Small and midsize firms are the ones getting caught. The public sanctions databases now track well over a thousand filings that cited cases which do not exist, and the pattern is consistent: a lawyer trusts an AI-drafted brief, the citations look perfectly formatted, and a fabricated authority slips through to a judge. A free citation checker that resolves each case against real case-law closes the most dangerous gap in seconds — and RankShield Legal turns that check into a certificate you can prove you ran.
How does the citation checker work?
The instant check answers the single most important question about an AI-assisted brief: is this a real case? It is the primary anti-hallucination signal, because fabricated cases do not resolve against a live corpus. The tool below runs that existence check against a public case-law source and returns a plain verdict — resolved, or not found.
For a filing you are about to sign, the full certification goes further: it also matches quoted passages against the published opinion, overlays good-law standing from your firm’s citator, and seals the result to a tamper-evident log. The instant checker is the front door; certification is the checkpoint between your draft and your signature.
Check a citation against live case-law
Paste a reporter citation from an AI-drafted brief. We resolve it against a live case-law corpus and tell you whether the case is real. Existence check only — not good-law standing, and not legal advice.
Resolves against the public CourtListener corpus. Full certification (existence + quotation + good-law, signed and sealed to a transparency log) is part of the RankShield Legal platform. How certification works →
What the three-dimension certification covers
- Existence — the citation is matched exactly against live case-law, so a fabricated case is flagged before you sign.
- Quotation accuracy — quoted passages are matched against the published opinion, catching misquotes and invented quotations.
- Good-law standing — overruled or superseded authority is flagged, sourced from your firm’s citator (KeyCite or Shepard’s). We never guess good law.
Why a certificate beats a flag
Most citation tools flag a suspected problem and produce nothing durable. When a judge’s standing order asks what you did to verify your authorities, “our tool flagged nothing” is an assertion. A certificate is evidence: each result is signed with post-quantum cryptography and sealed to an RFC 6962 transparency log, so a court, opposing counsel, or your insurer can confirm the check ran without trusting you or us.
For a firm without a dedicated litigation-support team, that is the enterprise-grade control brought down to your size: the same verifiable accountability a large firm would build in-house, delivered as a checkpoint you switch on.
What this tool does not do
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MythIt guarantees an AI that never hallucinates.
TruthIt certifies which of your citations are real, accurately quoted, and good law. The model is not the thing we vouch for.
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MythThe existence check confirms a case is good law.
TruthExistence and good-law are different dimensions. The instant checker confirms a case exists; good-law standing comes from your citator during full certification.
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MythIt is legal advice.
TruthRankShield is a security vendor. The output is verifiable technical evidence, not a legal opinion, and it does not replace your professional judgment.
