Audit an answer before it goes in a brief
Lesson 2 of 5 · The attorney's week
1 · Learn the move · Fact-check list
In legal work an invented answer is rarely wild. It is a case with plausible parties in a real reporter, a statute section that sits where a real one should, a quotation that says exactly what the argument needs, a standard stated with more confidence than the circuit has. The giveaway is confidence without a trail. A real authority can be opened: you find the opinion, read the passage, see the holding and the page. An invented one gives you a name and a number and nothing underneath. So treat every authority, every quotation and every statement of the standard as a claim you are about to sign. Pull every claim out of the draft, one per line, and next to each write what proves it: the reporter page, the official code, the rulebook, the document in the record. Three states and no fourth: UNVERIFIED until opened; then EXISTS, HOLDING UNCHECKED, or DOES NOT RESOLVE, or, after you have read the passage, the one state the model can never award, HOLDS. Quotations start and stay UNSEEN until the words are on the page in front of you.
Here is a draft answer: [paste]. Pull out every claim in it, one per line: every authority, every quotation, every statement of the standard, every date, every statement about what a party did. Beside each write the source that would prove it (reporter page / official code / rulebook / a document in the record I gave you) and the state UNVERIFIED. If a claim has no source, write [CHECK THE RECORD: what would prove it]. Do not tell me any claim is correct; you cannot know. End with the count of claims and the count with no source.
What invented means on this door
Invented, on this desk, means a case with plausible parties in a real reporter, a statute section that sits where a real one should, a quotation that says exactly what the argument needs, or a standard stated with more confidence than the circuit has. The giveaway is confidence without a trail. Treat every authority, every quotation and every statement of the standard as a claim you are about to sign. Mark it VERIFY, open it yourself, read the passage, and anything you cannot open stays out of the brief.
2 · Your turn. You write the prompt
A paralegal used a chatbot to answer whether a late-served expert disclosure can be excluded. The answer cites a rule, two circuit cases, a quotation from one of them, and says exclusion is 'automatic'. The supervising lawyer wants the list before she reads the answer.
Write the prompt for this scenario as given, or swap in a real one from your own work. The score works the same either way.
Remember: the AI sees only your prompt, not this page. If the situation isn't in your prompt, it doesn't exist.
Optional. These shape the output when you run your prompt below, not your score.