Skill: Review documents

Learn to use CoCounsel's Review Documents skill
Lawyers need to quickly review files to answer questions or identify certain information. CoCounsel's Review Documents skill reads files word-for-word to provide an answer table with a response for every document for every question.
You may access the Review Documents skill in various ways.
In this situation, we will begin by uploading files.
  1. Add files to the chat. CoCounsel will add files to the chat and ask how to proceed.
  2. Tell CoCounsel you want to review documents and then select send. CoCounsel will confirm its work.
    note
    For example:
    Please review these documents to help me understand if there are signs of unusual accounting or financial management practices, if there are signs of humor or sarcasm or anyone joking around, or if anyone is anxious about their job or employer.
    1. In the upper right corner of CoCounsel's response, the Review Documents skill is confirmed.
    2. Under
      Questions
      , CoCounsel will list the questions to answer during its review. You may manage the questions:
      1. To edit a question, place your cursor within the text of a question.
      2. To delete a question, select the trash can.
      3. To add a question, select the button
        Add question
        .
    3. If you no longer need assistance, select
      Cancel
      .
  3. When you are ready to proceed, select
    Submit request
    . CoCounsel will begin its work and show its progress
    1. To receive a notification when the results are ready, select
      Email me when complete
      .
    2. To stop CoCounsel's work, select
      Cancel
      .
  4. When your results are ready, select
    View results
    . The results window will appear.
  5. Review the results.
    1. For every question for every file, there is a short answer, a longer explanation, and a link to the full analysis.
    2. To review CoCounsel's responses you may need to scroll up and down and left to right.
    3. To verify CoCounsel's responses, select
      View full analysis
      . The side viewing panel will appear.
      1. On the left side under
        Supporting analysis
        , select page numbers to go to that part of the original document in the right-side viewing panel.
      2. On the right side, use navigation and search options to navigate the viewing panel.
    4. To close the viewing panel, go to the top right and select
      Close panel
      .
  6. To download the results, go to the top of the results and select
    Download
    and then choose a download option:
    Word Document - Short Answers Only
    ,
    Word Document - With Explanations and Sources
    , or
    Excel Spreadsheet
    . The results will download.

Limitations

The request length can be up to about 30 questions.
The amount of relevant material CoCounsel can identify is not limited.
CoCounsel understands nuance, humor, and implied references. This means CoCounsel finds information and references that traditional search engines cannot. The best requests are specific, clear, precise, and concise. When requests are not, CoCounsel may omit additional information to focus on just a part of a longer, complex, overbroad question.
CoCounsel reads each file on its own. This means CoCounsel cannot complete requests that require CoCounsel to compare or contrast information across separate files.
important
The answer table shows how each document answers each question. Therefore, the answer table provides helpful comparison and contrast information.

Tips

  • Use narrow, specific questions. It's better to ask multiple, narrow questions rather than a single, broad question.
    tip
    Too broad:
    What was the Planned Parenthood case about?
    Better:
    What were the elements of the court’s reasoning in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992)?
  • Be precise and concise
    • Avoid using vague or ambiguous language, like passive voice.
      tip
      Passive voice:
      Where the defense was sided with by the court.
      Active voice:
      Where the court sided with the defense.
    • Spell out legal terms a law student might not know.
    • Grammatical and spelling errors in a question can be misinterpreted.
    tip
    Wordy:
    Cases where there was a minor who was the plaintiff, and who was also under the age of 14 at the time of the alleged events that the court was considering.
    Better:
    Cases with a minor plaintiff under the age of 14.

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