Research in Claude

Legal Research inside Claude with Descrybe Legal Engine

Use Claude for legal research while keeping sources visible

This guide explains how to use Claude with Descrybe Legal Engine for source-grounded legal research. Claude remains the conversational workspace, and Descrybe provides legal research tools for search, citation lookup, quote verification, treatment checks, and source review.

Can Claude do legal research?

Claude can help with legal research when it has access to the right tools and when the user keeps the work grounded in sources. Descrybe Legal Engine gives Claude focused legal research tools that can search source law, resolve citations, retrieve case details, verify quotes, and return legal material for Claude to use in the conversation.

The important distinction is that Claude is the chat interface. Descrybe provides the legal research layer behind the tool calls. You should still inspect the legal sources before relying on an answer.

What Descrybe adds to Claude

Primary-law search

Claude 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

Claude 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

Claude 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

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

Source material for review

Claude 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 Claude workflow

  1. 1

    Start with the legal task

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

  2. 2

    Let Claude call Descrybe tools

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

  3. 3

    Open the tool calls

    When Claude uses Descrybe, inspect the tool call and result so you can see what Claude asked Descrybe and what Descrybe returned.

  4. 4

    Check the sources

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

  5. 5

    Ask follow-up questions

    Use Claude for follow-up analysis, but keep asking it to work from the source material Descrybe returned.

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 Claude retrieve and check legal research material. It does not replace legal judgment, professional responsibility, or source review.

Choosing a Claude model

More complex legal questions may benefit from using the most capable Claude model available to you. Descrybe provides the source-grounded legal research tools, but Claude's model still affects how well the returned material is synthesized, organized, and explained.

For quick lookup, citation, or quote-checking tasks, a faster model may be enough. For multi-issue analysis, drafting, or questions that require careful synthesis across several authorities, a stronger model may produce a clearer answer.

Setup, accounts, and subscriptions

if you need step-by-step connection instructions.

Claude access

Claude access is separate from Descrybe. Use the Claude account you normally use for connectors.

Descrybe access

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

One user at a time

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