Casefleet's Web Search feature, called Legal research in the app, lets the AI Assistant search the internet directly from within a conversation. By default it searches trusted court, legislature, and government sources for the jurisdictions you choose. This guide explains how to enable the feature, choose jurisdictions and sites, and search the whole web when you need to.
What Is Web Search?
When enabled, Web Search allows the AI Assistant to access and reference information from external websites to:
Supplement legal research
Locate public records or authoritative sources
Verify citations
Provide up-to-date background information
When disabled, the AI Assistant will not access the web and will rely only on:
Information already in your Casefleet project
The text you provide in your prompt
It's built-in general knowledge
Enabling Web Search
Web Search is accessed from the toolbar at the bottom of any conversation.
Click the Legal research icon (a balance scale with a magnifying glass) in the message toolbar.
A menu will appear with the Legal research toggle at the top.
Toggle Legal research ON to enable web search for the current conversation.
NOTE: When Legal research is toggled off, Casefleet will not perform any web searches, even if a query would normally trigger one. Make sure the toggle is enabled before expecting search results.
Choosing Jurisdictions
With Legal research on, web searches only return results from the legal sources of the jurisdictions you turn on in the menu. U.S. federal is on by default. You can also turn on individual U.S. states (use U.S. states to find a state), U.S. agencies, Research & commentary, and international jurisdictions. Hover over the help icon next to a jurisdiction to see which sites it searches. The menu shows how many sites are on, up to a maximum of 64.
To search any site rather than only legal sources, turn on Search the whole web at the bottom of the menu.
NOTE: Web search settings are saved to your firm user account, not your local browser. This means your settings will be consistent across devices and browsers.
Managing Sources
The Manage sources… option opens the Legal Research Sources panel, where you can turn individual sites on or off within each jurisdiction, and add or remove your own custom sites.
NOTE: You can turn on up to 64 sites in total, across jurisdictions and custom sites. Only exact domain matches (and their subdomains) will be included in restricted searches.
How Settings Are Applied Across Conversations
Web Search settings work on two levels: default settings and conversation-level settings.
Default Settings
Your defaults are the Legal research toggle, jurisdictions and sites, and Search the whole web setting saved to your user account.
These defaults apply to all new conversations you start.
Conversation-Level Settings
When you start a conversation, your current default settings are copied into that conversation.
You can then adjust Web Search settings within a specific conversation. The change applies to that conversation, and it also becomes your new default for conversations you start later.
Changes made inside one conversation do not change the settings of your other existing conversations.
Example
Default: Legal research ON, U.S. federal sources only
New conversation inherits those settings.
Inside that conversation, you turn on Search the whole web.
That conversation now searches the whole web, and so will new conversations you start afterward.
Your other existing conversations keep their own settings.
PRO-TIP 💡: Your most recent web search choices are carried into each new conversation. If you change a setting for a one-off search, change it back when you're done so later conversations don't inherit it.
Web Search Basic Troubleshooting
🙋: "Web search isn't returning any results"
Confirm the Legal research toggle is ON in the Legal research menu.
Make sure the jurisdiction or site you expect results from is turned on, or add it as a custom site under Manage sources….
Try turning on Search the whole web temporarily to test unrestricted search.
🙋: "My sites aren't being remembered"
Web search settings are saved to your firm user account. Ensure you are logged in to the correct account.
Settings are not stored locally, so clearing browser data will not affect them.
🙋: "A new conversation doesn't reflect my sites"
New conversations use the settings you chose most recently, including changes you made inside another conversation. Check the Legal research menu and Manage sources… before you send your first message.
Default settings are copied into a new conversation at the time it is created. Changing your settings will not retroactively apply to existing conversations.