Understand Clio Work Case Law Analysis and Citators

You can use Vincent in Clio Library to help understand and contextualize case law. Vincent can read cases, extract key legal issues, and automatically produce a summary, including headnotes and key phrases. This allows you to understand the issues addressed in a judgment at a glance.

View case analysis with Vincent

1. In Clio Library, open a case and select the Document tab, if not already selected. Alternatively, navigate to Clio Work and select the Ask Research Questions workflow.
2. View the case analysis at the top of the screen, above the full judgment.

Understand case law citators 

Clio Library provides access to advanced citation tools to enable your firm to quickly assess the reliability of a case and comprehend its legal context. For case law, you can use treatment types to view how cases cite and relate to each other. 

Access citator information

You can view citator data by navigating to a specific document through either Clio Work or the Clio Library.

• From a research conversation: After asking a research question in Clio Work, click any document name listed under Legal Authorities to open it in the Library.
• From a library search: Click Library in the left navigation panel to perform a new search and select a document from your results.
• From the document viewer: Once the document is open, select a subtab to view specific data. The subtabs include Judgment, Cited Authorities, Cited in, Precedent Map, Citation, and Sources.

Interpret treatment types

Treatment types indicate how a subsequent document referred to the case you are viewing. They vary slightly by jurisdiction, but you can interpret them using the color-coding system below.

1. Locate the tag.
   • When viewing case search results in some jurisdictions, look for a grey tag with a number to the right of the document name.
2. For US Case Citator (Cert), use the color codes. Refer to the corresponding treatment color code below to quickly assess the case's standing:
   • Positive treatments (Green): Positive treatments indicate that a subsequent case actively followed the reasoning in the current case. These treatments also include decisions where an appellate court dismissed appeals from the first-instance decision.
     • Interpretation: The case's legal principle has been upheld or successfully followed.
   • Neutral treatments (Grey or Orange): Neutral treatments indicate that a subsequent case referred to the current case, but the judge did not assign an explicit or implicit value to it when resolving the issue in that subsequent case. These treatment tags are grey on all results pages, including the 'Cited In' tab. On the Precedent Map, these treatment tags are orange. 
     • Interpretation: The case was mentioned, but its legal authority was neither affirmed nor questioned. 
   • Caution treatments (Yellow): Caution treatments indicate that a subsequent case referred to the current case, but the judge declined to apply it because they considered it not relevant to their own matter. These treatment tags are yellow. 
     • Interpretation: The case remains good law, but its facts were found to be materially different from those in the current matter. 
   • Negative treatments (Red): Negative treatments indicate that a subsequent case referred to the current case, but the judge declined to apply it because they considered it no longer good law. These treatment tags are red. 
     • Interpretation: The case's legal principle has been questioned, limited, or overturned. Proceed with caution or seek alternative authority. 
   • Unclassified treatments (Grey): Unclassified treatments mean that vLex has found and recognized the connection between the cases, but its editors have not yet classified the treatment type. These connections are grey on your Precedent Map. 

Cited Authorities

In Clio Library, the Cited Authorities tab displays case law or legislation cited within the judgment. This helps you build arguments on a reliable authority. The Strength bar next to each authority indicates the significance of an authority in relation to the current document, based on citation frequency, quoting, and similar points of law.

1. When viewing a document, click the Cited Authorities tab.

2. In the first column, select Case Law or Legislation. 

   Note: If legislation has been amended, a yellow notification will appear. 

3. Review Strength.  

Cited in

The Cited-in tab shows all documents that have subsequently used the case or legislation you are currently viewing as a precedent. You can use this list to understand how and where the current document has been applied, followed, or treated negatively. 

1. Click the Cited in tab on the document viewer.
2. Look for a grey box in the top-right corner, showing the total citations.
3. If applicable, click the US Case Citator treatment label (e.g., Disapproved) to view the details of the treatment type. 

Precedent map

The Precedent Map is an interactive visualization that helps you discover case law authorities. 

1. Navigate to Clio Library via Clio Work. 
2. Click on a case to view its related information. 
3. Click the Precedent map subtab. 
   • The central circle represents the original case you are viewing. Circles inside the central circle are ordered chronologically and represent cases cited in the current case. The circles on the outside represent cases that cited the current case subsequently. 
4. Double-click on a case to make it the focus of the map. 
5. Use the map filters on the right side of the screen to narrow your results. 

US Case Citator (Cert)

For some US courts, you can view negative treatment citations for each case that focus on warning and questioned treatments. A negative citator aims to help you quickly identify the most severe negative finding for any given case. 

• Courts covered: US Supreme Court, Federal Circuit Courts, and the court of last resort/highest court, and Appellate courts for all states and DC.
• Red (Warning) treatments: The law in the current case is likely no longer valid or has been seriously challenged. 
• Orange (Questioned) treatments: The case's value as legal precedent has been challenged, or its application has been limited.