Writing the memo is the easy half. We built the other half.
Pick a task, say what you need and drop in the matter's files: research a question, assess a position, summarize a record, build a chronology, compare two versions, proofread a filing, draft a document or check the citations in a draft you already wrote. It comes back in Word, text or a spreadsheet, and a lawyer reviews, verifies and signs it.
Our system produces better results because it does not take its own work on trust. The cases it cites are looked up in the published case law and checked by a separate stage whose only job is checking. Anything flagged goes back to be fixed and is checked again, and whatever is still open is marked for your lawyer.
HiCourt does the checking before the draft reaches your lawyer, not after. That takes longer than a single pass of AI, and the lawyer still assesses the work.
Checked on your side
Your hours
Whatever a tool did before handing the draft over, the verification that counts is the
one the signing lawyer does: run down each authority, read the pin cites, work out which
sentences are load-bearing and which are decoration.
The question is how much of that is still waiting when the draft lands.
Checked before
HiCourt's hours
Before the draft reaches you, HiCourt looks up the cases it cites, has a separate stage test them against the claims they support, and sends anything flagged back to be fixed. What is still open is marked, so your review starts where the work needs it.
So this is deliberately not for everyone
The question for a pilot is how much useful, supported work reaches the lawyer and how much correction remains. That benefit has to be measured on finished work.
If turnaround is the priority on a piece of work, use something faster. We would
tell you that. HiCourt is for the matter where you would rather be right.
03 / 15
Bring this to every demo, including ours
Eleven questions, and what HiCourt answers
Your firm is not choosing between HiCourt and nothing. It is sitting through demos of serious
products built by large teams, and most of them will do a great deal that is genuinely
useful. So we are not going to characterise them for you. Here is the
checklist we would want a firm to use on this whole category — the left column
is a question to put to any vendor, and the right column is what HiCourt answers.
Ask us the same ones.
The input
Can I hand it the matter, or do I have to break the matter into questions myself?
Hand it the matter. Pick the task, say what you need in your own words and drop in the matter's files; each file is read and indexed before a run uses it.
Your own material
Does it work from our files and our past work, or only from what I type?
From both. Files you add are read and indexed, and for research and analysis the firm's past work is recalled, labelled as reviewed or not and as clean or with known problems.
Unfinished work
If a run cannot finish, do I get a half-done document dressed up as finished?
No. A run that stops keeps what it has, labelled incomplete in every file and on the page, and says why. You can ask it again with the same inputs.
Uncertainty
When the tool is not sure, do I ever find out?
Yes, at the sentence it affects. Uncertain and missing results stay visible, and each claim in the finished document carries a status, including “not checked”. Nothing uncertain is smoothed over.
Who checks
Is the thing that checks the work the same thing that wrote it?
No. A separate checking stage, which wrote none of the work, reads the opinion and tests each case against the claim it is cited for. Quotations, pinpoints and whether a case is still good law are not checked yet.
A defect channel
When something comes back wrong, does it get fixed, or does it get a label?
It gets fixed. A flagged citation goes back to be corrected or withdrawn, and the fix is checked again. A check of a draft you pasted in reports on it and never rewrites it.
When it stops
What ends that loop, and does the output tell me which ending it hit?
The loop is bounded, and the run records why it stopped. Anything still flagged stays flagged for your lawyer, and a final finding never triggers a silent rewrite.
What gets checked last
Does verification run on the draft, or on the document I actually receive?
On the document you receive. Its cited claims go back through the checks, and a separate check asks whether it does what you asked. Findings are reported to your lawyer, never used to rewrite it quietly.
Provenance
Can I map a sentence in the output back to the authority it rests on?
Largely. Flags sit against the sentences they affect, and each claim's status is recorded beside the document. A full sentence-to-source map for every claim is still to come.
What a green tick means
What settled this citation, and as of when?
The record says whether the case was found in the published case law and what the check found against the claim. A run date is not a good-law date: whether a case is still good law is not checked yet.
Screens and placement
Does the search respect our ethical walls, and where does our material rest?
Yes. Ethical walls and matter membership are applied before anything is searched, so a run draws only on what the person asking may see. Each firm runs in its own dedicated hosted environment.
Where something is not built yet, our answer says so. Ask every vendor to do the same.
04 / 15
The whole thing, on one picture
This is what happens to your matter
CLICK TO EXPANDClick it to open it full size. It is built to be walked through one step at a time.
The rest of this deck takes this picture one piece at a time.
If you look at one slide in this deck, look at this one.
05 / 15
What it does
Three parts of the work
01
It does the work, and writes the document
Research memos, assessments, summaries, chronologies, comparisons, proofreads, drafts and memos to the file, in Word or text, with spreadsheets where the work has rows.
02
It checks the cases it cites
The cases the work relies on are looked up in the published case law, then a separate checking stage reads each opinion and tests it against the claim it is cited for. Uncertain results stay visible. Quotations, pinpoints and whether a case is still good law are not checked yet.
03
It returns work and recorded findings for review
The document comes back with the status of each authority and each claim, and what is still open, carried into the files you download.
Why the second step exists. AI writes citations that look perfect
for cases that were never decided, and it will happily tell you an invented case is real if
you ask it. So HiCourt doesn't ask. It looks the case up.
06 / 15
Reason one
Reporter lookup, assessment and bounded repair
The cases the work cites are looked up in the published case law. A case that cannot be found is flagged, not assumed. Then a separate checking stage, which wrote none of the work, reads the opinion itself and tests it against the claim it is cited for.
Does it exist? Looked up in the published case lawIs it the right case? A citation that cannot be pinned down is flaggedDoes it say what the draft says? Tested against the claim it is cited forIs the quote real? Not checked yetIs it still good law? Not checked yetDoes the record say so? Not checked yet
A found case and a clean check tell your lawyer where to look first. They do not establish that the law is right; that judgement stays with your lawyer.
Research can send a flag back
Anything flagged goes back to be corrected or withdrawn, and the fix is checked again. The loop is bounded, the run records why it stopped, and anything still flagged stays flagged for your lawyer.
Checking a draft you pasted in is different: it reports on your draft citation by citation and never rewrites it.
Checks cover case citations. Statutes, regulations, rules and treatises are not looked up, and quotations, pinpoints and whether a case is still good law are not checked yet. Your lawyer checks those where they matter.
And a lawyer at your firm still reads it and signs it. HiCourt tells your
lawyer where to look and what it found; the judgement about what the law means, and the
signature on the filing, stay with the person whose name is on it. We built it that way on
purpose. That duty doesn't move to a vendor, and you wouldn't want it to.
07 / 15
Where all that time goes
The steps, in order
Step 1 · Your request
It reads your request and your files
Pick the task and add the matter's files. Each file is read and indexed, permissions are applied first, and for research and analysis the firm's permitted past work is recalled.
Step 2 · Drafting
It does the work
Drafted from a close reading of your request, your files and the permitted past work, and written to find what hurts your position as well as what helps it.
It works from your files and the firm's past work.
It looks for what hurts your position too.
Flagged work comes back here to be fixed.
Step 3 · Citation check first check
The cases it cites are looked up and checked
The cases the work relies on are looked up in the published case law, and a separate checking stage tests each one against the claim it is cited for. Uncertain and missing results stay visible.
Anything flagged goes back to be fixed and is checked again; the run records why the loop stopped.
A lookup, not a guess, and a check by a stage that wrote none of the work.
Step 4 · Write-up
It is written up as one document
Everything that survived the checks goes into the document you asked for, and every flag still open goes with it, against the sentence it affects rather than buried at the end.
Step 5 · Final check final checks
The document you actually get is checked
The finished document's cited claims go back through the checks, and a separate check asks whether it does what you asked. Each claim gets a status, including “not checked”.
Step 6 · Delivery
It lands on your lawyer's desk
In Word or text, with spreadsheets where the work has rows, and the checks recorded against it. A run that cannot finish keeps what it has, labelled incomplete.
Your lawyer reviews it, checks it and signs it. HiCourt files and sends nothing.
Step 7 · Memory
It is filed into the firm's memory
Every finished run is filed automatically, and a lawyer's signed review makes a new version. Later work draws on it only where the person asking may see it.
The library gets more useful with each matter.
Every step runs before your lawyer sees the work. What it could not settle is marked, not hidden.
08 / 15
What comes back
A memo, and a short list of exactly what to look at
Sample output · a memo on whether a liability cap survives an allegation of gross negligence
Flagged
The case could not be found, the check found it does not support the claim, or the result was uncertain. Each flag says which.
Sent back & cleared
It was flagged, went back to be fixed, and the recheck found nothing against it. The record keeps what changed. A clear recheck is not a legal opinion.
Still open
What the system could not settle, with the reason, for your lawyer to decide. Quotations and whether a case is still good law are not checked yet.
Your lawyer's review starts with what is still open, instead of being spread evenly across everything the document cites.
09 / 15
Reason two
Not one pass. Work that is checked, sent back and checked again.
Most tools stop at the draft. HiCourt checks the cases the draft relies on, sends anything flagged back to be fixed, and checks the finished document again before your lawyer sees it.
Our system produces better results because the checking is built into the work, not left to the end.
Checked by a stage that did not write it
The checking stage wrote none of the work. Its only job is to test what the work cites.
Fixed, not just labelled
A flagged citation goes back to be corrected or withdrawn, and the fix is checked again.
All of it recorded
The run records what it did, what each check found and what changed on every repair.
A tool that writes once and hands it over leaves the checking to you.
HiCourt does the checking first, and shows you what it found.
10 / 15
Reason three
Work from your firm's library
Files you add are read and indexed, and for research and analysis the firm's permitted past work is recalled and labelled. Every finished run is filed back into the firm's memory, so the library gets more useful with each matter.
Today each firm runs as Option A, in its own dedicated hosted environment. Options B and C are not offered yet.
Option A
A private store we run
Where the files sit
In a store used by your firm and no other client of ours, encrypted, with the location and terms named in writing before you upload anything.
Who can reach it
Your office. Our access is none by default; support access is requested, logged and time-limited.
What it gives you
The whole library, available to the office from anywhere, backed up and maintained without your firm running a thing.
Option B
A machine in your office
Where the files sit
On that machine, in your building. Nowhere else.
Who can reach it
Your office, over your own network. There is no copy for anyone else to hold.
What it gives you
The whole library, shared across the office, on hardware you can physically point at.
Option C
On each person's own computer
Where the files sit
On the workstation they were uploaded from.
Who can reach it
Whoever uses that computer.
What it gives you
The tightest containment of the three, worth choosing for particular matters, though a library split across twelve machines can't be asked one question.
Nothing from your library is shared with another firm, pooled with anyone else's work, or used
to improve anything outside your office.
11 / 15
Ask every vendor this one
Your ethical walls hold inside it
A shared index is a confidentiality question inside your own firm before it is
anything else. A retrieval index does not respect an ethical wall by nature: ask an ordinary
question and it returns whatever is semantically closest, including from a matter the person
asking is screened off from. They've done nothing wrong, which is exactly why the control has
to sit in the software.
HiCourt applies ethical walls and matter membership before anything is searched. A run draws only on what the person asking may see, and what they may not see is not searched, recalled, shown or used in their work.
Deletion, stated honestly
Deleting a file everywhere it has been copied, backups included, is not finished yet. Until it is, we will not tell you it is.
Every run keeps its own record
Each run keeps a protected record of what it did and what it found, readable only by people who are still allowed to see that matter.
12 / 15
Your call, and mine
Where the work runs, and where the files rest
Each firm runs in its own dedicated hosted environment. Keeping the library on a machine in your office or on each person's computer is not offered yet.
Yours to decide
Where your firm's files live
The choice
Today: a private hosted store for your firm alone. An office machine or per-computer storage is not offered yet.
What you get
The standing collection of everything your firm has put in stays under your lock, your backup policy and your retention schedule.
The trade
It settles where your files rest. It doesn't settle where the relevant passages travel when work is actually being done.
Already decided
Where the work is done
Where the client's words go
Drafting and checking use commercial AI, so the text the work needs is sent out for processing. Nothing is sent that the person asking may not see.
What you get
Commercial AI chosen and run by HiCourt. Your firm needs no AI accounts of its own.
The trade
The client's text leaves the building. That's how it works, not a slip, and no arrangement I can offer avoids it.
I'd rather show you this trade than hide it. Nobody can give your firm the
most capable AI and nothing leaving your premises, and anyone
who tells you otherwise hasn't thought about it. If your firm genuinely needs the second,
that's a different conversation about buying hardware — and I'd rather have it than
sell you this and have you discover the difference afterwards.
13 / 15
By design
Your lawyer stays in control
These aren't limitations we ran into. They're the shape of the product, and the reason a firm
can put it in front of a matter at all.
HiCourt reports, your lawyer decides. It records what it checked and what it could not. Your lawyer verifies the sources, reviews and signs the work.
It shows its findings. Each authority's status and each claim's status, with the reason, so your lawyer can see exactly where to look.
It writes documents for attorney review. It does not sign, file, serve or send anything.
Unavailable checks stay unavailable. Quotations, pinpoints and whether a case is still good law are not checked, and the work says so. Your lawyer obtains those checks where they matter.
14 / 15
Cost
Checking adds work; cost depends on the run
Every check, repair and final pass is work the system does before your lawyer sees the draft, so a checked run costs more than a single pass of AI. Each run records what it did and why it stopped.
How your firm gets billed is a conversation rather than a price list. A flat annual fee, a
charge per lawyer, a charge per matter, or usage-based. Each suits a different size and shape
of firm, and I'd rather fit it to how your firm actually buys things than hand you a number and
defend it.
Each run records what it used. Billing a firm automatically from that record is not built yet, and a cost shown on screen is an estimate, not a bill.
Tell me how your firm would want to be billed, because that genuinely decides it.
15 / 15
What I'm asking
Would you trade a little time for this?
That's the whole question. You've seen what the extra time buys. What I want from you is the
part I can't get from anywhere else: whether this fits how your firm actually
works, and what you'd change.
Which tasks would justify the checking work? A pilot must measure turnaround and the lawyer's remaining work.
Which would you try first? Research, a chronology, a summary of a record, a citation check of a draft you already wrote, or something else on the menu.
What's missing that would make it a yes? The thing it would need to do before it's worth the disruption.
Where would you want the files and the work to sit, and how would your firm want to pay for it?
CLICK TO EXPAND