Legal research that cites real authorities — never hallucinated ones
Autonomously executes multi-step legal research workflows — identifying relevant case law, statutes, and regulatory guidance across jurisdictions. Every citation is independently verified against authoritative databases before it reaches you.
AI research tools may produce plausible-sounding citations that don't exist — we prevent that from happening
In Al-Haroun v Qatar National Bank (2025), a solicitor filed submissions containing 18 non-existent case authorities generated by AI. In Mata v Avianca (2023), two US lawyers were sanctioned for six fictitious citations from ChatGPT. Every AI research tool on the market has this problem — they generate text that looks like legal authority but has never been independently checked.
Without governance, this leads to:
- Hallucinated citations filed with courts lead to sanctions and SRA referrals
- Repealed statutes cited as current law undermine client advice
- Jurisdictional errors in cross-border research create liability
- No way to prove to the SRA that AI research output was supervised
Step by step: from your instruction to governed output
Not a black box. Every step is visible, auditable, and governed. Here's exactly what happens when you use the Research Agent.
You provide the research question
Natural language instructions — 'Find authority on limitation periods for professional negligence claims in England and Wales' — or structured research briefs with specific issues, jurisdictions, and scope parameters.
Agent plans a multi-step research strategy
The agent breaks your question into sub-queries, identifies relevant jurisdictions, selects appropriate source databases (BAILII, legislation.gov.uk, EUR-Lex), and plans the search sequence. You can review the strategy before execution begins.
Agent executes searches across authoritative sources
Case law, statutes, statutory instruments, regulatory guidance, and consultation papers — searched systematically across the databases relevant to your jurisdictions. Results are ranked by authority, recency, and relevance.
Verification engine checks every citation independently
Each citation is verified against the primary source database. Court name, neutral citation, date, parties, and current status (including whether overruled, distinguished, or appealed) are all confirmed. Fabricated authorities are caught here — before they reach you.
Compliance engine evaluates the research output
Is the research jurisdictionally appropriate? Does it address all issues raised? Are there conflicting authorities that need flagging? Is the authority hierarchy correct? The compliance check ensures the output meets professional standards, not just that individual citations exist.
You receive a verified research memorandum
A structured research memo with every citation verified and annotated. Each authority shows its verification status, the database it was checked against, and its current standing. The full audit trail is attached — ready for your COLP if needed.
Research Memorandum
Professional negligence — duty of care — limitation
Hedley Byrne & Co Ltd v Heller & Partners Ltd [1964] AC 465
Caparo Industries plc v Dickman [1990] 2 AC 605
Robinson v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire [2018] UKSC 4
Henderson & Partners v Stuart & Webb [2019] EWHC 1847 (Ch)
Limitation Act 1980, s.2
Every output governed by:
Input
Verify
Comply
Prove
Governed
Everything the Research Agent can do
Each capability is powered by our proprietary database and runs through the governance engine — verified, compliant, and audit-trailed.
- Multi-jurisdictional case law research with autonomous query planning
- Statutory interpretation with amendment status and commencement tracking
- Regulatory guidance synthesis across SRA, FCA, ICO, and sector-specific bodies
- Independent citation verification — every case, statute, and SI checked against primary sources
- Conflict-of-authority identification with jurisdiction-aware ranking
- Automated research memorandum generation with full source trails
Who the Research Agent is for
- Litigation teams needing rapid, reliable case research across courts
- Regulatory lawyers tracking cross-border obligations
- Associates preparing legal memoranda with defensible citations
Governance guarantee
Every research output includes a verification certificate — showing which citations were checked, against which databases, and whether they passed. Your COLP can audit any research trail instantly. No black-box answers.
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 relevant authorities across the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, and Commercial Court, verifying every citation against BAILII.
Governed outcome
Verified research memo delivered in 20 minutes instead of 4 hours of manual research. Zero hallucinated citations. Full audit trail for the supervising partner.
Scenario
A financial services client needs to understand obligations under three overlapping regulatory regimes (SRA, FCA, ICO). The agent researches across all three bodies and maps the overlapping requirements.
Governed outcome
Cross-regulatory analysis with every guidance reference verified. Regulatory lawyer reviews output rather than conducting primary research from scratch.
Scenario
The SRA asks for evidence of how the firm supervises AI-assisted legal research. The COLP pulls the verification certificates and audit trails from the Research Agent dashboard.
Governed outcome
Complete evidence package showing: what was researched, how citations were verified, which databases were checked, and which fee earners reviewed the output — assembled in minutes, not days.
Try the Research Agent in Private Preview
Apply now — 3 months free access in exchange for your feedback and a testimonial.
Not another AI tool with a legal label
Independent verification, not self-checking
Other tools ask the same AI to check its own work. Our verification engine is a separate system that queries primary source databases directly. It doesn't ask 'does this citation look right?' — it looks it up.
Multi-database cross-referencing
BAILII for case law, legislation.gov.uk for statutes, EUR-Lex for EU law, plus regulatory body databases for guidance. Each citation is checked against the authoritative source for its type and jurisdiction.
Current status, not just existence
A case can exist and still be wrong to cite — because it's been overruled, distinguished on the relevant point, or superseded by later authority. The verification engine checks standing, not just existence.
Structured output, not chat responses
Research is delivered as a structured memorandum with categorised authorities, not a chat reply. Each authority is annotated with verification status, relevance assessment, and source links.
Powered by our Proprietary Database
The Research Agent verifies every output against BAILII, legislation.gov.uk, EUR-Lex, and our proprietary database — a curated, continuously updated data source we built in-house for faster multi-step verification of authentic legal data. This is our IP, enabling cross-referencing across jurisdictions that public databases alone cannot provide.
How Verify, Comply, Prove works for the Research Agent
Every agent on LegalAI Space runs through our proprietary three-stage governance engine. Here's exactly what that means for research agent outputs.
Every citation checked against primary sources
The verification engine doesn't just check that a case name exists — it confirms the full citation, including court, date, neutral citation number, and current status.
Specifically for research agent outputs
- UK case law verified against BAILII — court, neutral citation, date, parties all confirmed
- UK legislation checked on legislation.gov.uk — including amendment status, commencement dates, and extent
- EU law verified against EUR-Lex — regulation numbers, directive transposition status, CJEU case references
- Overruled, distinguished, or appealed status checked for every case authority
- Statutory instruments verified including expiry, revocation, and amendment history
Research output assessed against professional standards
The compliance engine doesn't just check individual citations — it evaluates whether the research as a whole meets the standard a competent practitioner would expect.
Specifically for research agent outputs
- Jurisdictional appropriateness — English authorities not cited for Scottish matters
- Authority hierarchy respected — binding vs persuasive authority clearly distinguished
- Recency check — recent developments that may affect cited authorities are flagged
- Completeness assessment — key contrary authorities are not omitted
- SRA competence requirements (rule 3.3) — output supports, not replaces, professional judgement
Complete audit trail from question to memorandum
Every step is logged with timestamps, source references, and verification outcomes. When the SRA asks how AI-assisted research was supervised, the evidence already exists.
Specifically for research agent outputs
- Research strategy documented — what was searched, in which databases, with what parameters
- Per-citation verification log — source database, check timestamp, pass/fail, reason for failure
- Compliance assessment record — which rules were evaluated, outcomes, any flags raised
- Human review touchpoints logged — who reviewed, when, what they approved or modified
- Exportable compliance certificate for file records or regulatory inspection
Help us build it. Use it free for 3 months.
We are offering a free 3-month subscription to early access firms in exchange for honest feedback and a testimonial. You help shape the product. We build it for you, with you.
Book a conversation
15 minutes with Daman. No pitch, no pressure — just a conversation about your firm's AI governance needs.
Drop me an email
Write to daman@legalaispace.com — a draft message is ready for you to personalise.
Join the waitlist
Get notified when early access opens. No commitment — just priority access when we're ready.
We're building this with the people who need it most
LegalAI Space is in active development. Join the waitlist for early access when we launch.
Waitlist benefits
- Early access when we launch
- Priority onboarding
- Founding-member pricing
- Direct input into the product
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We're speaking with compliance officers and innovation directors at law firms globally. Book a 15-minute confidential research conversation — no pitch, no sales.
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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.
- Agent capabilities described on this page represent planned or in-development functionality. Final capabilities may vary.
- 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.