT."}],"system.model_name":[{"source_index":1,"quote":"The New Mexico Supreme Court on Wednesday fined a defence lawyer $5,000 after he submitted a brief containing fake police testimony and fabricated witness statements generated by OpenAI's ChatGPT."}],"event.incident_class":[{"source_index":1,"quote":"However, he said he did not understand the degree to which the chatbot could \"hallucinate\" facts."}],"impact.severity":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Court held Aarons in contempt for failing to verify AI-generated court filings."}],"impact.severity_because":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Court held Aarons in contempt for failing to verify AI-generated court filings."}],"event.summary":[{"source_index":1,"quote":"In a statement, the defence lawyer said that when he agreed to take up the defendant's case last year, he used ChatGPT, OpenAI's chatbot, to summarise the trial proceedings."},{"source_index":1,"quote":"However, he said he did not understand the degree to which the chatbot could \"hallucinate\" facts."},{"source_index":1,"quote":"The New Mexico Supreme Court on Wednesday fined a defence lawyer $5,000 after he submitted a brief containing fake police testimony and fabricated witness statements generated by OpenAI's ChatGPT."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Bacon added that the problem was “an above-the-fold story every single day,” as the court questioned why Aarons failed to verify what ChatGPT produced before filing it."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The New Mexico Supreme Court said it would refer Aarons to an attorney disciplinary board for investigation after finding he failed to verify the accuracy of the court filing."},{"source_index":1,"quote":"The appeal, which is still pending, was assigned to Kim Chavez Cook, a New Mexico public defender, earlier this month."}]},"notes_on_gaps":"No date of occurrence, filing date or date of detection is stated; the court hearing of 21 August and the Wednesday ruling are the only dated events. Model version, harness, tools, autonomy level and permissions are not stated. ChatGPT was used as a chatbot by a human, not as an autonomous agent, so agent_involved is false and no failure_class is given. Responsible party 'deployer' is my judgement: the lawyer who used the tool. Deployment context 'production' is my judgement from the brief being filed in a real appeal. Severity 'moderate' is my judgement: the client's appeal and the court were touched, with one appeal as the bounded scope. The $5,000 is a sanction, not a loss, so direct_loss_usd is not given. No remediation was reported. Trigger, adversarial actor and harm class are not stated. The 'I7 missing' link is my judgement from the stated failure to verify. The root_cause_detail value is my summary of the sources. Sources are press reports relaying Reuters; no provider or court statement on the cause was given. [case created by the backfill: read by claude-haiku-5-5, backfill-2026-11-01.2, 2026-11-01; not yet reviewed] [2026-11-01: evidence level set: Preliminary (1 report: Newscord · subject to change)]"},"context":{"industry":null,"org_size_band":null,"country":"unknown","denominator_available":false,"denominator":null,"related_incident_ids":[],"systemic_exposure":null,"shared_model_id":null,"upstream_incident_id":null,"incident_evidence":null,"regulatory":null,"coverage":null},"narrative":{"steps":[{"step":"doing","text":"Aarons, a defence lawyer, used ChatGPT to summarise the trial proceedings when he took up a murder appeal.","quote":"In a statement, the defence lawyer said that when he agreed to take up the defendant's case last year, he used ChatGPT, OpenAI's chatbot, to summarise the trial proceedings.","source_index":1,"grade":"C"},{"step":"went_wrong","text":"His brief included fake police testimony and fabricated witness statements generated by ChatGPT.","quote":"The New Mexico Supreme Court on Wednesday fined a defence lawyer $5,000 after he submitted a brief containing fake police testimony and fabricated witness statements generated by OpenAI's ChatGPT.","source_index":1,"grade":"C"},{"step":"caught","text":"At an August hearing the court questioned why Aarons had not verified what ChatGPT produced before filing it.","quote":"Bacon added that the problem was “an above-the-fold story every single day,” as the court questioned why Aarons failed to verify what ChatGPT produced before filing it.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"}],"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://newscord.org/article/new-mexico-supreme-court-fines-stephen-aarons-5000-for-chatgpt-fabricated-witnes--Story_20260911_ChatGPTusinglawyerpu88ac0974","https://www.livemint.com/news/us-news/taking-ai-too-far-new-mexico-supreme-court-fines-lawyer-5-000-for-presenting-fake-testimony-chatgpt-generated-brief-11789198936558.html"]},"analysis":{"sections":{"timeline":[{"text":"Aarons agreed to take up the appeal and used ChatGPT to summarise the trial proceedings.","quote":"In a statement, the defence lawyer said that when he agreed to take up the defendant's case last year, he used ChatGPT, OpenAI's chatbot, to summarise the trial proceedings.","source_index":1,"when":"last year"},{"text":"At the hearing Aarons said he had uploaded a transcript and case materials to ChatGPT.","quote":"At a hearing on 21 August, the private attorney told the panel that he uploaded a computer-generated transcript and other case materials to ChatGPT, assuming that the AI chatbot would generate \"a bulletproof summary.\"","source_index":1,"when":"21 August"},{"text":"The New Mexico Supreme Court fined Aarons $5,000 and held him in contempt.","quote":"The New Mexico Supreme Court on Wednesday fined a defence lawyer $5,000 after he submitted a brief containing fake police testimony and fabricated witness statements generated by OpenAI's ChatGPT.","source_index":1,"when":"Wednesday"},{"text":"The appeal was assigned to Kim Chavez Cook, a public defender.","quote":"The appeal is still pending and was assigned on September 2 to Kim Chavez Cook, a New Mexico public defender, while the district attorney’s office for Doña Ana County declined to comment.","source_index":0,"when":"September 2"},{"text":"The court said it would refer Aarons to an attorney disciplinary board for investigation.","quote":"The New Mexico Supreme Court said it would refer Aarons to an attorney disciplinary board for investigation after finding he failed to verify the accuracy of the court filing.","source_index":0,"when":null}]},"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://newscord.org/article/new-mexico-supreme-court-fines-stephen-aarons-5000-for-chatgpt-fabricated-witnes--Story_20260911_ChatGPTusinglawyerpu88ac0974","https://www.livemint.com/news/us-news/taking-ai-too-far-new-mexico-supreme-court-fines-lawyer-5-000-for-presenting-fake-testimony-chatgpt-generated-brief-11789198936558.html"]}}