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What is CARA A.I. and how do I use it?
What is CARA A.I. and how do I use it?
Valerie McConnell avatar
Written by Valerie McConnell
Updated over 2 years ago

CARA A.I. is Casetext's unique artificial intelligence technology that delivers the most relevant cases, faster, including many that researchers would otherwise miss. By uploading a legal brief or complaint to CARA A.I., your results are customized to focus in on the context of your research. Upload a document, and in seconds, CARA A.I. will tailor your search and rank your results based on the specific legal and factual issues you care about. 

To use CARA A.I.:

  1. Have a document (a complaint, brief, memo, or any document with relevant factual or legal issues) ready on your computer that you want to use as the base of your research.

  2. Select Search with a document from the left panel on Casetext's Home page.

  3. Upload the document by dragging it into the "Search with CARA A.I." box or by clicking on the "choose a document to upload" link to select the file from your computer:

If you are already in the middle of your research, the Search with a document link will appear as a search icon in the collapsed panel on the left.

Hover over the panel to expand it and click on the Search with a document link:

3. Once your document has been uploaded, you will be prompted to enter an issue or fact to focus your search. You can select from the list of suggestions or type in your own:

  • TIP: Let CARA A.I. do the heavy lifting. Start with a simple search rather than a complex query, e.g, copyright as opposed to copyright and (lyrics or song) and musician. You can always enter a more detailed query later. 

Understanding Your Results

You will be taken to your "CARA A.I" Results. The search bar will display the name of your document and the selected issue/s :

The results of the term(s) you entered into the search bar, are ranked in terms of relevance to the document you uploaded. 

  • TIP: Don't let the total number of cases scare you. This is the number of cases in the database that contain the terms you entered into the search bar, which could be 1,000+ if you use a simple search term as suggested above. What matters here is the ranking of the cases. The cases at the top of your CARA A.I. results will be relevant to the facts and legal issues of your document. 

You can also search within the results to further narrow the search and limit the results:

Under the case titles you can see how many times the returned decision has been cited and also if it was cited in the uploaded document:

What is the difference between keyword search and CARA A.I. search?

Keyword search is your traditional method of searching: you enter terms and connectors into the search bar. Casetext supports both natural language and boolean queries.

CARA A.I. search analyzes the document you uploaded and uses the relevant language, citations, fact patterns, and other signals to find the most relevant results related to the issues in your document. You can change your keyword query to focus CARA A.I. on a new issue or narrow your results.

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