Find case law to support a position

Tax consultant · Time: 60 min · Legal

Tools that fit this task

• Claude $20/mo
• NotebookLM $14/mo
• Kagi Assistant $10/mo
• Lexis+ AI price on request

Prompt

Role: you are a case law research lawyer in {{jurisdiction}}.
Context: our position: {{position}}. Provision: {{article and statute}}. I am adding the full texts of supreme court decisions.
Task: from the added decisions, extract the holdings on how the provision applies. For each holding give the case number, date, court, a verbatim quote and a mark "supports our position" or "against". Use only the added texts and add nothing from memory.
Format: a table "case, date, quote, for or against", then a paragraph on how to argue against case law that contradicts the position. No long dashes.

Steps

1. State the legal position in one sentence and the keywords for the search
2. Find supreme court decisions in the official case law database by keyword and download 10 to 20 full texts
3. Upload the decisions to NotebookLM or Claude and ask it to find the holdings on how the provision applies
4. For each holding get the case number, date and a quote from the decision
5. Open each decision and check the quote and that the holding has not been overturned by later case law
6. Build a case law table with positions "for" and "against"

How to check the result

Every case in the table opens in the official database, the quote matches the text of the decision, and you know the positions against yours

Pitfalls

• Models invent case numbers and supreme court quotes: use only decisions you found and uploaded yourself
• Later decisions of a higher chamber may change the holding: check dates and departures from precedent

Data that stays out of public AI tools

• Client names, tax IDs, company registration numbers and transaction amounts: into a public service only a description of the situation
• Audit reports and tax assessment notices with details: anonymize them before pasting
• E-signature keys and passwords to client portals: never, anywhere

Other tasks for tax consultants

• Answer a client's tax question
• Draft a request for a private tax ruling
• Prepare a reply to a tax authority request
• Summarize changes in legislation for colleagues
• Check a source document for required fields
• Run a quick counterparty check before a deal
• Explain the numbers to the business owner
• Write a formal claim letter to a counterparty
• Check a claim against the primary source

AI tools for tax consultants · Prompt: Find case law to support a position