Legal Researcher

The Legal Researcher task involves gathering, analyzing, and summarizing legal information in response to a user’s question or case scenario. The system ingests the user’s prompt—whether a general legal question or a detailed fact pattern—and searches across authoritative sources such as statutes, regulations, case law, legal aid guides, and trusted secondary materials.

The tool filters for jurisdiction-specific rules, relevant precedents, procedural requirements, and practical guidance, flagging key citations and potential issues. It translates complex legal language into clear, actionable summaries suitable for the intended audience—whether a self-represented litigant, legal aid staff member, or attorney.

Where possible, the system presents results with:

• Citations and links to the source material
• Risk flags for high-impact or high-uncertainty issues
• Procedural context (deadlines, filing requirements, jurisdictional nuances)
• Action steps the user can take based on the research

This task supports consistent, high-quality legal analysis at scale, reducing the manual time required for legal research while maintaining accuracy and ethical compliance.

When evaluating a tool or service that claims to perform the Legal Researcher task, consider:

1. Accuracy & Citation Quality
   • Does the service provide authoritative, verifiable sources?
   • Are citations correct, current, and linked to primary legal materials?
2. Jurisdiction Awareness
   • Can the system correctly identify and apply the relevant jurisdiction’s rules?
   • Does it avoid mixing rules from multiple jurisdictions without flagging differences?
3. Plain-Language Clarity
   • Is the output understandable to the intended audience without losing legal precision?
   • Does it explain legal jargon or acronyms?
4. Coverage & Relevance
   • Does it return the most relevant statutes, regulations, and cases for the question?
   • Does it surface both direct answers and related considerations the user may need to know?
5. Risk & Limitations Disclosure
   • Does the tool clearly state when it cannot provide definitive answers or when legal advice is needed?
   • Are high-risk or high-uncertainty issues flagged?
6. Ethical & Data Compliance
   • Is it transparent about sources, limitations, and potential biases?
   • Does it comply with confidentiality, privacy, and unauthorized practice of law rules?
7. Usability & Integration
   • Can results be easily exported, shared, or integrated into other legal workflows?
   • Is the search interface intuitive for non-experts?