Multi-jurisdictional research, every citation verified
An orchestrator with twelve specialist sub-agents that researches across UK and EU sources and assembles a finished memo. Every citation is independently re-fetched and checked against its source, and every case carries a treatment signal so you know where the authority stands today.
Other tools invent cases. We re-fetch every one.
In Ayinde v Haringey and Al-Haroun v Qatar National Bank (2025), solicitors filed submissions citing authorities that AI had invented. Most AI tools produce text that looks like legal authority but was never checked against the real source.
What goes wrong
- Invented citations filed with a court lead to wasted-costs orders and SRA referrals
- A repealed statute or an overruled case cited as good law undermines the advice
- There is no record to show the SRA that AI-assisted research was supervised
From your question to a governed answer
Not a black box. Every step is visible, checkable, and governed. Here's exactly what happens when you use the Research Agent.
You ask the question
In plain English, or as a structured brief setting out the issues, jurisdictions, and scope you want covered.
The Planning Protocol sets the strategy
The agent breaks the question into sub-questions, picks the jurisdictions and sources (BAILII, legislation.gov.uk, EUR-Lex), and lays out a plan you can review before anything runs.
The Jurisdiction Gatekeeper scopes the sources
Authorities from a jurisdiction the matter isn't configured for are kept out, so Scottish authorities don't slip into an English matter.
The sub-agents search the real sources
Twelve specialists search case law, statutes, SIs, and regulatory guidance in parallel, then rank by authority, recency, and relevance.
The Legal Citation Verifier checks every authority
Each citation is re-fetched at its source. Court, neutral citation, date, parties, and current treatment are all confirmed, and fabricated authorities are caught here.
You get a verified research memo
A structured memo with each authority annotated by status and source, and the full audit trail attached for your COLP.
Governance pipeline for every output
Every research agent output flows through the same three-stage pipeline.
Input
Verify
Comply
Prove
Governed
Everything the Research Agent can do
Every capability runs on our own legal database and through the same governance — checked, compliant, and logged.
- Case law researched across courts and jurisdictions, with the search plan set out before anything runs
- Statutory research with amendment status, commencement dates, and extent tracked on legislation.gov.uk
- Regulatory guidance drawn together across the SRA, FCA, ICO, and sector bodies
- Every case, statute, and SI re-fetched and checked against BAILII, legislation.gov.uk, or EUR-Lex
- Conflicting authorities flagged, with binding and persuasive authority distinguished
- A structured research memo with a treatment signal and a source link on every authority
Who the Research Agent is for
- Litigation teams who need fast, reliable case research across courts
- Regulatory lawyers tracking obligations across the UK and EU
- Associates preparing memos with citations that will hold up in front of a partner or a judge
Governance guarantee
Every memo arrives with a verification certificate: which citations were checked, against which source, and whether each passed. The Legal Citation Verifier runs on every authority, and your COLP can open the full research trail in seconds.
In practice
Real scenarios, real outcomes
How different roles in your firm would use the Research Agent — with specific scenarios and governed outcomes.
Scenario
Preparing a skeleton argument for a Commercial Court hearing on contractual interpretation. The agent researches authorities across the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, and Commercial Court, checking every citation against BAILII.
Governed outcome
A verified research memo in 20 minutes instead of 4 hours of manual work. Every citation real. A full audit trail for the supervising partner.
Scenario
A financial services client needs to understand obligations under three overlapping regimes (SRA, FCA, ICO). The agent researches all three and maps where the requirements overlap.
Governed outcome
A cross-regulatory analysis with every guidance reference checked. The lawyer reviews the work instead of starting from scratch.
Scenario
The SRA asks how the firm supervises AI-assisted research. The COLP pulls the verification certificates and audit trails from the Research Agent dashboard.
Governed outcome
A complete evidence pack — what was researched, how citations were checked, which sources were used, and who reviewed the output — assembled in minutes, not days.
What makes this different
Built for legal work, not relabelled for it
We look it up, we don't ask the AI
Each citation is re-fetched from BAILII, legislation.gov.uk, or EUR-Lex directly. We don't ask the model to mark its own homework.
The right source for every citation
Case law to BAILII, statutes to legislation.gov.uk, EU measures to EUR-Lex, guidance to the regulator's own record.
Treatment, not just existence
A case can exist and still be wrong to cite. We check where it stands today, with a good-law treatment signal.
A memo, not a chat reply
Authorities grouped, annotated, and linked to source — not a wall of text.
Built on our own legal database
The Research Agent checks every output against BAILII, legislation.gov.uk, EUR-Lex, and our own legal database — a curated, constantly updated source we built in-house for faster checking. It's our own work, and it lets us cross-reference across jurisdictions in ways the public sources can't on their own.
Built-in governance
How Verify, Comply, Prove works for the Research Agent
Every agent on LegalAI Space runs through the same three steps. Here's exactly what that means for research agent outputs.
Every citation re-fetched and checked against its source
We don't ask the model whether a citation looks right. The Legal Citation Verifier re-fetches each one and confirms the whole citation against the authoritative source.
- UK case law checked against BAILII — court, neutral citation, date, and parties confirmed
- UK legislation checked on legislation.gov.uk — amendment status, commencement, and extent
- EU law checked against EUR-Lex — regulation numbers, directive transposition, CJEU references
- Treatment signal on every case — overruled, distinguished, applied, or appealed
Research checked against professional standards
The Regulatory Compliance Check looks beyond the individual citations. It checks whether the research as a whole meets the standard a competent practitioner would expect.
- Right for the jurisdiction — English authorities not relied on for Scottish or NI matters
- Authority hierarchy respected — binding and persuasive authority clearly distinguished
- Key contrary authorities surfaced, not quietly left out
- SRA competence (rule 3.3) — the output supports your judgement, it does not replace it
A full audit trail, question to memo
Every step is logged with timestamps, sources, and verification results. When the SRA asks how AI research was supervised, the evidence already exists.
- Research strategy recorded — what was searched, in which sources, with what parameters
- Per-citation verification log — source, timestamp, pass or fail, and reason for any failure
- Human review touchpoints logged — who reviewed, when, and what they approved or changed
- Exportable verification certificate for the matter file or a regulatory inspection
Further Reading
Further reading for the Research Agent
Guides on the work the Research Agent does — and the governance behind it.
Try the Research Agent on a real matter
Get early access and run the Research Agent on your firm's work — or book a pilot call to scope what you need.
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LegalAI Space is a technology platform. We are not a law firm and do not provide legal advice. AI agents assist with legal work but do not replace qualified legal counsel or professional judgement.
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Agent capabilities described on this page represent planned or in-development functionality. Final capabilities may vary.
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References to regulatory frameworks (SRA Standards and Regulations, EU AI Act) are for informational purposes. Compliance checking is automated and rule-based — it does not constitute a legal opinion.