Law school graduate fired for using ChatGPT with fake precedents

A law school graduate lost his job after using ChatGPT to draft a legal document. Which turned out to be filled with errors and non-existent legal precedents. This case occurred in Utah state, where a court first discovered a fake legal citation generated by artificial intelligence and immediately imposed sanctions. Judge Mark Curis in his decision emphasized that the document contained “multiple” incorrect citations, as well as “at least one case that appears not to exist in any legal database and can only be found in ChatGPT”.

Attorneys Douglas Durbano, who participated in preparing the document, and Richard Bednar, who signed and filed it, should have verified the accuracy of information before court time was spent evaluating the fake citation. “We emphasize that every attorney has an ongoing duty to verify and ensure the accuracy of their court documents,” wrote Judge Curis, noting that the lawyers “failed in their duties as members of the Utah State Bar when they submitted a petition containing a fake precedent generated by ChatGPT”.

Apologizing and promising to “remedy the situation”, the law firm informed the court that the law school graduate was working as an unlicensed legal clerk and did not notify anyone of his use of ChatGPT. For which he was fired from the law firm.