Getting to a confident answer faster

Whether you’re preparing for court or closing a deal, proper research sets the foundation for a winning case. In an industry founded on precedent, the legal field demands complete, accurate, and relevant data. With the help of AI-Assisted Research on Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel, you can get to a confident answer faster and with more accuracy.

If you are cautious about using AI, you’re not alone. However, the body of legal professionals embracing artificial intelligence is growing. Its effect is compared to the performance jump from searching printed law books to researching online, a leapfrog effect in the speed and completeness of answers, and it gives lawyers who use it a competitive edge.

Generative AI for legal research boasts clear benefits; it saves time and increases efficiency. AI-Assisted Research can process and analyze vast amounts of legal texts much faster than humans. This allows you to focus on tasks uniquely suited to your experience and expertise – something AI-Assisted Research can’t handle. In a recent Thomson Reuters survey, respondents predicted it could save them as much as 12 hours per week, with many saying at least four hours per week in the next year alone. That’s the equivalent of adding a full-time colleague among 10 lawyers.

AI-Assisted Research also uncovers patterns and connections that are impractical for a human researcher, by rapidly analyzing vast data sets. It also suggests research approaches that might not have occurred to you. 

Not all AI-Assisted Research is created equal

While many AI-powered research tools are available, not all are trustworthy. AI-Assisted Research on Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel is unique in its ability to match advanced technology with trusted content. Westlaw leveraged artificial intelligence to provide editor-created answers for over a decade, and now its AI-Assisted Research crafts tailored responses to your queries in real-time, across various jurisdictions. 

AI-Assisted Research uses large language models (LLM) to scour data related to a query. LLMs are machine-learning algorithms that predict language based on found inputs. Although this is an integral part of an AI-powered research tools solution, LLMs can also create information that doesn’t exist – with hallucinations being a common example.

Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) is a technology widely used to minimize hallucinations. RAG depends on search results and factually accurate content to ensure LLM responses are based in reality. However, the effectiveness of RAG responses is based on the quality of the discovery process and the legal content.

AI-Assisted Research on Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel focuses the large language model on the actual language of cases, statutes, and regulations. It doesn’t ask the LLM to generate text based on the question asked, but rather the content it searches. Within Westlaw content, it finds the very best cases, statutes, and regulations to address the question, including the very best portions of those cases, statutes, and regulations. Then the large language model uses its statistical understanding of language patterns to focus on those specific resources and produce an answer. This process dramatically reduces hallucination and dramatically improves accuracy. 

In addition to its vast digital storehouse of legal precedent, Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel draws from editorial enrichments that include: 

• KeyCite, which flags the validity of cases and helps you ensure you’re citing good law.
• The Key Number System, which is the most comprehensive and sophisticated categorization of U.S. law. 
• Editor enhancements written by hundreds of bar-admitted lawyers to ensure the discovery process identifies the very best material to bring to the language model.

Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel zeroes in on the actual language of cases, statutes, and regulations, rather than asking the LLM to generate text from scratch based on a query. It identifies the best of those sources from within Westlaw content to address the question and the most relevant sections of those documents. Then, the large language model uses its statistical understanding of language patterns to focus on these specific resources and generate an answer. This approach significantly reduces hallucinations and improves accuracy, ensuring that answers from Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel don’t include fake citations or case names.

Accuracy

While the prospect of hallucinations can cause heartburn for a legal researcher, the more difficult and more important problem to solve with AI-Assisted Research is accuracy. A large language model can return an answer that’s hallucination-free but is ultimately inaccurate. To ensure the LLM delivers accurate information, it needs to collect the correct law for the question and deliver that content to the LLM with the correct set of prompts.

Despite a wide variety of language that pertains to these six things, it is possible to ask AI-Assisted Research on Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel in a straightforward manner: can a building owner completely and permanently cover up a statue? This simple query didn’t use word phrases like moral rights, reference the Visual Artist Rights Act, or even the words “destruction” or “modification.”

Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel categorizes this wide variety of language into just two key numbers, two subject categories within its key number system. A researcher may not know that those key numbers exist, but AI-Assisted Research does. And that means it can do a better job with discovery, identifying the necessary material to use to create an answer.

Because Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel is can leverage all its resources and editorial enhancements, it returns a very sophisticated and highly relevant response to this question. Can a building owner completely and permanently cover up a statue? The answer is yes. The right case, the right statute, the right standards, and the key issues are all included in the answer.

Compare that to an answer from OpenAI’s ChatGPT Plus, which returns the opposite answer. It mentions the correct legal standard, but only as part of a shotgun listing of many different potentially applicable standards, like easements and building codes. It does not know the leading case, governing statute, key issues, or outcome. While Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel identifies the nuance of the issue, other AI-Assisted Research models will struggle with this.

Confidence 

For legal professionals, confidence isn’t just a personal characteristic – it’s a strategic asset. When you’re confident, you inspire your clients and convince the courts. It helps in negotiations and allows you to make quick, effective decisions. When it comes to legal research, confidence comes in knowing you’ve done it right.

• Confident your research is accurate
  With trusted Westlaw content delivered to the large language model through Retrieval Augmented Generation, you can get to a confident conclusion faster.
• Confident your research is complete
  Only you know when you’re finished researching. Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel gets you farther faster by simplifying queries and returning answers with citations.
• Confident you’re representing your clients well
  With both a professional and personal responsibility to serve your clients, you can feel confident your research. 
• Confident you’re spending your time wisely
  Research rabbit holes are greatly reduced when AI-Assisted Research delivers the right answers fast. 

Excellence

Your work product represents you and your firm’s reputation. That means taking responsibility for everything that comes across your desk. Your notes, documents, recordings, concepts, conclusions, briefs, and filings all typify you as a legal professional. Thorough legal research is the bedrock for work product excellence. Each client deserves complete and accurate research for their matter. When you’re part of a team, whether that includes those you supervise or those you report to, bringing your best work product means the team also demonstrates excellence. 

Versatility

Whether you’re a litigator or a transactional attorney, AI-Assisted Research can help:

Applications in litigation work. To assess the viability of litigation or to quantify the value of a lawsuit, you need an in-depth analysis of precedent-setting cases. That can mean pouring through vast amounts of data to uncover cases that directly apply and cases that may influence yours. The more efficiently you move toward answers, the faster you can develop strategy and start writing. AI-Assisted Research on Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel lightens the load of research by returning a response based on appropriate cases, statutes, and regulations in addition to editorial enhancements.

Applications in transactional work. Drafting contracts, negotiating commercial arrangements, and helping clients figure out how to best carry out their transactions are all founded on legal research. Each agreement requires not just a basic understanding of transactional legal principles but also research specific to the transaction. And when your client asks for a legal opinion related to their matter, that involves more in-depth research. Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel helps jumpstart your research and get back to your client quicker.

Making it happen in Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel

Using conversational language, enter queries in the tab titled AI-Assisted Research found within Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel. Type in your question in the text box – you can write it as if you were asking a trusted colleague. Once the query is submitted, Westlaw Precision’s enhanced search analyzes key cases, statutes, and regulations on your matter and provides an overview of detailed insights synthesized from your top results. Supporting authority is provided to verify statements, so you can make informed decisions on how to complete your research. The chat box remains available to ask follow-up questions if needed. 

Transformative technology, transforming your work

AI-Assisted Research is a norm-shattering advancement in legal research technology. It builds confidence for both transactional and litigation attorneys by delivering higher-quality work products in less time. Feedback from early users of AI-Assisted Research calls it “game-changing” and “nothing short of amazing.”

AI-Assisted Research is part of Westlaw Precision’s full suite of generative AI solutions called CoCounsel. In addition to research, CoCounsel can extract contract data, draft correspondence, review and summarize documents, create playbooks, prepare timelines, and more. 

To answer your legal questions up to three times faster and feel confident your research is accurate and complete, learn more or request a free trial of Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel.