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Every quotation, paragraph reference and record reference in a draft is checked against the source on file, and the result goes into a spreadsheet that can be read row by row. This page shows how, and where it still needs a reader.
This is the mechanical part of Guide 9, done by a skill. It is meant to spare you the question from the bench: “Where do I find that quotation in the judgment?”
The rule that comes first
A case may be cited only if the judgment itself is in the matter’s research folder, as a PDF downloaded from SAFLII or a law report service (Guide 8). The check works against those PDFs and nothing else. A case cited in the draft with no copy on file is not “probably fine”. It is marked SOURCE UNAVAILABLE, and it stays marked until the judgment is on file.
Before anything else, the list of cases in the footnotes is matched against the research folder and, for heads, against the authorities bundle. A case that is on file but missing from the bundle and the schedule of authorities is a finding too.
What it checks
For every footnote or reference in the draft, the citation-verifier skill:
- finds the cited paragraph or page in the judgment on file;
- checks that the quoted words appear there, word for word;
- if they appear somewhere else in the judgment, says where;
- for a record reference (“Record, vol 4, p 231”, “FA para 5.2”), checks that the cited page says what the draft says it does;
- writes one row per reference into an Excel sheet, with the quoted words and the full source paragraph next to each other, the match highlighted.
The check sheet
Every row gets one status:
- VERIFIED: the words are in the cited paragraph.
- PARA MISMATCH: the words are in the judgment, but in a different paragraph. The right one is given.
- QUOTE INACCURATE: the words differ from the judgment. A quotation that starts right and then drifts is never passed; that is exactly what a misquotation looks like.
- NOT FOUND: the words could not be located. This means “go and read the page”, not “wrong”. See Limits.
- SOURCE UNAVAILABLE: the judgment is not on file.
Citations with no quotation (a pinpoint only) get their own statuses, so that an empty quotation is never reported as VERIFIED. That mistake happened in testing: 16 of 17 pinpoint-only rows passed because an empty string is found everywhere. The pinpoint statuses are:
- PINPOINT ONLY: the cited paragraph exists and is copied into the sheet. This is not a verification; a person must read the paragraph.
- PINPOINT NOT FOUND: the cited paragraph could not be located. Check the pinpoint by eye.
- PINPOINT NOT CHECKABLE: a page pinpoint in extracted text that has no page numbers marked, or several pinpoints in one row. Extract the text again with page markers, or split the row.
- NO PINPOINT GIVEN: the draft names the case and nothing else. Add a pinpoint.
Record references, and context
For a record on file, each record reference is turned into one factual sentence (“page 118 says the notice was delivered on 3 June”) and checked against the cited page. The check gives a score for supports or contradicts. Every “contradicts”, and every low score, is then read by eye with the page open.
This matters for context, which a word-for-word match cannot see. In a test, a false proposition was planted in a set of heads and attributed to a real judgment. It scored as strongly supported, because the judgment set out that view before rejecting it. A tool can point to the page. Only a reader can say what the court held.
If a second service is used for the record check, text is sent to that service’s servers. Check the client’s terms and Guide 10 before it is used on a matter.
A prompt you can copy
Use it in Claude Cowork with the matter folder connected. Replace the words in square brackets.
Check every citation and quotation in [draft file] against the judgments in [research folder] and the record in [record folder]. First list every case in the footnotes and tell me which have no copy in the research folder. Then sort every reference into one of three kinds and check each kind separately. (1) Quotations: find the cited paragraph or page, check the quoted words appear there word for word, and say where they are if they are elsewhere. Use the statuses VERIFIED, PARA MISMATCH, QUOTE INACCURATE, NOT FOUND and SOURCE UNAVAILABLE. A partial match is never VERIFIED. (2) Citations with no quotation (a pinpoint only): check only that the cited paragraph or page exists, and copy it into the sheet. Use the statuses PINPOINT ONLY, PINPOINT NOT FOUND, PINPOINT NOT CHECKABLE and NO PINPOINT GIVEN. Never give a citation with no quotation a quotation status. (3) Record references: check that the cited page says what the draft says it does, and mark every doubtful one for reading by eye. Build an Excel sheet with one row per reference: the kind of reference; the source and the paragraph or page cited; the quoted words, if any; the full source paragraph with any match highlighted; the status; and an empty column for the person who reads it. Do not change the draft.
Limits
- False alarms, mostly. Law report facsimiles defeat a plain text match: margin letters (A to J) land in the middle of sentences, footnote numbers stick to words, and a page header can sit in the middle of a quotation that crosses a page. The skill strips these, but a NOT FOUND can still be a correct quotation. Read the page before you change the draft.
- It checks words, not law. VERIFIED means the words are there. It does not mean the paragraph supports the point. That is the reader’s job, every time.
- A scan with no text layer can only be checked provisionally. For anything that will be filed, get a proper copy of the judgment.
- It does not find missing authorities. It checks what was cited, not what should have been cited.
Building it yourself
The skill is the seven checks of Guide 9, with the first three written as instructions of the kind built in Guide 4, a script that reads the PDFs, and a spreadsheet as the output. The last four checks are not in the skill, because they cannot be.