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Best Practice Guide for Prompts with Legal Research

March 2026

Overview

Prompts with Legal Research Questions are designed to produce consistent, structured, and review-ready legal documents that incorporate current legislation, case law and other authorative legal sources.

This approach separates:

  • Legal research and legal classification, and

  • Document structure and drafting.

By embedding clearly framed legal research questions directly into the prompt, the system mirrors how lawyers' reason and draft in practice: identifying issues, applying the relevant law, and presenting the output in a clear, structured form.

This design also makes prompts more accurate, easier to maintain, and more resilient to legal change. It avoids reliance on the AI’s underlying training data alone, which may be incomplete or out of date in relation to current law.

What Prompts with Legal Research Questions Does

Legal Research Questions are used to identify and apply the current law to the matter and incorporate that analysis into the document.

Legal Research Questions can be used to:

  • Classify legal issues or legal categories

  • Identify applicable legislative provisions

  • Confirm legal tests, thresholds, or legal definitions

  • Provide concise case summaries

  • Provide structured legal analysis suitable for drafting

How the Prompt and Legal Research Questions Work Together

The workflow is simple:

  • Legal Research Questions provide current, issue-specific legal analysis

  • The prompt assembles that analysis into a structured legal document

This allows prompts to support the drafting of documents such as:

  • Briefs to Counsel

  • Letters of Advice

  • Case outlines and mediation position papers

  • Court submissions and affidavits

How Prompts and Legal Research Questions Works

  1. Select the relevant matter

  2. Select the Prompt with Legal Research Questions from the Prompt Library

  3. Review and confirm the Legal Research Questions being asked

  4. Run the prompt

  5. Review the structured output

  6. Use or export the document

  7. Make any required adjustments

Best Practices with Legal Research Questions

1. Use consistent and exact prompt headers

To ensure the system can reliably interpret the prompt and identify Legal Research Questions headers must:

  • Be in ALL CAPS

  • Use underscores (_) instead of spaces

  • End with a colon (:)

The template headings should be as follows:

TITLE:

PURPOSE:

PRELIMINARY_QUESTIONS:

FACT_PAGES:

LEGAL_RESEARCH:

TEMPLATE:

DOCUMENT_RULES:

These headers are used by the system to correctly parse prompt sections and identify which content should be treated as Legal Research Questions.

Important: This is the recommended best practice going forward. Existing prompts will continue to work but may run more slowly over time. For optimal performance, prompts should be formatted using the recommended best practice headers.

2. Drafting Legal Research Questions

Legal Research Questions must appear only in the LEGAL_RESEARCH: section.

Legal_Research:

Question Name

Question

Question 1 - [Legal Issue]

[Specific legal question]

Question 1 - [Legal Issue]

[Repeat for other legal questions]

Legal Research Question Table Example:

Question Name

Question

Question 1 – Show Cause

Show Cause Do the charges [charge 1] and [repeat for other charges] against the accused fall within the category of offences that require the accused to demonstrate why bail should be granted, based on the type and seriousness of the offences and any relevant prior history?

Question 2 – Prescribed sexual offence

Do the charges [charge 1] and [repeat for other charges] fall within the category of prescribed sexual offences under New South Wales criminal procedure, based on the nature, seriousness, and legal characterisation of each offence? Use the current legal definition of “prescribed sexual offence” in New South Wales and identify the exact provisions relied upon.

Question 3 - Interim/Final

AVO Determine whether an interim or final Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) is applicable in relation to each charges [charge 1] and [repeat for other charges], based on whether the offence type or case status triggers the relevant legal considerations and pinpoint exact references.

When drafting Legal Research Questions:

  • Focus on one legal issue per question

  • Be specific and direct

  • Ask whether something applies and why

  • Require identification of the legal test, definition, or statutory provision

Where repetition is required, use placeholders such as:

  • [item 1]

  • [repeat for other items]

For example, [charge 1] and [repeat for other charges].

This ensures consistent legal treatment across multiple legal issues, charges, or legal claims.

3. Provide Output Template and Output Rules

Use the TEMPLATE: section to specify where each legal research response should appear in the document.

Use the RULES: section to specify any rules as to how you want the output displayed and/or formatted.

Legal research responses are:

  • Inserted exactly as returned

  • Not re‑interpreted or re‑analysed by the prompt

  • Placed into predefined sections of the template

Example Template and Rules:

Template:

Interim/Final AVO

[Provide Output to Question 3 as example in rules]

[Repeat for all other charges]

Rules:

Prescribed sexual offence

For each charge output:

H Number (if applicable)

Offence description

Legislation reference (pinpoint specific section & Act)

Result: Prescribed sexual offence OR Not a prescribed sexual offence

Example output:

H12345678/001 – Sexual assault – S 61I Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) – Prescribed

sexual offence

H12345678/002 – Possess prohibited drug – S 10(1) Drug Misuse and

Trafficking Act 1985 (NSW) – Not a prescribed sexual offence

4. Default Prompts with Legal Questions to either model

Prompts with Legal Questions work with either LPR-CA-V2 or LPR-LA-V2.

Based on testing, LPR-LA-V2 is the recommended default for prompts involving multiple legal questions, complex statutory interpretation, or detailed classification.

5. Understanding the Output

The final output:

  • Combines document facts and legal research

  • Follows a fixed structure and layout

  • Uses neutral, factual language

  • Provides clear legal classifications (Yes / No / Potential)

Where an answer depends on additional information, this is clearly indicated in the output.

After generating the output:

  • Review the content for accuracy and completeness

  • Confirm key details such as names, dates, and identifiers

  • Adjust wording as required

The AI output is designed to be ready for legal review, not to replace professional judgment.

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