On September 9, the New Mexico Supreme Court fined attorney Steven Aarons $5,000 for submitting appeal documents containing fabricated testimony generated by ChatGPT. Aarons represented Oscar Rene Sandoval, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in February 2025 for murder and an additional 4.5 years for assaulting a witness.
The attorney used ChatGPT to summarize trial transcripts and case materials. The submitted document included four fictional witnesses and attributed false statements to real participants regarding the shooter's appearance and threats. Additionally, the filing misrepresented two legal precedents. Aarons admitted to signing the document without verifying the facts or legal citations.
The court found Aarons in contempt and referred the matter to a disciplinary board. He is currently barred from appearing before the state Supreme Court. The fine must be paid to the client protection fund within 30 days. The court also struck the previous filings from the record and appointed a new public defender to handle the appeal, with proceedings set for 2026-2027.
The judges emphasized that the responsibility for verifying court documents rests solely with the signing attorney, regardless of the tools used. Aarons stated that he was unaware of the extent to which AI could fabricate information. A similar incident occurred in May 2023, when attorney Steven Schwartz submitted fake legal precedents generated by ChatGPT in a case against Avianca.
