AI Risk Wire

Cases › made things up › LR-2026-0719

New Mexico lawyer fined for ChatGPT-generated fake testimony

Preliminary Why: 1 report: Newscord · subject to change · 1 independent report

Status: no action reported

Severity moderate
Reported 11 Sep 2026
Developer and model OpenAI · ChatGPT

No source states: loss or records, agent tool, could do, deployer, industry.

Severity moderate: 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.

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.

What happened

1 · What it was doingAarons, a defence lawyer, used ChatGPT to summarise the trial proceedings when he took up a murder appeal.
2 · What went wrongHis brief included fake police testimony and fabricated witness statements generated by ChatGPT.
3 · How it was caughtAt an August hearing the court questioned why Aarons had not verified what ChatGPT produced before filing it.

What was done

No source states an action or fix.

Risks

Made-up output relied on
Primary36 incidents

Sorted by rule from the case's fields; not yet read from the sources.

Controls

Not yet read for controls. Controls that mitigate the primary risk:

Application

Grounding and fact checks · Human approval for high-impact actions · Output filtering and redaction · People told they are dealing with AI

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Evidence

No source states: what it reached or did, when it happened, how many records were exposed, the direct loss, a count of the other parties affected, any court case, the cause, what set it off, what was done.

Show the full account: 5 items from the primary sources

What happened, in order

  1. 21 August At the hearing Aarons said he had uploaded a transcript and case materials to ChatGPT.
  2. September 2 The appeal was assigned to Kim Chavez Cook, a public defender.

Not dated in the sources:

  • Aarons agreed to take up the appeal and used ChatGPT to summarise the trial proceedings.
  • The New Mexico Supreme Court fined Aarons $5,000 and held him in contempt.
  • The court said it would refer Aarons to an attorney disciplinary board for investigation.
Show every field, with its source and grade

The AI system

Model
ChatGPT
C one secondary source states it
Developer
OpenAI
C one secondary source states it

What happened

Earliest source we hold
2026-09-11
D inferred by us from the described behaviour, reason shown
What went wrong
made things up
C one secondary source states it

Impact

Severity
moderate
D inferred by us from the described behaviour, reason shown
Why this severity
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.
D inferred by us from the described behaviour, reason shown

Notes on gaps

No remediation was reported. Sources are press reports relaying Reuters; no provider or court statement on the cause was given.

LR-2026-0719 · version 1 · published 2026-11-01 after automatic checks; not yet checked field by field by a person · JSON