How to verify AI-generated legal citations
OWL is a verification layer. It is not an AI lawyer, not a paralegal replacement, and not a Westlaw competitor. It checks whether a cited authority can be confirmed against public legal sources so a human reviewer can decide what to file. Verification is not legal advice.
The public working example is Carpenter v. United States, 585 U.S. 946 (2018). You can paste that cite, or any other paragraph that contains citations, on /verify. No signup for the first check. The filing-side method is in Verifying AI-generated citations before filing.
How OWL verifies a citation
Five checks, in order. Human review of all outputs is required. Verification is not legal advice.
Existence
Does this case exist in the reporter?
Citation format
Is the cite well-formed and does it resolve?
Holding support
Does the case stand for the proposition?
Verification path
What was checked, against what source?
Human review flag
Where does a person still have to look?
Failure is explicit: citation not found, ambiguous citation, or source unavailable. OWL does not publish unsourced accuracy percentages.
What a verification audit trail contains
The trail records the pasted string, which of the five checks ran, which public source was used, and whether the result was pass, fail, or needs review. It is not a chatbot screenshot. Read What a verification audit trail should contain.
Questions
How do I verify AI-generated legal citations?
Paste a citation or a paragraph on /verify. OWL runs the five checks above. Verification is not legal advice. Human review of all outputs is required.
Does OWL replace a lawyer or a research database?
No. Human review of all outputs is required. OWL does not create an attorney-client relationship. Verification is not legal advice.
What does a verification check include?
The five checks above, plus a visible path from the pasted string to the public source used in that run. Verification is not legal advice.
What does a verification audit trail contain?
What was checked, against what source, and where a person still had to look. Verification is not legal advice.
How is this priced?
Free for one citation check. Per-document, firm (including the published $6,000/month figure with an audit log), and enterprise/API are on /pricing. Value is framed against the cost of one bad citation, not hours saved. Verification is not legal advice.