Legal / Compliance

Legal Research Assistant AI Architecture

Compare RAG, fine-tuning, long-context, and hybrid approaches for legal research assistant at 20K queries/month.

Top approaches

#1 Best fit
RAG

Citation of specific clauses and case law is non-negotiable.

#2 Runner-up
Hybrid / RAFT

Adds Latin legal terminology adaptation for specialist practices.

#3 Alternative
Long-Context

Viable for single-document analysis tasks.

Cost at typical volume

Estimated at 20K queries/month

Long-Context$404/mo
RAG$623/mo
Hybrid / RAFT$3,691/mo
Fine-Tuning$5,113/mo

Key considerations

  • 1Jurisdiction matters — segment indexes by jurisdiction to avoid cross-contamination.
  • 2Never present AI output as legal advice; require attorney review for all outputs.
  • 3Citation accuracy must be verified against the source — test with a held-out case-law set.

Frequently asked questions

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