Case Law Research Agent
The Case Law Research Agent researches South African case law and legislation across SAFLII and the databases you already license, such as Juta and LexisNexis. It produces structured research notes with full citations and pinpoint references, and checks whether each authority has been overturned, followed or distinguished in later judgments.
Ideal forLitigation attorneys
The difference
From 4-8 hours per research note to 1-2 hours
Attorneys and advocates spend their time analysing the law and building arguments rather than searching for it.
Done by hand
4-8 hours per research note
With the Vanine agent
1-2 hours
Time returned to your team
75%
Indicative figures. We measure your own baseline in the first fortnight so the numbers you see are yours.
Research that starts from the right place
The agent searches across free and licensed sources at once, so your team starts with the leading authorities rather than hours of keyword searching.
Authorities that still stand
Relying on a judgment that has been overturned on appeal is a real risk. The agent checks subsequent treatment and flags anything doubtful.
Notes ready for use
Research arrives as a structured memo with citations and pinpoints, ready to feed into an opinion, heads of argument or a client letter.
Capabilities
Cited South African research notes you can trust, in a fraction of the time.
Built for attorneys, advocates, candidate attorneys, pupils, in-house counsel and legal researchers in South African law firms, chambers and corporate legal departments.
Multi-source search
Searches SAFLII, legislation and Government Gazette sources, and your Juta and LexisNexis databases through your subscription, from a single research question.
Leading authority identification
Ranks judgments by court hierarchy, from the Constitutional Court and Supreme Court of Appeal to the High Court divisions, and explains which are binding on your matter.
Subsequent treatment checks
Traces how each authority has been treated in later judgments and flags where it has been overturned, distinguished or doubted.
Legislation and amendments
Identifies the current version of the relevant Act or regulations, notes amendments and flags provisions that have not yet come into force.
Cited research notes
Produces a research memo with issues, findings, full citations and pinpoint references, with every proposition linked to its source.
Internal knowledge reuse
Searches your firm's prior opinions and research notes in iManage or SharePoint so you build on work already done.
How it works
From your systems to a result you sign off
The attorney or advocate verifies the authorities and citations and gives the legal advice or opinion.
Connect the places your research files already live.
SAFLII, legislation sources, your Juta and LexisNexis subscriptions, and your firm's precedent opinions and research notes. Already use something else? We connect that too.
- OpenAI Frontier
- Your own AI platform or models
- Microsoft 365 (Teams, SharePoint, Outlook, Excel)
- Copilot Studio
- SAFLII
- Juta and LexisNexis SA (via your subscription)
- Sabinet and the Government Gazette
- iManage and NetDocuments
Runs in Teams, Word or OpenAI Frontier on request, using the models your organisation approves.
A cited research memo in Word saved to the matter file, with links to every source.
Step by step
- 01
An attorney poses a research question with the key facts.
- 02
The agent searches SAFLII, legislation and your licensed databases.
- 03
It identifies leading authorities and checks their subsequent treatment.
- 04
It drafts a cited research memo with pinpoint references.
- 05
The attorney or advocate verifies the sources and relies on the memo for advice.
Deployment
Runs inside the tools your team already uses
The same agent and the same cited output, delivered three ways: through the AI assistant you have rolled out, on a model you host yourself, or inside your own software.
In the frontier assistant you already pay for
We publish the agent as an MCP server. Add it as a connector and your team calls it from the chat they use every day, with no new tool to learn.
"Search SAFLII for judgments on repudiation"
- question
- Repudiation and cancellation
- courts
- SCA, ConCourt, High Court
On a model you host yourself
Run the agent on open-weight models in your data centre or private cloud. Your research files never leave your network, which keeps POPIA and data residency straightforward.
- Llama
- Mistral
- Ollama
- or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint
Inside your own software
Trigger a run from your own workflows, and push the finished output into your ERP, GRC or reporting systems. We build the integration with your team.
- REST API
- Webhooks
- Batch jobs
- Embeddable review panel
Governed the same way, every route
Whichever way your team reaches the agent, identity, permissions and audit stay with your existing controls.
- Single sign-on through Entra ID, Okta or Google Workspace
- Reads only the documents each user is already allowed to open
- Every tool call written to an audit log you can export
How we deliver it
One agent, three ways to hold it
Start where your team already works, then take it as far into your systems as the value justifies.
DATA SECURITY & PRIVACY
Your research files stay yours.
The agent runs inside your tenancy, reads only what each task needs, and never trains on your research files. Every step is logged so your auditors can see exactly what it touched.
Built for regulated work.
+YOUR RESEARCH FILES NEVER LEAVE YOUR ENVIRONMENT
More agents
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Each one is built on the same foundation: your documents, your rules, and your people signing off.
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