New Mexico Supreme Court Removes Attorney Over AI Errors

August 24, 2026, 10:10 am CDT The New Mexico Supreme Court has removed a well-known criminal defense attorney from a murder appeal after discovering that he included artificial intelligence-generated errors in a brief. (Photo by imaginima/ Getty Images ) The New Mexico Supreme Court has removed a well-known criminal defense attorney from a murder appeal after discovering that he included artificial intelligence-generated errors in a brief. “Do you watch the news? Do you listen to the radio? Do you read anything about what’s going on in the world?” New Mexico Supreme Court Justice C. Shannon Bacon asked lawyer Stephen Aarons, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican . “Because the problem with lawyers relying on AI hallucinations is an above-the-fold story every single day,” Bacon added. “So either you have buried your head in the sand and that’s an intentional choice to be uninformed, or you took a gamble, and neither of those are consistent with the code of conduct.” Aarons, whose office is in Santa Fe, New Mexico, has been practicing for more than 40 years, according to the Sante Fe New Mexican. He acknowledged his “stupidity” during a court hearing Friday, saying he thought that ChatGPT would provide a “bulletproof” summary when he provided his client’s trial transcripts and other court documents. The brief, instead, included references to nonexistent witnesses and fictional testimony from at least one real witness, the Santa Fe New Mexican reports. Aarons, who did not respond to the Sante Fe New Mexican’s request for comment, told the court that he has completed continuing legal education on the use of AI and suggested that mandatory continuing education could prevent other lawyers from making the same mistake. In addition to removing Aarons from his case, the New Mexico Supreme Court found him in contempt of court and ordered him to pay $5,000 to a client protection fund within 30 days, the Santa Fe New Mexican reports. It also sent the matter to the court’s disciplinary board for further review. The case, in which Aarons represented a 60-year-old man who was convicted last year of murdering his wife, will be referred to a public defender, the Santa Fe New Mexican reports.