Ask LawY: 7 types of questions to save you time

1. Ask any legal question

Sometimes the most powerful feature is the simplest one. Whether you're looking to double-check your understanding of a legal principle, explore an unfamiliar area of law, or define the most efficient next steps for any research task, LawY is for you.

LawY lets you ask any legal question that comes to mind and receive instant AI-answers tailored to the law in your jurisdiction, complete with linked citations. This is most useful as the starting point for any legal research. LawY will automatically recognise if you are in England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland or Ireland and provide tailored jurisdictional responses.

Pro tip: Start broad, then get specific. If LawY's initial answer sparks follow-up questions, keep the conversation going. The more context you provide about your specific situation, the more tailored your answers become.

2. Find relevant case law

When you're looking to build a solid foundation for your research, ask LawY for case law or legislation related to your legal question.

Instead of hunting through databases, you can access a list of cases to start your research instantly. This is particularly valuable when you're exploring unfamiliar territory or need to quickly identify the most relevant authorities on a specific topic.

Pro tip: If you've already asked LawY a legal question, use a follow up question like "Provide relevant case law" to expand your conversation further. You can also include parameters in your question to LawY such as "Please refer to cases from within the last 2 years" to filter your search further.

3. Create case summary

When you're dealing with a mountain of case law, knowing where to focus your attention can make all the difference. That's where LawY's case summary feature becomes invaluable.

Simply ask for a summary of any case, and you'll get an instant overview that helps you quickly assess its relevance to your matter. From there, you can dive deeper with targeted follow-up questions, making it an efficient starting point for comprehensive case analysis.

You can request a case summary by: including the name of a case in your question OR including the URL of a published case or piece of legislation.

Pro tip: When requesting your case summary, consider specifying any stylistic preferences (e.g. 'use bullet points') or focus areas (e.g. 'include the name of the judge' or 'focus on key arguments of each side').

4. Compare case law

Building comprehensive legal arguments often means comparing multiple authorities to understand how they work together. This is where LawY's case summary feature shines.

LawY can help you analyse several legal authorities side-by-side, revealing connections and distinctions that might take hours to uncover manually. You can quickly spot which cases support your position, which ones you'll need to distinguish, and how different authorities relate to each other in the context of your specific research question.

Pro tip: Include different URLs for LawY to compare, ensuring the analysis draws from the primary resource. You can also expand the comparative case summary with follow-up questions in your conversation, such as 'include the name of the judge of each case' or 'turn this comparative case summary into a summary table'.

5. Draft document or clause

Skip the blank page and fast-track a first draft of any document or clause.

Whether you're crafting a new agreement, updating standard terms, or developing a specific clause for unique circumstances, LawY can help you create that crucial first draft while simultaneously researching the underlying legal principles.

By combining research and drafting in one conversation, you'll save significant time and ensure your documents are grounded in relevant legal authority from the outset.

Pro tip: You can leverage our optional integration with Matter AI to incorporate Matter Details in your templates.

6. Draft letter or email

Drafting correspondence is one of the most time-consuming yet necessary tasks. This delivers immediate time-saving benefits by eliminating that initial hurdle of staring at an empty document, whilst seamlessly integrating relevant legal authorities and jurisdiction-specific guidance into your drafts

LawY offers you a professional first-draft, instantly, which you can build upon and tailor to your specific matter.

Pro tip: Use follow-up questions so LawY to amend your letter or email instantly. You can also include stylistic requests in your questions to ensure LawY maintains the specific professional style and tone used in your firm, e.g. 'Avoid general statements like hope you're well' or 'don't use bullet points'.

7. Create checklist

Whether you're looking to standardise processes across your firm, delegate tasks more effectively to your team, or quickly get up to speed in a practice area you don't handle regularly, LawY can generate detailed checklist templates tailored to your specific needs.

Simply provide LawY with the relevant legislation, court rules, or practice directions, and you'll receive a comprehensive draft checklist that can serve as a roadmap for your matter, helping you work more efficiently whilst reducing the risk of missing critical steps or deadlines.

Pro tip: Don't stop at the first answer. Allow LawY to refine the checklist according to what your firm needs, for example with specific style requests (e.g. 'create checklist with clear subheadings') or focus areas (e.g. 'create a checklist that my junior lawyer can complete before handing over').