The Compare Jurisdictions workflow generates a structured legal research comparison across two or more jurisdictions. Vincent AI researches the legal question in each jurisdiction, produces a detailed memo per jurisdiction, and generates a comparative analysis so you can identify how the law differs across the jurisdictions relevant to your matter.
Important: All Vincent AI output requires final review and due diligence by a qualified legal professional before use in litigation strategy, client advice, or court proceedings.
Set up your research question
Compare Jurisdictions does not require document upload. You enter a legal question and select the jurisdictions to research.
- In Clio Work, click Vincent in the left navigation.
- On the Compare Jurisdictions screen, enter your legal question in the text field.
- Select a country and state or jurisdiction for Jurisdiction A.
- Select a country, state, or jurisdiction for Jurisdiction B.
- Select + Add Another Jurisdiction if your research requires more than two jurisdictions.
- Select the arrow to submit.
Note: You can select Include related federal under any jurisdiction to include federal authorities alongside state law in the research output for that jurisdiction.
Question rephrasing
After you submit, Vincent may suggest a rephrased version of your question to improve search accuracy. You can accept the suggested phrasing or select Submit the question as originally phrased to proceed with your original question.
Understand the research output
Vincent generates three output elements for each research session.
Per-jurisdiction legal research memo
Vincent produces a detailed research memo for each jurisdiction. Each memo analyzes the legal question under that jurisdiction's governing law, with statutes and cases cited inline as hyperlinks. Key legal terms are highlighted in bold. Each memo includes the number of potential authorities found and the number reviewed. Select Full answer below a jurisdiction memo to expand the complete analysis.
Legal Authorities panel
Select Legal Authorities below any jurisdiction memo to open the Legal Authorities panel for that jurisdiction. The panel displays the cases, statutes, regulations, and secondary sources Vincent reviewed, with confidence ratings and citator flags where applicable. The panel can be filtered by source type: All, Cases, Stat. & Reg., Admin. Decisions. Use Most Relevant to sort results or Modify List to adjust the sources included in the analysis.
Note: The Legal Authorities panel is jurisdiction-specific. Each jurisdiction has its own panel. Selecting Legal Authorities for one jurisdiction opens only that jurisdiction's sources.
Comparative Analysis
After the per-jurisdiction memos, Vincent generates a Comparative Analysis section. The analysis restates the research question and produces a structured comparison across all jurisdictions. Each jurisdiction is represented as a row, with columns covering the key legal dimensions of the question. Such as the governing standard, whether specific showings are required, how courts calculate imputed income, and notable exceptions or limitations.
Work with the results
Save to Legal Pad
Select the Legal Pad icon in the response footer to save output to Legal Pad. From Legal Pad, you can edit, annotate, and save content directly to Clio Manage.
Continue the conversation
Use the Ask any follow-up question text box to ask Vincent additional questions about the research, request clarification on a specific jurisdiction, or apply the research to the facts of your matter. For example:
- Which jurisdiction is more favorable to the paying parent in this scenario?
- Summarize the key differences between Georgia and California in plain language for a client letter.
- Add a third jurisdiction to the comparison.
Up Next
- Apply the research to your matter: see Build Arguments in Clio Work to develop a structured legal position from the jurisdictional analysis produced here
- Research a single jurisdiction: see Ask Research Questions in Clio Work for in-depth research within one jurisdiction
- Analyze your documents: see Analyze Complaints in Clio Work or Analyze Contracts in Clio Work to apply jurisdictional findings to specific filings