Looking for the best online legal research tool to help you become the best legal researcher in 2020? Casetext helps you do more with less — even outside the steps of legal research. Here are the top 10 reasons why Casetext should be your go-to for legal research:
1. Natural language AND boolean searching
Got a favorite way to search? Use your favorite legal research techniques to search Casetext’s comprehensive database. Casetext supports both boolean and natural language searching — and on top of that, we offer A.I.-powered search to help you find better results in less time.
2. A.I. powered legal research
Your new favorite legal research technique: search by document. Drag and drop a document from your matter, and Casetext’s A.I. technology, CARA, will use it to find you other authorities with the same facts, legal issues, and jurisdiction. It’s like having your own research attorney finding on-point authorities for you.
3. Time-saving research tools
From tools like CARA A.I. to help you find better results in less time, to automatic copy-with-cite to help you instantly add a Bluebook format citation to your drafts, Casetext’s platform includes countless tools, big and small, to help you do more with less.
4. Confidence in your work
Is my legal research accurate? Have I found all the best supporting authorities? Have I cited any bad law? Casetext’s SmartCite flagging system will help you instantly identify bad law, and you can upload a draft to CARA A.I. to check for any relevant cases you might have missed.
5. Insights about the law
In addition to resources like a briefs database and articles authored by top attorneys, you’ll have access to tools that can help you quickly evaluate a case or statute, like case summaries authored by judges.
When Casetext was deciding how much to charge for legal research, we felt that you shouldn’t have to choose between an expensive, multi-year contract or trudging to and from the law library every time you need to look up a case. Casetext is affordably priced at $65/month for an annual plan, or $89/month for a month-to-month plan.
7. No long-term contracts or annual rate increases
Say goodbye to your multi-year contract and increasingly expensive Westlaw or LexisNexis subscription. With Casetext, you can choose between a month-to-month or an annual subscription, and you’ll keep your rate as long as you’re a customer.
8. All-inclusive subscriptions
We all know a lawyer who’s been burned by “out of plan” fees charged by legal research services. Unlike Westlaw and LexisNexis, we believe you should have access to any law that might help you represent your client, in any jurisdiction — which is why we include 50-state and federal cases and statutes in all our subscriptions.
9. Top-notch support
Our easy-to-reach, friendly support team is here to help you. You can get in touch via live chat, phone, or email.
10. Loved by legal researchers at firms big and small
From 4,500+ solo and small firms to 35% of the Am Law 100, attorneys across the country rely on Casetext to help them get better research results in less time (for less money).
Rapidly draft common legal letters and emails.
How this skill works
Specify the recipient, topic, and tone of the correspondence you want.
CoCounsel will produce a draft.
Chat back and forth with CoCounsel to edit the draft.
Get answers to your research questions, with explanations and supporting sources.
How this skill works
Enter a question or issue, along with relevant facts such as jurisdiction, area of law, etc.
CoCounsel will retrieve relevant legal resources and provide an answer with explanation and supporting sources.
Behind the scenes, Conduct Research generates multiple queries using keyword search, terms and connectors, boolean, and Parallel Search to identify the on-point case law, statutes, and regulations, reads and analyzes the search results, and outputs a summary of its findings (i.e. an answer to the question), along with the supporting sources and applicable excerpts.
Get answers to your research questions, with explanations and supporting sources.
How this skill works
Enter a question or issue, along with relevant facts such as jurisdiction, area of law, etc.
CoCounsel will retrieve relevant legal resources and provide an answer with explanation and supporting sources.
Behind the scenes, Conduct Research generates multiple queries using keyword search, terms and connectors, boolean, and Parallel Search to identify the on-point case law, statutes, and regulations, reads and analyzes the search results, and outputs a summary of its findings (i.e. an answer to the question), along with the supporting sources and applicable excerpts.
Get a thorough deposition outline in no time, just by describing the deponent and what’s at issue.
How this skill works
Describe the deponent and what’s at issue in the case, and CoCounsel identifies multiple highly relevant topics to address in the deposition and drafts questions for each topic.
Refine topics by including specific areas of interest and get a thorough deposition outline.
Ask questions of contracts that are analyzed in a line-by-line review
How this skill works
Allows the user to upload a set of contracts and a set of questions
This skill will provide an answer to those questions for each contract, or, if the question is not relevant to the contract, provide that information as well
Upload up to 10 contracts at once
Ask up to 10 questions of each contract
Relevant results will hyperlink to identified passages in the corresponding contract
Get a list of all parts of a set of contracts that don’t comply with a set of policies.
How this skill works
Upload a set of contracts and then describe a policy or set of policies that the contracts should comply with, e.g. "contracts must contain a right to injunctive relief, not merely the right to seek injunctive relief."
CoCounsel will review your contracts and identify any contractual clauses relevant to the policy or policies you specified.
If there is any conflict between a contractual clause and a policy you described, CoCounsel will recommend a revised clause that complies with the relevant policy. It will also identify the risks presented by a clause that does not conform to the policy you described.
Get an overview of any document in straightforward, everyday language.
How this skill works
Upload a document–e.g. a legal memorandum, judicial opinion, or contract.
CoCounsel will summarize the document using everyday terminology.
Find all instances of relevant information in a database of documents.
How this skill works
Select a database and describe what you're looking for in detail, such as templates and precedents to use as a starting point for drafting documents, or specific clauses and provisions you'd like to include in new documents you're working on.
CoCounsel identifies and delivers every instance of what you're searching for, citing sources in the database for each instance.
Behind the scenes, CoCounsel generates multiple queries using keyword search, terms and connectors, boolean, and Parallel Search to identifiy the on-point passages from every document in the database, reads and analyzes the search results, and outputs a summary of its findings (i.e. an answer to the question), citing applicable excerpts in specific documents.
Get a list of all parts of a set of contracts that don’t comply with a set of policies.
Ask questions of contracts that are analyzed in a line-by-line review
Get a thorough deposition outline by describing the deponent and what’s at issue.
Get answers to your research questions, with explanations and supporting sources.