AI output retained as evidence, including errors. It is not an adopted legal opinion. Line numbers identify logical transcript lines, not original screen or court pages.
Prompt
Can a Utah lawyer avoid sanctions for fabricated citations by explaining that a law clerk used ChatGPT without the lawyer's knowledge?
L008What happened: Attorney Richard Bednar’s petition included fabricated authority, including a nonexistent 2007 case, “Royer v. Nelson.” Bednar said the AI use was done by a law clerk without his knowledge and that he did not fact-check the document before filing it. The clerk explanation was offered at the hearing, and the court still found that counsel violated rule 40 of the Utah Rules of Appellate Procedure and imposed sanctions.
L014The sanctions: Bednar was ordered to pay the respondent’s attorney fees, refund fees to his client, and donate $1,000 to a legal non-profit. The court appreciated his acknowledgment but still needed to impose sanctions, emphasizing that every attorney has a duty to review and ensure the accuracy of court filings.
L020Why the defense fails: Rule 40 is the appellate counterpart to Civil Rule 11. Your signature certifies the filing, so who drafted it is irrelevant. The court also cited Utah RPC 3.3, which bars a lawyer from knowingly or recklessly making a false statement of fact or law to a tribunal. Signing unchecked citations is the reckless part. And under RPC 5.3, a lawyer supervising nonlawyer staff is responsible for their work, so “my clerk did it without my knowledge” is less a defense than an admission of a supervision failure. The opinion also noted the firm admitted the use of AI had not been previously addressed at their firm, which doesn’t help.
L026What actually helped: Candor. Bednar’s own counsel put it well: “you can’t point fingers and maintain credibility with the court,” so Bednar took responsibility for failing to review the cases. That likely kept sanctions on the mild end; compare Lacey v. State Farm (C.D. Cal. 2025), where the court treated the conduct as tantamount to bad faith and imposed $31,100 in sanctions.
L032Bottom line: the clerk story can mitigate the severity, but it won’t avoid sanctions. Verification is non-delegable. Not a lawyer, so for a live matter talk to Utah ethics counsel or the Utah State Bar’s ethics hotline.