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BriefCatch

AI is off by default, and with it off the suite runs on its rule engine: more than 12,000 rule sets for grammar, clarity, style and structure, plus scoring and reports, which BriefCatch says the AI switch does not affect. The AI adds three things. BriefChat is a writing adviser. The AI half of CiteCheck refines rule based citation fixes. The second layer of RealityCheck judges whether quoted language is in the opinion and whether the authority supports the point.

RealityCheck's first layer, confirming that a case or federal statute exists, is deterministic. Since September 2026 RealityCheck is on every plan and metered in AI credits.

Deterministic lookups first confirm that a cited case or federal statute exists, matching reporter volume, court identifiers and case names against authoritative legal databases. AI models then read the opinion to judge whether the quoted language is in it and whether it supports the point. Results come back as correct, needs attention or cannot verify, each pointing to the authority concerned. No precision or recall figure, test set, false positive or false negative rate, or third party evaluation is published for RealityCheck, CiteCheck or BriefChat.

Clause 8.2 of the Master Terms says output is not guaranteed correct, complete or current. A reported test on a Fifth Circuit brief in Fletcher v. Experian comes from trade press, not the vendor.

Each suggestion is a card the user accepts or rejects, so nothing changes a document without a person acting. RealityCheck sorts results into confirmed, needs attention and cannot verify, so unresolved cases stay visible. Clause 8.2 of the Master Terms requires all output to be reviewed before use, and clause 8.5 bars relying on output as legal advice. The system never acts on its own. Nothing says what happens after an output is found wrong, or when CiteCheck's AI overrides or defers to the rule engine.

Skadden, Wilson Sonsini, Nixon Peabody, Kellogg Hansen and Bartlit Beck appear as customers on BriefCatch's pricing page. It states more than 25,000 lawyers and 40 of the Am Law 200 as users, plus adoption by state and federal courts, with pages for courts and government. It shows a 4.9 rating on Microsoft AppSource. The one figure, more than 50 percent of editing time saved, is not tied to a customer, dated or explained. The site has a Case Studies section.

Clause 7.2 of the Master Terms says Customer Content is not stored or retained, so there is nothing to return at termination, and BriefCatch's Trust Center says text is processed in memory only and promptly cleared. Training is excluded in express terms on several pages. Documents stay in the local Word environment unless the user turns on AI citation review or BriefChat, and BriefChat sees only prompts, never the document or email.

Customer Content is the customer's confidential information under clause 5.1, and clause 5.2 confirms the customer owns it. Privilege and work product are not named, and no model provider is identified. The EULA says the products are not meant for confidential or personal data and puts privacy risk on the user, while the product FAQ says the product is safe for confidential client documents.

Clause 8.5 of the Master Terms bars the customer from relying on output as legal advice, and from telling anyone that output is legal advice. Clause 8.6 says the service gives no legal advice and creates no attorney client relationship. For ClientCatch, recipients of output must be told to consult a qualified attorney. Nothing covers supervision or competence, such as who may use the AI features or what review a supervising lawyer applies.

No rule of professional conduct or bar authority is named, and no jurisdiction limit is stated for a product whose citation checks are US specific.

AI features are off by default, and administrators can switch AI on or off across the whole organization while the rule engine keeps working. A dedicated AI Disclosure page explains it. BriefCatch states it sends no more data than needed for a suggestion, explains what its models were and were not trained on, and says the AI switch affects only BriefChat and citation suggestions. No person or committee is named as accountable for model behavior, no testing before release is described, and no evaluation result is published. Bias is not addressed, though the product scores writing against the styles of named judges and advocates.

Retention is zero and in the contract: clause 7.2 of the Master Terms says Customer Content is not stored or retained, and BriefCatch's Trust Center says document text is processed in memory only and promptly cleared. Encryption is AES-256 at rest and TLS 1.3 in transit. Access controls include two factor and Google authentication on every plan, and single sign on, SCIM provisioning and role based access at enterprise.

Backups, redundancy and a tested disaster recovery plan are described, with staff confidentiality agreements and annual training. RealityCheck also scans documents for text, such as white on white type and zero width characters. No subprocessor list beyond Azure for hosting and no breach notice commitment to customers is published.

Clause 8.1 of the Master Terms commits to reasonable, industry standard efforts to minimize errors and interruptions, workmanlike performance, and advance notice of scheduled disruption. Clause 9 indemnifies the customer against third party claims that the service infringes a US patent or copyright or misappropriates a trade secret, with BriefCatch running the defense and replacing, licensing or refunding if needed. Liability is capped at twelve months of fees, and the cap does not apply to gross negligence, willful misconduct or breach of confidentiality.

A service level agreement is incorporated, with 99.9 percent uptime on the enterprise tier. Clauses 8.2 and 8.3 disclaim responsibility for output and anything based on it, no insurance position is published, and the indemnity does not reach a claim from a wrong verification.

BriefCatch runs as a Microsoft Word add in, an Outlook add in at Pro and above, and a browser editor, and works on Word files in Google Drive and OneDrive. It is distributed through Microsoft AppSource with a Microsoft 365 App Certification listing. Identity options are documented by tier: two factor and Google sign in on every plan, and single sign on with SCIM provisioning at enterprise. Learning content plugs into a customer's learning system over SCORM.

Document management connections are an enterprise feature described only generically, with no system named, no direction of data flow and no setup requirements.

BriefCatch's Trust Center says the service runs on Azure in United States locations only. It is delivered as a browser app and as Word and Outlook add ins, through Microsoft AppSource or direct install, with a security and privacy white paper for IT review on request. With AI off, the default, documents never leave the local Word environment. They are sent only when the user turns on AI citation review or BriefChat. Nothing says whether accounts share an environment, and no private or on premises option is described.

A public Trust Center, reachable without a form, states BriefCatch's SOC 2 certification, AES-256 and TLS 1.3 encryption, a tested disaster recovery plan, firewalls, intrusion detection, continuous logging, staff confidentiality agreements and annual training. The pricing table lists SOC 2 Type II on every tier. No report, certificate, audit period or auditor is available or named, and no scope says which systems are covered.

BriefCatch's pricing page lists SOC 2 Type II, while a BriefCatch 3 support FAQ that is still live says SOC 2 Type 1. Type 1 tests design at a point in time, and Type II tests operation over a period. The ISO 27001, PCI DSS Level 1 and SOC 2 compliance on the Trust Center belongs to Azure, not BriefCatch.

Models are trained only on proprietary, licensed or public non customer data, which the pricing FAQ calls real filings, judicial opinions and decades of legal writing expertise, with BriefChat trained on the founder's published writing. RealityCheck's first layer checks against authoritative legal databases. No model, version or provider is named, and nothing says which models BriefCatch built and which it licenses. BriefCatch's FAQ says documents never improve third party AI services, without naming any third party.

Azure is named as the host. Trade press reports that a supplier called Counsel Stack provides RealityCheck's citation infrastructure. It is not named anywhere on BriefCatch's own site, including the Master Terms and Trust Center.

Individual is $60 per seat per month billed annually for one seat, and Pro is $75 per seat per month billed annually with a five seat minimum. Enterprise is custom above twenty seats. AI use is metered in credits: 650 a month on Individual and 700 on Pro. BriefCatch publishes a conversion, about 70 credits for a brief under 30 pages with fewer than 100 citations. Credits reset monthly without rollover, extra packs last a year, annual billing is discounted, and plan changes keep credits and settings.

A full feature table compares tiers, and a seven day trial needs no credit card. Enterprise pricing is not published, and the get started page still shows a Solo plan at $599 a year that does not match the pricing page.

BriefCatch has pages for law firms, government and courts, and sells to courts to check filings they receive, stating adoption by state and federal courts. Tiers run from one seat to a five seat practice group to twenty or more, and subscriptions are offered to solo lawyers, students, educators, firms, universities, corporations and agencies. Named customers include Skadden, Wilson Sonsini, Nixon Peabody, Kellogg Hansen and Bartlit Beck.

No practice area or jurisdiction is stated, though citation checking works on US reporters and federal statutes and the writing rules come from US practice. Nothing says which document types beyond briefs, memos and emails are supported.