Casetext

What is Casetext?

Casetext was an AI legal research service that helped lawyers search case law, check citations and, later, draft research memos and review documents with its CoCounsel assistant. It is no longer sold as a standalone product.

The company was founded in 2013, according to Thomson Reuters. Its tools combined a searchable library of court decisions with machine learning, and in 2023 it launched CoCounsel, an assistant built on GPT-4 for document review, legal research memos, deposition preparation and contract analysis.

Thomson Reuters completed its acquisition of Casetext on 17 August 2023 for $650 million in cash. In early 2025 it moved users to CoCounsel 2.0, and its migration notes said casetext.com would redirect to a CoCounsel page from 1 February 2025, with legacy access ending on 31 March 2025. CoCounsel Legal is now sold by Thomson Reuters alongside Westlaw and Practical Law. Nothing in this review is legal advice.

Key Features

CoCounsel and SmartCite were the features that defined Casetext, because they paired fast AI drafting with a check on whether cited cases were still good law.

• CoCounsel assistant: CoCounsel was Casetext’s AI legal assistant, built on GPT-4 according to Thomson Reuters. It handled document review, research memos, deposition preparation and contract analysis, returning first drafts in minutes rather than hours.
• Natural-language research: Lawyers could type a legal question in ordinary words instead of building Boolean strings. Directory write-ups say the search still supported Boolean logic and filters for users who preferred precise query control.
• SmartCite citator: SmartCite flagged whether a case was still good law and how later courts had treated it. This helped lawyers avoid relying on overruled or weakened authority before filing a brief or memo.
• Case law and statutes: Directories describe a database covering federal and state cases, statutes and regulations. One competitor blog also reports that basic case-law search was once open to the public at no charge.
• Comparative case research: Casetext reportedly let users compare passages across cases to find decisions making the same legal point. This sentence-level matching surfaced precedent that keyword searches could miss when courts used different wording.
• Drafting and contract help: Directory profiles list AI drafting support and contract analysis among its later tools. These features identified compliance issues in agreements and produced starting drafts that lawyers then checked and rewrote.

Pros

Affordable access to modern research tools drew small firms to Casetext, especially solo lawyers priced out of the larger legal research platforms.

• Lower entry price than incumbents: Reports describe Casetext as markedly cheaper than Westlaw or Lexis for small firms. Solo lawyers and small practices gained serious research tools without an enterprise contract or long negotiation.
• Early generative AI for law: CoCounsel arrived before most rivals offered a comparable assistant. Firms that adopted it early gained experience with AI review and research workflows that later carried into CoCounsel from Thomson Reuters.
• Plain-language searching: Natural-language queries lowered the learning curve for new associates and non-specialists. Users could reach relevant cases quickly without first mastering complex search syntax or connector rules.
• Citator built in: SmartCite sat inside the research flow instead of in a separate product. Lawyers could check the status of an authority in the same session they found it.
• Broad adoption: Thomson Reuters said Casetext served more than 10,000 law firms and corporate legal departments at the time of the deal. That scale suggested the tools held up in everyday legal practice.

Cons

Availability is now the decisive problem: Casetext has been folded into CoCounsel, so the product reviewed here cannot be bought or used.

• No longer available: Casetext cannot be purchased or used as a standalone product. Its website now sends visitors to CoCounsel, and new users must deal with Thomson Reuters instead.
• Legacy data was not carried over: Thomson Reuters said chat histories and uploaded documents would not move to CoCounsel 2.0. Former users had until 31 March 2025 to retrieve anything they needed from the old platform.
• Successor costs more: Competitor blogs and directories report that CoCounsel pricing is quote-based and often tied to Westlaw. Small firms that chose Casetext for its price may find the successor harder to justify.
• Thinner secondary sources: One directory lists a limited library of treatises and practice guides as a weakness. Lawyers needing deep commentary usually paired Casetext with another research service.
• AI output needed checking: Like any generative tool, CoCounsel drafts could contain errors or miss nuance. Lawyers remained responsible for verifying citations and reasoning before relying on any output.

Who is Using Casetext?

Nobody uses Casetext as a separate product today, but more than 10,000 law firms and corporate legal departments relied on it before the acquisition.

• Solo lawyers: Solo practitioners used Casetext as an affordable research subscription. They relied on it for case law searches and citation checks on everyday matters.
• Litigation teams: Litigators used it to find precedent and review document sets. CoCounsel helped them prepare research memos and deposition outlines faster.
• Small and mid-sized firms: Smaller firms used it in place of costlier legacy services. Its plain-language search suited mixed teams of partners, associates and paralegals.
• Corporate legal departments: In-house teams used CoCounsel for contract analysis and quick research. Thomson Reuters counted corporate legal departments among the 10,000-plus organisations served.

Pricing

Casetext no longer has any plans on sale, and its former subscriptions ended with the move to CoCounsel (Thomson Reuters migration notes, checked October 2026).

Former prices come from directories and disagree with each other: one directory lists the figures above, while a competitor blog cites roughly $65 a month for the original research plan.

Disclaimer: these historical figures cannot be confirmed on the official site, so ask Thomson Reuters directly for current CoCounsel terms.

What Makes Casetext Unique?

Shipping a GPT-4 legal assistant in early 2023 was Casetext’s clearest differentiator. Few legal research providers then offered a tool that could read a document set and return a research memo, and that head start is a large part of why Thomson Reuters paid $650 million for the company.

Its price position also set it apart. Casetext offered self-serve subscriptions to smaller firms while the incumbents mostly sold through negotiated contracts. That model ended with the acquisition, and the technology now lives inside CoCounsel Legal, which Thomson Reuters grounds in Westlaw and Practical Law content.

Compatibilities and Integrations

Casetext was a web application with few reported integrations, and its successor CoCounsel Legal now carries the integration work.

• Original platform: Casetext ran in a web browser at casetext.com. That address now redirects to Thomson Reuters, and the original login no longer works.
• API: One directory reports that Casetext never offered an open API. Firms could not easily connect its research into their own systems.
• Data migration: Custom databases could move to CoCounsel 2.0 on request. Chat histories and uploaded documents were not migrated, according to Thomson Reuters.
• Successor integrations: CoCounsel Legal lists iManage, NetDocuments, SharePoint, Box, Word, Outlook and Teams. Thomson Reuters also states SOC 2 and ISO 42001 certification.

Casetext Tutorials

Former Casetext users now reach the same technology through CoCounsel, and five steps cover the move.

1. Visit the Thomson Reuters CoCounsel Legal page instead of casetext.com.
2. Request a demo or quote, since public self-serve pricing is not listed.
3. Confirm whether your plan needs a Westlaw or Practical Law subscription alongside CoCounsel.
4. Ask support to migrate any custom databases you held under the old platform.
5. Test CoCounsel on a closed matter and check every citation before relying on its output.

How We Rated It

Casetext lands at 3.1 out of 5, because strong research tools in its day are outweighed by the fact that it can no longer be bought or supported.

Summary

Casetext was a capable, affordable AI legal research service that pushed generative AI into legal practice early, but it is now discontinued. Its technology lives on in CoCounsel Legal from Thomson Reuters, which is quote-based and closely tied to Westlaw. Small firms that valued Casetext for its price may find better value in services with published pricing. Any AI research output still needs checking by a qualified lawyer, and nothing here is legal advice. If you are weighing the successor, run a short pilot on a closed matter and compare citation accuracy with your current service.