AI Web Search
AI-powered legal research across the web, news sources, and public legal databases — with automatic citation and evidence scoring.
Overview
Legal research is time-consuming. A traditional web search returns dozens of results that must be opened, read, and evaluated individually — with no indication of legal relevance, evidentiary weight, or citation status. AI Web Search replaces this with an intelligent research tool that searches across web sources and legal news, evaluates every result for legal relevance and credibility, extracts key findings, generates Bluebook citations automatically, and presents everything in a structured, scannable report.
AI Web Search is complementary to the AI Terminal's CourtListener and EDGAR integrations: those provide access to primary legal sources (case law, SEC filings), while AI Web Search provides access to secondary sources, news, commentary, regulatory updates, and current events that affect a matter. Together they cover the full research landscape.
Search Modes
Quick
Fast · ~10 secondsA broad search across web and news sources. Returns the top 5–10 most relevant results with a one-paragraph summary per result. Best for: a fast check on a topic before a client meeting, confirming a recent news event, or getting an overview of a new area of law.
Deep
Thorough · ~60 secondsA multi-pass search that retrieves more sources, reads each one in depth, and synthesises findings across sources into a structured research memo. Returns key findings, conflicting positions, and a sorted citation list. Best for: substantive legal research, preparing a research memo, or understanding a complex area before advising a client.
Targeted
Precise · ~30 secondsA focused search on a specific legal question, statute, or issue. You provide a precise question or citation and the search retrieves and analyses sources specifically relevant to that question. Best for: researching the application of a specific clause, confirming the current position on a statutory provision, or investigating a specific regulatory requirement.
Sources
Each search can be targeted at one or more source types. Select sources based on what kind of information you need:
Web
General web sources: law firm articles and commentary, bar association publications, government and regulatory websites, academic legal commentary, and secondary legal databases accessible to the public. Broadest coverage; includes both authoritative and less-reliable sources (FRITH scores each for credibility).
News
Legal news publications, court reporting services, regulatory announcement feeds, and mainstream news sources for matters involving newsworthy events. Particularly useful for researching recent regulatory changes, enforcement actions, court decisions reported before they appear in case law databases, or events affecting a client's industry.
Running a Search
Open AI Web Search
Click AI Web Search in the left sidebar under AI Tools. The search interface opens with the query field at the top.
Select your search mode
Choose Quick, Deep, or Targeted based on how much time you have and how comprehensive the research needs to be. For most substantive research tasks, use Deep. For a quick fact-check or overview, use Quick.
Select sources
Check Web, News, or both. If you are researching a regulatory change, check both. If you want broad legal commentary, Web is sufficient. If you want only recent events, check News only.
Enter your query
Type your research question in plain language. For Targeted mode, be as specific as possible: "Application of s 18 Australian Consumer Law to misleading online advertising in 2024" will return far more useful results than "consumer law advertising". For Quick or Deep mode, a clear question is sufficient.
Set jurisdiction (optional)
Enter a jurisdiction to filter results. Examples: "New South Wales", "Federal (Australia)", "England and Wales", "Delaware". A jurisdiction filter improves relevance for questions of domestic law; leave it blank for international or comparative research.
Review results
Results appear as cards, each showing the source, a summary, key findings, relevance and credibility scores, and the Bluebook citation. Sort by relevance, credibility, or recency using the column headers. Click any result to expand the full analysis.
Save to matter or export
Save selected results to the linked matter's Documents library as a research memo, or export the full result set as a formatted Word or PDF report. Individual citations can be copied in Bluebook format for insertion into briefs or submissions.
Understanding Search Results
Each search result includes several AI-generated quality scores and structured fields to help you assess its value quickly:
A 0–100 score indicating how closely the source addresses the specific legal question you asked. A score of 80+ indicates directly on-point content; below 50 indicates the source is tangentially related at best.
A 0–100 score assessing the reliability of the source: authorship (law firm, academic, bar association vs. anonymous blog), publication quality, date of publication, and whether the source has been cited elsewhere. Use this to prioritise which sources to read first.
A rating (High / Medium / Low / Informational) of the source's value as evidence or authority in a legal argument. Primary sources (legislation, court decisions) rate High; commentary and news rate Medium or Informational.
The Bluebook citation for this source, generated automatically. Review and correct before using in a filed document — AI-generated citations require verification.
A bullet-point extraction of the most legally significant points from this source. Allows rapid triage without reading the full source — useful for quickly deciding which sources merit full reading.
Search History
Every search is saved to your Search History, accessible via the History tab in AI Web Search. Each saved search shows the query, mode, date, result count, and a summary of key findings. You can re-run a previous search to see if new sources have been published since it was last run, or share a search with a colleague by clicking Share on any historical search.
When a matter is linked to the search, the results are automatically associated with that matter and appear in the matter's AI Research tab alongside AI Terminal conversations and other research artefacts.
Legal research best practices with AI Web Search
- • Use AI Web Search for secondary sources and current events. For primary sources (case law, legislation), use the AI Terminal with CourtListener and jurisdiction-specific databases.
- • Set a jurisdiction every time you search a question of domestic law. Omitting it returns results from all jurisdictions and dilutes relevance significantly.
- • Do not cite a source solely on the basis of a high AI relevance score. Read the source itself before citing it — scores reflect pattern matching, not legal accuracy.
- • For breaking regulatory changes, use News source mode combined with a targeted query. News sources often report regulatory changes days or weeks before they appear on official government websites.
- • Use Deep mode for research you will rely on in advice or submissions; use Quick mode only for internal background checks. The difference in quality is significant for complex topics.
- • Save significant research sessions to the matter. A colleague picking up the matter months later should be able to see what research was done, when, and what was found.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is AI Web Search the same as searching Google?
No. AI Web Search does not use Google. It queries curated legal and news sources, reads the content of retrieved pages (not just their titles and snippets), extracts legally relevant information, evaluates credibility, and synthesises findings into a structured report. A Google search returns links; AI Web Search returns legal analysis.
Can I use AI Web Search results in court filings?
AI Web Search identifies and summarises sources. Before citing any source in a court document, you must independently verify the source, its currency, and the accuracy of the AI's characterisation of it. Never cite a source solely based on AI Web Search output without reading the original. AI can mischaracterise sources, paraphrase inaccurately, or surface sources that have since been overruled or withdrawn.
How current are the search results?
AI Web Search queries live sources, so results are current at the time of the search. The date of each source is displayed in the result card. For rapidly evolving areas (recent legislation, current regulatory guidance), note the publication date and consider re-running the search if significant time has passed.
Can I search for a specific case or statute?
Yes. For a specific case, use Targeted mode and enter the case name and citation: "Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562 — duty of care principles". For a statute, enter the statute name and the specific section you are researching. Targeted mode is far more effective than Quick or Deep for looking up a known authority.
Are searches logged or visible to colleagues?
Search history is visible only to you by default. When you link a search to a matter and save it, the research summary becomes visible to all firm members who have access to that matter. Administrators can view firm-wide search volume (but not search content) in the AI usage logs.