Maple JurisNotes on citation validation.
Why checking a citation is its own layer in legal AI software, and what that layer has to get right.
The system that writes a citation shouldn’t be the one that checks it
A better model makes citation mistakes less often, but not easier to catch. A check is only as independent as what it compares against.
Where it failed
“Invalid” tells you there is a problem. A useful answer tells you which half of the citation broke.
The more dangerous failure
A checker that misses a fabricated citation is a problem. A checker that calls a real provision fake is a worse one.
“Is this citation real?” is the easy question
A citation can stay valid while the law underneath it changes. The harder question is whether it was real on the date that matters.