Verify a brief
Every citation, checked against the primary source.
Upload a brief (PDF or Word) or paste text below. We extract every citation, check whether it exists in primary sources (Layer 1), and check whether a quoted passage actually appears in the source opinion (Layer 2). Every check today runs Layers 1-2. Proposition support (Layer 3) — whether the case actually supports the point it's cited for — is built and eval-published, rolling out in stages; live status at /quality.
What you get back
A per-citation report: a verdict (VERIFIED, UNCONFIRMED, or NOT FOUND) for each layer we checked, a link to the primary source we checked it against, and the timestamp of that check. Export the full report as JSON or share a link — on every plan, free included.
0.000% false-verify rate on our published eval set. See methodology → /methodology.
Prefer something quicker?
Paste-and-go reverse check
No file upload, no account needed -- paste text and get a quick Real / Fake / Uncertain read per citation. Free for the first 3 checks in this browser.
Reverse citation check
Paste a brief. We'll flag anything fabricated.
Free: we'll show you which citations couldn't be verified. $19 unlocks the full annotated report -- no signup.
Layer 1–2 check (existence + quote match) against primary sources. Not legal advice.
How Citation Safe verification works
Every citation in your brief runs through the same three-layer check the courts themselves use when they audit an AI-drafted filing after the fact. The difference is timing: we run the check before filing, when you can still fix the problem. Each layer is a deterministic lookup against a primary source — not a second AI opinion — so a fabricated citation cannot “pass” by luck.
Layer 1
Existence
Does the case exist in a real reporter or docket? We check every citation against CourtListener, federal PACER indices, and state reporter databases. If no primary source has a matching case name, court, and citation, it’s flagged as NOT FOUND.
Layer 2
Quote match
If your brief quotes the case, does that quoted language actually appear in the opinion? We fetch the source opinion and run a fuzzy-match search against the quoted text. Similarity score returned per quote.
Layer 3
Proposition
Does the opinion actually stand for the proposition you cite it for? Rolling out in stages on paid plans — live status and false-verify rate published at /quality.
Who uses this and why
Solo and small-firm litigators
Pre-filing check on every brief that goes out of your firm. One catch pays for the plan for years — Rule 11 sanctions in the 1,877 rulings on our /sanctions-database range from formal admonishment to five-figure monetary penalties, adverse-costs orders, and bar referral.
In-house legal ops
Deterministic verification of any outside counsel work-product before it reaches the docket. API access on the Suite plan lets you gate every filing through a check without changing the outside firm’s tooling.
Pro-se litigants using AI research
Every citation your AI research tool suggests, checked against the same primary sources the court will check. Free tier covers 3 documents/month with no card required.
Opposing counsel doing pre-response due diligence
The Opposition Check product ($49 flat, no signup) is the same engine tuned for one-off audits of a brief filed against you. If any citation was fabricated, you know before you respond.
Coverage — what we check
Full source-level coverage detail at /coverage and /methodology. High-level:
- Fully covered: published federal opinions (all circuits + district courts) via CourtListener; published state supreme court and appellate opinions for the 50 states + DC; federal statutes and regulations by citation; U.S. Tax Court opinions; selected international common-law jurisdictions (UK, Canada, Australia, NZ) for entity-level existence checks.
- Partial coverage: unpublished federal opinions (existence only, no full-text quote match); state trial-court dockets; opinions less than 72 hours old (indexing lag).
- Outside coverage: secondary sources (treatises, law reviews, ALR annotations), practice-area handbooks, restatements. NOT FOUND on these is a coverage gap, not evidence of fabrication.
Frequently asked questions
- How is this different from asking ChatGPT to verify?
- ChatGPT (and Claude, Gemini, and every other general LLM) can hallucinate a verification the same way it can hallucinate a citation. Every layer of Citation Safe is a deterministic lookup against a primary source: existence is a database query; quote match is a fuzzy-string search against actual opinion text; proposition support (Layer 3) uses cited-language snippets from the actual opinion. No layer can invent a case that isn’t there.
- Does it read the whole brief or just the citations?
- We extract every citation and any quoted language attached to it. The rest of the brief is not retained. Uploaded documents are processed in-memory and dropped after the check unless you’re signed in (in which case the check is saved to your dashboard). See /privacy for the full data retention policy.
- What file formats do you accept?
- PDF, Word (.docx), and plain text. 15 MB per document. Scanned-image PDFs need to be OCR’d before upload — we do not OCR at this time.
- What’s the false-verify rate?
- 0.000% on our published eval set as of the latest release. “False verify” means the tool returned VERIFIED for a citation that does not exist — the failure mode that puts an attorney at risk. Full eval methodology and the source citations set at /quality. We backstop the number with the $10,000 fabrication warranty: if a citation Citation Safe verified turns out to be fabricated and you get sanctioned for it, we pay.
- What if the tool flags a citation NOT FOUND but I know it exists?
- NOT FOUND means the citation was not found in the primary sources we check. That is usually because (a) it’s a real coverage gap (see the “Partial coverage” and “Outside coverage” sections above), (b) the citation format has an unusual variant we don’t normalize yet, or (c) the citation is in fact fabricated. Every result includes a dispute button; disputes route to the coverage team and get resolved within one business day.
- Do you support state courts?
- Yes — all 50 states + DC for published supreme court and appellate opinions. Trial-court dockets vary by state; see the per-jurisdiction pages under /sanctions-by-jurisdiction for coverage examples in the specific jurisdiction you file in.
- Is this legal advice?
- No. Citation Safe is a verification workflow tool. You and your counsel remain responsible for reviewing every result before filing.
Ready to verify?
3 free checks. No signup. Every citation checked against the primary source.