The Legal Assistant is designed to be checkable, not just convincing. Every research answer is built from real authorities you can open and verify. This guide explains how to read an answer and confirm it before you rely on it.
Answers are grounded in sources
For a research question, the assistant searches the case-law database, shows its steps, and then writes an answer that cites the cases behind it. Each authority appears as a card with the case name, a plain-English summary of the holding, and its citation, court, and date.
Anatomy of an AI Answer
A typical ModulawAI answer has four parts:
- The direct answer – A plain-language response to your question, synthesised from the sources found.
- Case law cards – Interactive cards for each relevant case, with metadata and verification status.
- Statute excerpts – Quoted legislative provisions with official citations.
- Suggested actions – Clickable buttons for follow-up research or drafting.
Open the full case
Click Case Details on any card to read the judgment in full — the facts, the summary, the verdict, and tabs for the parties, legal issues, holdings and headnotes, analytics, and the full law report.
Reading Case Citations
Case citations follow standard legal citation formats depending on the jurisdiction. Here is how to read the most common ones:
Nigerian Citations
| Format | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| LPELR | LPELR-58119 | LawPavilion Electronic Law Report — a widely used electronic report series |
| NWLR | (2022) 15 NWLR (Pt. 1845) 312 | Nigerian Weekly Law Reports — the most authoritative Nigerian report series |
| All FWLR | (2021) All FWLR (Pt. 1028) 456 | All Federation Weekly Law Reports |
| SC | SC.248/2005 | Supreme Court suit number |
UK Citations
| Format | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| UKSC | [2022] UKSC 15 | UK Supreme Court — neutral citation |
| EWCA Civ | [2021] EWCA Civ 234 | England & Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
| AC | [2020] AC 123 | Appeal Cases (Law Reports series) |
US Citations
| Format | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. | 598 U.S. 123 (2023) | United States Reports (Supreme Court) |
| F.3d | 45 F.3d 234 (2d Cir. 2022) | Federal Reporter, Third Series (Courts of Appeal) |
Verify and weigh relevance
- Verify confirms the citation against the source database, so you know the authority is real and correctly cited.
- The Relevance bar shows how closely each authority matches your question; use it to prioritise which cases to read first.
- Expand the Thinking steps to follow how the assistant reached its conclusion.
The Verification Badge
Every case card carries a verification badge. This is critical — it tells you whether the case was confirmed in ModulawAI’s database:
| Badge | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Verified | The case was found in ModulawAI’s database. The citation, court, date, and holding have been confirmed. |
| Unverified | The case comes from general legal knowledge or web sources. It may be correct, but you should independently verify the citation before relying on it. |
Always treat unverified citations with caution. The legal assistant is transparent about provenance — if a case could not be confirmed in the database, it tells you.
Source Tags
ModulawAI uses source tags to indicate where information came from:
{Source: Database}— Retrieved from ModulawAI’s verified case law or statutes database. These are the most reliable.{Source: Database — Graph Analysis}— Derived from the legal knowledge graph (citation networks, judge analytics).{Source: Unverified — General Legal Knowledge}— From the AI’s training data. These are general principles, not database-confirmed authorities.
Know the limits
AI can still make mistakes, even with good sources — a case may be cited for a point it does not fully support, or a newer authority may exist. Treat the assistant as a very fast, very well-read associate: excellent at finding and summarising the law, but its work should be checked. Always open and read the authority before you rely on it, and remember that answers are for information only and do not constitute legal advice.