Dehghani v. Castro
U.S. District Court, District of New Mexico · D.N.M. · New Mexico bar guidance
Verified April 26, 2026
- Citation
- Dehghani v. Castro, No. 2:25-cv-00052-MIS-DLM (D.N.M. Apr. 2, 2025)
- Decided
- April 2, 2025
Summary
Petitioner's counsel Felipe D.J. Millan filed a response brief, in a habeas proceeding before Magistrate Judge Damian L. Martinez, that cited at least six non-existent cases and thirteen additional cases that did not support the propositions for which they were cited. Millan had outsourced the brief to a freelance attorney, Janelle M. Lewis, hired through the LAWCLERK marketplace for $750, and admitted he did not read the caselaw or verify the citations before signing and filing. The court found the fabricated citations were "likely the handiwork of a ChatGPT or similar artificial intelligence (AI) program's hallucinations."
- AI tool:
- Unspecified generative AI
- Sanction amount:
- $1,500
What sanction did the court impose?
Court imposed a $1,500 fine payable to the Clerk of Court, ordered Millan to complete a one-hour CLE on legal ethics or AI in legal writing, to self-report to the New Mexico and Texas state bars, to report Janelle M. Lewis to the New York state bar, and to send a copy of the order to LAWCLERK (copying Lewis, her supervisor, and LAWCLERK Support).
Why does Dehghani v. Castro matter for law firms using AI?
Dehghani is the first published sanctions order to surface a freelance-marketplace vendor (LAWCLERK) in the chain of responsibility for AI-fabricated citations. For managing partners, the case is a direct warning that outsourcing brief-writing to a contract lawyer does not transfer the Rule 11 inquiry duty: the signing attorney remains on the hook regardless of who drafted the document or whether the client was billed for the outside work. The order also illustrates the emerging multi-bar reporting pattern, with the court directing self-report to the signing attorney’s licensing states and a separate report against the freelancer to her own state bar.
Sources
Primary sources
Further reading
Source PDF is a Westlaw printout mirrored from the Damien Charlotin hallucination database. We are working to add the underlying court docket (PACER, CourtListener, or court website) as a second source.