Filevine, a legal technology firm, has introduced an innovative AI-native citator and a companion brief-checking tool within its Legal Operating Intelligence System (LOIS) AI platform. According to Filevine’s CEO, Ryan Anderson, these tools match or outperform the industry-standard legal citators, Shepard’s by LexisNexis and KeyCite by Thomson Reuters. The primary functions of the new citator include verifying whether legal propositions remain valid and identifying hallucinated citations or mischaracterized authority in legal briefs.
The development of a robust citator has long been viewed as a significant challenge within legal research. In fact, research led by Filevine’s product manager, John Rizner, highlights that existing citators often conflict with one another on the status of legal precedents. A 2018 study by Paul Hellyer at William & Mary found that, among 357 cited relationships, only a small fraction was consistently labeled negative by Shepherd’s, KeyCite, and BCite (William & Mary Law School study).
- The AI-based citator allows legal professionals to highlight specific passages in opinions to determine if they remain supported by subsequent rulings, thus offering a passage-focused legal verification tool.
- The newly released anti-hallucination tool helps ensure the accuracy of citations and their attributed authority within legal briefs.
These tools address the increasing concerns about AI accuracy and maintain the integrity of legal documents produced using such technologies. A recent analysis by Filevine revealed significant overlap discrepancies and varied results from legacy citators on identical case queries. For instance, when reviewing Freedom Mortgage Corp. v. Engel, Westlaw identified 28 instances of negative treatment while Lexis found only 13, with only a 41% overlap.
Filevine’s solution includes ingesting legal documents and analyzing every citation to determine their status and accuracy. The brief auditor then provides a detailed report that flags citations if they are unverified or potentially problematic, helping legal professionals to scrutinize each case and prevent the reliance on fictitious or misstated precedents.
As the legal industry continues to leverage AI for drafting and research, tools like Filevine’s citator become increasingly essential, particularly in addressing the risks of AI hallucinations. This development underscores a shift in how legal citation validation is integrated into everyday legal workflows, ensuring the accuracy and reliability of legal documents produced in an AI-driven environment. However, Anderson emphasized that human oversight remains vital as technology guides legal professionals in the right direction but cannot completely replace professional scrutiny.