Descrybe Legal Engine

Assess a broad or fact-dependent legal research question before searching to identify the jurisdiction, facts, legal issue, and procedural context needed for useful research. Returns ready_for_research or needs_clarification with up to three short clarifying questions.

analyze_legal_question

Checks a known Descrybe case for a quick treatment/status signal before relying on it. Requires a Descrybe case_id. Returns whether later cases appear to treat the case positively, negatively, cautiously, or neutrally, plus a rough authority-weight label. This is a fast status check, not a full citing-case map and not a forum-specific binding analysis.

check_case_status

Extracts case-law citations and references from legal text provided in the text argument. Returns one item per unique resolved case or best unresolved reference cluster, with occurrence counts, raw citations seen, and tagged excerpts. When resolve=true, results include compact case-identity resolution and a quick treatment indicator for each resolved case, including case_id when a Descrybe case is resolved. This does not verify quotes, analyze support, or return a full citing-case treatment map.

extract_case_references

Resolves a citation, case name, case caption, party name, party-name variant, docket number, short cite, quote, or mixed reference into a Descrybe case or candidate set. Use this for party-name or docket-number case lookup when the user does not already have a Descrybe case_id. Resolved cases and candidates include case_id, the Descrybe canonical identifier accepted by known-case tools. The context_text field can improve short, bare, or ambiguous references. A not_found result means the case isn't in Descrybe's case-law index, not that the case doesn't exist.

find_case_from_reference

Finds later cases that cite a known Descrybe case. Requires a Descrybe case_id. Useful for updating research, finding treatment, or locating newer authority that follows, distinguishes, or discusses the case. Returned citing cases include case_id when a Descrybe case is identified.

find_cases_that_cite

Retrieves case metadata, summary availability, opinion inventory, and treatment summary for a known Descrybe case. Requires a Descrybe case_id.

get_case_details

Creates or reuses a generated Descrybe case PDF asset and returns its public URL. Requires a Descrybe case_id. Returns URL/job metadata or preparation status, not PDF bytes; present the URL to the user instead of trying to download the file.

get_case_pdf

Returns a small ranked list of focused raw passages from a known Descrybe case's primary opinion. Requires a Descrybe case_id and a focus issue, phrase, rule, quote, or fact pattern. This is not a full-opinion fetch and does not return every occurrence.

get_case_passages

Retrieves the precomputed standard or simplified summary for a known Descrybe case's primary opinion. Requires a Descrybe case_id; for legal research, prefer the standard summary unless the user asks for a simplified or plain-language explanation.

get_case_summary

Searches the full text of judicial opinions by exact words or phrases across Descrybe's case-law text index. Useful when specific language matters, such as terms of art, quotes, statutory phrases, or uncommon factual wording. Each result includes case_id, the Descrybe canonical identifier accepted by known-case tools.

search_case_text