Streamline your workflow and increase your accuracy during the litigation process
Artificial intelligence is here to stay. It has already altered the scope of work for professionals across science, education, health care, business, and law. Generative AI (GenAI) takes that transformation a step further. For litigators, this means using GenAI in legal research to get confident answers faster and with more accuracy.
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The basics
Understanding GenAI may seem like a bowl of alphabet soup: LLM informed by RAG. But each technology holds hands with the next. AI-Assisted Research, in use in Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel, employs large language models (LLM) to analyze data for a given query. LLMs are machine-learning algorithms that predict language based on input data. Because LLMs predict language patterns, they may also return irrelevant or inaccurate information. To mitigate this, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) technology is applied. RAG relies on search results and factually correct content to ensure LLM responses are grounded in reality. The quality of RAG responses depends on the discovery process and the legal content used.
AI-Assisted Research on Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel directs the LLM to focus on the specific language of cases, statutes, and regulations rather than generating text from scratch. It identifies the most relevant documents within Westlaw content, as well as the key sections of those documents. The LLM then uses its understanding of language patterns to generate accurate answers based on these specific resources. This approach significantly reduces hallucinations and improves accuracy.
Litigating with AI-Assisted Research and CoCounsel
Preparing a solid case involves many tasks, and CoCounsel can help with many of the most time-consuming ones. Add your expertise to review and enhance, and you can move quickly to strategy and writing.
Litigators may use GenAI tools to:
- Provide a starting point for legal research. With Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel, you can ask a question in everyday language, as though you were asking a colleague. In short order, you get a relevant answer generated from trusted Westlaw content — the most comprehensive and accurate legal authority in the industry. This initial search, with links to pertinent content, can inform the rest of your research and case strategy.
- Do a check to ensure your research is complete and you’re citing the best cases for your argument. With Quick Check, part of Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel, you can upload a document and produce a report with recommendations for additional relevant authority, warnings for cited authority, and generative AI -powered quotation analysis.
- Identify applicable claims. Finding claims with traditional research methods can be difficult and time-consuming. With Claims Explorer, you can enter the facts of a case into the platform and receive a list of potential claims or counterclaims to explore. It can advise what claims are stronger, suggest the burden of proof for the claims, and whether extraordinary damages or attorneys’ fees might be obtainable based on a claim.
- Assess and compare laws across U.S. jurisdictions. AI Jurisdictional Surveys can evaluate and compare laws on topics across U.S. jurisdictions to establish litigation strategies, understand compliance-related jurisdictional differences, identify emerging policy trends, and advise clients on business decisions. These surveys can strengthen a legal argument by examining how other jurisdictions have addressed an issue.
Additionally, GenAI can help litigators:
- Gather information on witnesses and create outlines for depositions.
- Review and synthesize vast amounts of discovery.
- Produce initial drafts of opening and closing statements, pleadings, and correspondence.
- Assess and summarize trial exhibits.
- Create litigation timelines
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Keeping AI-Assisted Research in its place
Like all artificial intelligence tools in legal practice, AI-Assisted Research should be considered a start. When it’s grounded in trusted content, AI-Assisted Research can identify questions you didn’t know to ask and find answers that you didn’t know existed. But AI-Assisted Research is an assistant, not a replacement for legal professionals. It doesn’t, and shouldn’t, replace the experience and expertise of a lawyer to determine a strategy customized for a client. It can, however, get you to answers faster, and provide confidence in the completeness of your research.
AI-Assisted Research is a part of the comprehensive suite of generative AI solutions within Westlaw Precisio with CoCounsel. Beyond research, CoCounsel can extract contract data, draft correspondence, review and summarize documents, create playbooks, prepare timelines, and more.
To get answers to your legal questions up to three times faster and ensure your research is accurate and complete, learn more or request a free trial of Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel.
