Semantic + keyword retrieval
Hybrid search combines meaning-based retrieval with exact term matching, so you find authority even when the judgment does not use your words.
Platform
Legal Research
Legal research is the process of finding the statutes, judgments and regulatory material that govern a legal question, then establishing the current position of law on it. Sutor’s legal research workspace runs retrieval over Indian primary legal sources — bare acts, Supreme Court and High Court judgments, tribunal orders and regulator circulars — and returns answers with the underlying authority attached, so every proposition can be traced back to the source it came from.
Key takeaways
- Research output is only defensible if every proposition carries the authority it came from.
- Keyword search finds documents; retrieval-augmented research answers the question and cites the source.
- Current legal position matters more than volume of results — superseded and overruled authority is a real risk.
- Research is most useful when it lives inside the matter it belongs to, not in a separate silo.
Why manual legal research is slow
Manual research requires identifying the governing statute, tracing amendments, finding judgments that interpret the provision, checking whether those judgments are still good law, and then reconciling conflicting High Court positions. Each of those steps is a separate search in a separate place.
The cost is not only time. Research that cannot be traced back to authority is unusable in an opinion, and research that sits outside the matter has to be redone the next time the same question comes up.
How legal research works on Sutor
Research is run inside a matter, so the authorities you find stay attached to the work they support.
- 1State the legal question in plain language
- 2Retrieve relevant statutes, judgments and regulatory material
- 3Rank and filter by court, jurisdiction, date and relevance
- 4Read the answer with its supporting authorities attached
- 5Verify each citation against the underlying source
- 6Save propositions and authorities into the matter
- 7Carry them forward into a brief, opinion or draft
Capabilities
Grounded answers with citations
Every answer is assembled from retrieved sources, and each proposition links back to the statute, section or judgment it rests on.
Indian primary sources
Coverage is oriented to Indian law — central and state legislation, Supreme Court and High Court decisions, tribunal orders and regulator material.
Propositions and authorities
Extract a legal proposition, attach its authority, and reuse it across briefs, opinions and pleadings in the same matter.
Matter-scoped research
Research sits inside the matter alongside the client, documents and observations, instead of in an unconnected research tool.
Team knowledge retention
Research done once becomes searchable organisational knowledge rather than a file on one lawyer’s desktop.
Who this is for
- Litigation and disputes teams
- In-house counsel answering business questions
- Law firm associates preparing opinions and briefs
- Compliance teams tracking regulatory positions
- Independent advocates without a research department
Frequently asked questions
- How is AI legal research different from keyword search?
- Keyword search returns documents that contain your terms and leaves the analysis to you. Retrieval-augmented research interprets the question, retrieves the passages that actually address it across statutes and judgments, and assembles an answer in which each proposition is linked to the source it came from. The practical difference is that you start from a cited position on the question rather than from a list of documents to read.
- Can I verify where an answer came from?
- Yes — that is the point of the design. Answers are assembled from retrieved passages, and each proposition carries the authority it rests on so it can be opened and read in full. Research output should never be relied on without reading the underlying statute or judgment, and the workspace is built to make that verification step fast rather than optional.
- Does Sutor replace a lawyer’s judgment?
- No. The platform retrieves and organises authority; it does not decide strategy, assess facts or replace professional judgment. Its purpose is to remove the search and assembly work so that qualified legal professionals spend their time on analysis, advice and advocacy. For individuals, research output is legal information and should be taken to a consultation before being acted on.
Related
See legal research on your own work
Book a session with our team and we will walk through the platform using the kind of matters and documents you actually handle.