Research with AI

Legal Research with Descrybe in Your AI Assistant

Use ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, or another supported assistant while keeping sources visible

This guide explains the shared Legal Engine workflow across supported AI assistants. Your assistant is the conversational workspace, and Descrybe provides legal research tools for search, citation lookup, quote verification, treatment checks, and source review.

Can an AI assistant do legal research?

ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and other supported assistants can help with legal research when they have access to the right tools and you keep the work grounded in sources. Descrybe Legal Engine gives the assistant focused tools for searching source law, resolving citations, retrieving case details, verifying quotes, and returning legal material to the conversation.

The assistant is where you ask questions, work through the issue, and shape the answer. Descrybe provides the legal research layer behind that conversation. The workflow is broadly the same across supported assistants, and you should still inspect important legal sources before relying on an answer.

What Descrybe adds to your assistant

Primary-law search

Your assistant can ask Descrybe to search cases, case text, statutes, regulations, constitutions, and similar source materials when those tools are useful for your question.

Citation and case lookup

Your assistant can use Descrybe to resolve citations, case names, docket numbers, short references, or messy case references into the right authority or a focused candidate list.

Quote verification

Your assistant can ask Descrybe to check whether quoted language appears in a known case and return source information that helps you inspect the match.

Treatment and citing-case checks

Your assistant can use Descrybe to review treatment signals and find later cases that cite the authority you are inspecting.

Source material for review

Your assistant can ask Descrybe for case details, source passages, summaries, and opinion PDFs so the legal source can stay visible while you work.

A source-controlled assistant workflow

  1. 1

    Start with the legal task

    Ask your assistant a focused legal research question, citation-checking task, quote-checking task, or document-review question.

  2. 2

    Ask it to use Descrybe

    The assistant may search for authorities, resolve a citation, retrieve case details, check treatment, verify quoted language, or ask for source passages.

  3. 3

    Review the research activity

    Supported assistants show tool activity in slightly different ways. When Descrybe is used, open the available activity or source details to see what was requested and returned.

  4. 4

    Check the sources

    Read the relevant case, passage, statute, rule, or treatment signal before relying on the assistant's answer.

  5. 5

    Ask follow-up questions

    Continue the conversation, but keep asking the assistant to work from the source material Descrybe returned.

Example prompts

Try these starting prompts

  • Use Descrybe Legal Engine to find primary-law cases on this issue in the relevant jurisdiction, then show me the sources I should read first.
  • Use Descrybe Legal Engine to look up this citation, confirm the matching case, and summarize the case details I should verify.
  • Use Descrybe Legal Engine to verify whether this quote appears in the cited case and show me the source passage.
  • Use Descrybe Legal Engine to check whether this case still appears to be good law and summarize the later treatment.

What you should still check manually

  • Confirm the jurisdiction, court, date, and procedural posture of important authorities.
  • Read the source text around important quotes or passages.
  • Check whether a cited case supports the precise proposition being made.
  • Review later treatment before relying on an authority as strong support.
  • Use your own legal judgment before filing, advising a client, or relying on the research result.

Legal research tool, not legal advice

Descrybe Legal Engine helps your assistant retrieve and check legal research material. It does not replace legal judgment, professional responsibility, or source review.

Choosing an assistant and model

Use the supported assistant that best fits how you like to work. The basic Descrybe workflow is similar in ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and other supported surfaces, although menus, tool activity, and source displays may look different.

For quick lookup, citation, or quote-checking tasks, a faster model may be enough. For multi-issue analysis, drafting, or careful synthesis across several authorities, the most capable model available to you may produce a clearer answer.

Setup, accounts, and subscriptions

for the ChatGPT connection steps.

for the Claude connection steps.

for the Perplexity connection steps.

Assistant access

Your ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, or other assistant account is separate from Descrybe. Use the assistant account where you want Legal Engine to appear.

Descrybe access

Your Descrybe account needs active Descrybe Legal Engine or Platform access before an assistant can use Descrybe tools.

One user at a time

Each person should connect their assistant with their own Descrybe account. Shared credentials are not the right workflow.