Utah Lawyer Sanctioned for Using AI-Generated Fake Precedent in Court Filing

A Utah lawyer, Richard Bednar, was sanctioned by the Utah Court of Appeals after filing a legal brief that cited a nonexistent court case invented by AI tool ChatGPT. The court discovered the inaccuracies when the referenced case, Royer v. Nelson, did not exist in any legal database and was only found through ChatGPT, which had hallucinated the case. Bednar acknowledged the use of AI, stating it was done by a law clerk without his knowledge and that he failed to fact-check the document. As a result, he was ordered to pay attorney fees, refund client fees, and donate $1,000 to a legal aid nonprofit; the court emphasized the ongoing responsibility of attorneys to verify AI-generated research.