A lawyer in the US who trusted ChatGPT like his own mother was fined (3 photos)
In September 2025, the California Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit imposed a state-record fine of $10,000 on lawyer Amir Mostafavi for ChatGPT. 
In July 2023, this legal genius filed an appeal in California in a labor dispute where 21 of 23 citations from court cases turned out to be pure AI fabrications. Judge Lee Smalley Edmond, nearly choking on her coffee, called the document "meaningless" and accused Mostafavi of wasting the court's time and taxpayer money. He simply shrugged: "I didn't know chatbots lied!" Of course, who checks when you can just copy-paste? 
Amir Mostafavi represents clients in litigation and arbitration across a wide range of civil matters.
Mostafavi, in his September 2025 2nd Appellate Circuit court appearance, swore that he had written the draft himself, and that ChatGPT had merely polished it. But the AI, like a seasoned fantasist, slapped together fake links and quotes that didn't exist. The lawyer apparently decided that since the bot was smart, there was no need to check. As a result, he was fined, disgraced, and taken to the California Bar Association, where Mostafavi now faces disciplinary action. And state courts are already demanding AI regulations by December 2025 to prevent others from repeating this charade. 
404 Media has uncovered that Mostafavi isn't alone in the lazy club. Lawyers across America who have been caught using AI-powered fakes are blaming everyone but themselves. One Louisiana resident lamented his wife's death, while another blamed his bosses for overloading him with work and leaving him with no time. The most popular excuse was, "It's all the assistants!" Junior employees, they say, are busy tapping away on ChatGPT, while senior ones simply nod, not paying attention. One lawyer even begged the AI "not to hallucinate," but the bot, as we can see, didn't listen.
Researcher Damien Charlotin has counted 410+ such cases worldwide, and this is just the beginning. It's not the technology's fault, but laziness. So there's still a risk that AI will take over jobs; people can even get fired because of bot glitches.
