Free Law Tools
Working tools that take your own facts and show you how the law handles them, one question at a time. Each comes from a lesson in one of our law courses, where it is part of the teaching, and each is free to use here.
Contract Law
Contract Formation Checker
Is It a Binding Contract?
A free checker that walks through offer, acceptance, consideration, capacity, legality and the statute of frauds, and shows which element of a contract is in doubt.
Consideration Tester
What Counts as Consideration?
A free tester for the doctrine of consideration: new value, bargained-for exchange, illusory promises, past consideration and the pre-existing duty rule, with promissory estoppel as the fallback.
Contract Remedies Calculator
How Much Are Contract Damages?
A free calculator that shows expectation, reliance and restitution damages side by side, with foreseeability, certainty, mitigation and liquidated-damages limits, for goods, construction and employment examples.
Contract Clause Risk Spotter
Contract Clause Risk Checker
A free reading aid that finds liability caps, indemnities, automatic renewal, one-sided changes, arbitration and other risky clauses in pasted wording, and explains what each does and the usual legal limits.
Tort Law
Negligence Analyzer
Is It Negligence?
A free tool that walks through the five elements of negligence (duty, breach, actual cause, proximate cause and damages) and the Hand formula, and shows which element is in doubt.
Comparative Fault Calculator
Comparative Negligence Calculator
A free calculator that shows what a partly-at-fault plaintiff recovers under contributory negligence, pure comparative fault and the two modified comparative fault rules, and what joint and several liability does when a defendant cannot pay.
Criminal Law
Mental State Matcher
Purpose, Knowledge, Recklessness or Negligence?
A free tool that sorts facts into the four Model Penal Code mental states (purposely, knowingly, recklessly, negligently) and shows the common-law equivalent.
Homicide Classifier
Is It Murder or Manslaughter?
A free classifier that sorts a killing into first-degree murder, second-degree murder, felony murder, voluntary manslaughter or involuntary manslaughter, step by step.
Constitutional Law
Level of Scrutiny Selector
Strict, Intermediate or Rational Basis?
A free tool that picks the level of judicial scrutiny for a government classification or a burden on a right, and says what the test demands and who bears the burden.
Is the Speech Protected?
Is It Protected Speech?
A free tool that walks through First Amendment analysis: state action, unprotected categories, prior restraints, viewpoint and content discrimination, and the forum, and says which test applies.
Property Law
Adverse Possession Checker
Adverse Possession Calculator
A free checker that tests whether a possessor of land has met the elements of adverse possession, counts the years including tacking and shows how many remain.
Recording Act Resolver
Who Wins When an Owner Sells Land Twice?
A free tool that resolves a double sale of land under race, notice and race-notice recording statutes.
Evidence Law
Civil Procedure
Federal Jurisdiction Checker
Can a Federal Court Hear My Case?
A free checker for federal subject-matter jurisdiction: federal question, diversity of citizenship and the $75,000 amount, with supplemental jurisdiction, removal and the domestic-relations exception.
Personal Jurisdiction Checker
Does the Court Have Personal Jurisdiction?
A free checker for personal jurisdiction: consent, in-state service, general jurisdiction, and specific jurisdiction based on minimum contacts, purposeful availment and fairness.
Family Law
Marital Property Divider
Marital or Separate Property: Who Gets What in a Divorce?
A free tool that sorts assets and debts into marital and separate property, accounts for active and passive growth and commingling, and shows an equal split of the marital pool.
Custody Jurisdiction Finder
Which State Decides Child Custody?
A free tool for the UCCJEA: which state is the child’s home state, who has jurisdiction when a parent has moved, and when emergency or significant-connection jurisdiction applies.
Divorce Jurisdiction Checker
Can I File for Divorce in This State?
A free checker for divorce jurisdiction: domicile and residency, personal jurisdiction over the other spouse, and what a court can decide about the marriage, money and children.
Criminal Procedure
Search and Seizure Analyzer
Was the Police Search Legal?
A free tool that walks through Fourth Amendment analysis: search or seizure, standing, warrant or exception, and the exclusionary rule with its exceptions.
Miranda Checker
Do Miranda Rights Apply?
A free checker for Miranda: custody and interrogation, warnings, waiver, invoking silence or counsel, the public safety exception, and whether the statement can still be used to impeach.
Ineffective Assistance Checker
Ineffective Assistance of Counsel: Strickland Test
A free checker for the Sixth Amendment right to effective counsel: the Strickland test, presumed prejudice, plea bargaining and the deference of federal habeas review.
Business Law
Business Entity Chooser
LLC, Corporation or Partnership? Which Business Entity?
A free tool that scores sole proprietorships, partnerships, LLCs, LLPs, C and S corporations and nonprofits against your needs for liability protection, taxes, investors and formality.
Fiduciary Duty Checker
Business Judgment Rule and Fiduciary Duty Checker
A free tool that shows whether a board decision is protected by the business judgment rule, or faces entire fairness review, with self-dealing, oversight and corporate opportunity.
Veil-Piercing Risk Checker
Can the Corporate Veil Be Pierced?
A free checker for piercing the corporate veil: alter ego, commingling, undercapitalisation, ignoring formalities and fraud, and how the type of creditor changes the risk.
Howey Test Checker
Is It a Security? The Howey Test
A free checker for the Howey test: investment of money, common enterprise, expectation of profit and efforts of others, and what follows if an offering is a security.
Agency Authority Checker
Can an Agent Bind the Principal?
A free checker for agency law: actual, apparent and ratified authority, who is liable on a contract, and when an employer is liable for an employee’s tort.
Immigration Law
Unlawful Presence Bar Calculator
Unlawful Presence: 3-Year and 10-Year Bar Calculator
A free teaching tool that shows how unlawful presence followed by departure can trigger the three-year, ten-year or permanent bar to returning to the United States, and when a waiver may be available.
Asylum Eligibility Checker
Asylum Eligibility: The Elements of a Claim
A free teaching tool that walks through the elements of a US asylum claim: persecution, protected ground, who is responsible, relocation, the one-year deadline and the bars, with withholding and CAT as alternatives.
Naturalization Eligibility Checker
Am I Eligible for US Citizenship (Naturalization)?
A free teaching tool that checks the main statutory requirements for naturalization: years as a permanent resident, physical presence, continuous residence, good moral character, English and civics.
Labor and Employment Law
Worker Classification Checker
Employee or Independent Contractor?
A free tool that applies the common-law control test, the economic reality test and the ABC test to decide whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor, and what misclassification risks.
Overtime and Back Pay Calculator
Overtime Pay and Back Pay Calculator
A free calculator for federal overtime: time and a half over 40 hours with bonuses in the regular rate, the shortfall for a week, and back pay with liquidated damages over the weeks it continued.
Discrimination Claim Analyzer
Is It Employment Discrimination? Title VII Claim Analyzer
A free tool that walks through a federal employment discrimination claim: coverage, the EEOC deadline, disparate treatment, harassment and employer liability, and disparate impact.
At-Will Exceptions Checker
Can I Be Fired? At-Will Employment and Its Exceptions
A free tool that lists the exceptions to at-will employment (contract, handbook, public policy, discrimination, retaliation, leave, union and good faith) that might protect an employee from dismissal.
Equity and Trusts
Trust Validity Checker
Is It a Valid Trust? The Three Certainties
A free tool that tests whether an express trust is valid: capacity, certainty of intention, subject matter and beneficiaries, lawful purpose and the formalities, and what the law falls back on if it fails.
Trustee Duty Checker
Trustee Breach of Duty: Loyalty, Prudence and Remedies
A free tool that shows which duty a trustee’s conduct engages (loyalty, prudence, impartiality, separation of property, information and accounting) and the remedies for breach.
Equitable Remedy Checker
Will a Court Grant an Injunction or Specific Performance?
A free tool that tests whether a court is likely to grant an injunction, specific performance, rescission or reformation: inadequate legal remedy, the specific requirements, and the defences of laches and unclean hands.
Legal Research and Writing
IRAC Checker
IRAC Checker: Does Your Legal Analysis Have All Four Parts?
A free tool that labels each sentence of your legal analysis as issue, rule, application or conclusion and shows what is missing, using invented facts.
Is This Authority Binding?
Binding or Persuasive? How Much Weight Does a Source Carry
A free tool that tells you whether a case, statute or secondary source is mandatory or persuasive authority in the court where you are arguing.
Citation Formatter and Checker
Bluebook Citation Formatter and Checker
A free tool that builds a case or statute citation in Bluebook form, with short and id. forms, and scans a passage for common citation mistakes.
Citation Signal Chooser
Citation Signals: See, Cf., Contra, But See and the Rest
A free tool that names the Bluebook signal that fits how a source relates to your point, and explains what each signal means.
Research Planner
How to Plan Legal Research, Step by Step: A Research Planner
A free tool that turns a research question into an ordered plan: secondary sources, primary authority, interpreting cases, regulations, validation and a rule for when to stop.
Statute Reader
How to Read a Statute Closely: A Statute Reader
A free tool that takes a statute apart: elements, the words that carry its logic (shall, may, and, or, unless), defined terms, cross-references and the questions to ask.
Rule Synthesizer
How to Synthesize a Rule From Several Cases: A Rule Synthesizer
A free tool that takes several cases and their factors and finds what the winning cases share and the losing ones lack, then drafts a synthesised rule.
Office Memo Checker
Office Memo Checker: Question Presented, Brief Answer, Discussion and Conclusion
A free tool that checks the form of a legal office memo: the standard sections, a question that names the law and facts, a brief answer that answers, authority, application and an objective tone.
Point Heading Checker
How to Write a Persuasive Point Heading: A Point Heading Checker
A free tool that tests whether a brief heading is a full-sentence argument with a conclusion, a reason and the facts of the case.
Administrative Law
Notice-and-Comment Checker
Notice-and-Comment Rulemaking: What Must an Agency Do?
A free teaching tool that shows what procedure an agency action needs under the federal Administrative Procedure Act and checks each step of notice and comment.
Judicial Review of Agency Action
Judicial Review of Agency Action: Will a Court Review It, and How?
A free teaching tool that walks through the threshold requirements for judicial review of agency action and the standard of review that applies to questions of law, fact, policy and procedure.
Conflict of Laws
Choice of Law Analyzer
Choice of Law: Which State’s Law Applies?
A free teaching tool that shows which state’s law applies to a tort or contract dispute under the First Restatement, the Second Restatement, interest analysis and choice-of-law clauses.
Domicile Determiner
Domicile: How to Tell Where Someone Is Domiciled
A free teaching tool that weighs the evidence of where a person is domiciled, with the rules for changing domicile.
Judgment Recognition Checker
Enforcing a Judgment From Another State or Country
A free teaching tool that shows whether a US court must recognise and enforce a judgment from another state (full faith and credit) or another country (comity and the uniform acts).
Legal Reasoning and Argument
Precedent Comparer
How to Distinguish a Case, or Argue by Analogy: A Precedent Comparer
A free tool that weighs an analogy between an earlier case and a new one fact by fact, and shows what each side would say.
Argument Builder (Toulmin)
Toulmin Argument Builder: Claim, Grounds, Warrant, Backing and Rebuttal
A free tool that checks a legal argument for its six Toulmin parts and finds the missing warrant, the absolute qualifier or the absent rebuttal.
Fallacy Spotter
Logical Fallacies in Legal Arguments: A Fallacy Spotter
A free tool that flags the wording of common weak arguments in a passage and says when the same move is legitimate.
Remedies
Remedy Selector
What Remedy Should I Ask For? A Remedy Selector
A free teaching tool that lists the remedies worth asking for on the facts of a wrong: damages, restitution, specific performance, injunctions, a declaration, punitive damages or rescission.
Restitution Checker
Can I Get My Money Back? Unjust Enrichment and Restitution
A free teaching tool that walks through a claim in unjust enrichment: enriched, at the claimant’s expense, unjust, no defence, and shows the personal and proprietary remedies.
Costs Shifter
Who Pays Legal Costs? The American Rule and the Loser-Pays Rule
A free teaching tool that shows what each side ends up with after legal costs under the American rule and the loser-pays rule, with fee-shifting and settlement offers.
Public International Law
Customary International Law Checker
What Is Customary International Law? A Checker for State Practice and Opinio Juris
A free teaching tool that tests whether a rule of customary international law exists, using general state practice and opinio juris, and shows the effect of a persistent objector or a peremptory norm.
ICJ Jurisdiction Checker
Does the International Court of Justice Have Jurisdiction? A Checker
A free teaching tool that walks through whether the International Court of Justice can hear a case between states: the parties, the dispute, the basis of consent and admissibility.
Use of Force Analyzer
When Is the Use of Force Lawful Under International Law? An Analyzer
A free teaching tool that applies Article 2(4) of the UN Charter and its exceptions, Security Council authorisation, consent and self-defence, to invented facts, and shows where the law is contested.
History of Law
Legal Maxim Finder
Latin Legal Maxims and What They Mean: A Searchable Finder
A free searchable list of Latin and English legal maxims, with their meaning, area of law and use.
Roman Law Classifier
Gaius’s Persons, Things and Actions: A Roman Law Classifier
A free teaching tool that places Roman law concepts in Gaius’s division of persons, things and actions, and shows what each became.
Legal Tradition Identifier
Civil Law or Common Law? Identify a Legal Tradition from Its Features
A free teaching tool that weighs the features of a legal system and shows how far it resembles the civil-law and common-law traditions.
The Judiciary
Appeal Path Finder
How Does an Appeal Work? Where It Goes and What Standard of Review Applies
A free teaching tool that shows where an appeal goes from a decision in a US-style court system, whether review is a right, the standard of review for law, fact and discretion, and the traps.
Judicial Independence Checker
How to Measure Judicial Independence: A Safeguards Checker
A free teaching tool that scores the formal safeguards of a judiciary: appointment, tenure, salary, removal, budget, case allocation, immunity and transparency.
Constitutional Review Model Identifier
Diffuse or Concentrated Constitutional Review? Identify the Model
A free teaching tool that names the model of constitutional review from its features: who reviews, when, how a challenge arises and what a ruling does.
Law Enforcement
Encounter Level Finder
Stop or Arrest? Reasonable Suspicion and Probable Cause Explained
A free teaching tool that classifies a police-citizen encounter as consensual, an investigative stop or an arrest, shows the suspicion each requires and tests a frisk.
Use of Force Reasonableness Checker
When Is Police Use of Force Reasonable? The Graham Factors and Deadly Force
A free teaching tool that applies the objective reasonableness standard for police force, the Graham factors and the deadly-force rule, to invented facts.
Section 1983 and Qualified Immunity Checker
Section 1983 and Qualified Immunity Explained: A Claim Checker
A free teaching tool that walks through a civil-rights claim under section 1983 and the obstacles of qualified immunity, municipal liability and sovereign immunity.
The Legislature
Bill Path Tracker
How a Bill Becomes a Law: Filibuster, Veto and Override Arithmetic
A free teaching tool that follows an invented bill through the House, the Senate, cloture, the President’s options and a veto override, with the vote arithmetic.
Congressional Power Analyzer
Does Congress Have the Power to Pass This Law? A Power Analyzer
A free teaching tool that tests an invented federal law against the commerce, spending, taxing, Section 5 and Necessary and Proper powers and against the limits of individual rights and federalism.
Legislative History Weigher
How Much Weight Does Legislative History Get? Textualists and Purposivists
A free teaching tool that shows how much weight each source of legislative history carries for a textualist and for a purposivist judge when a statute has two readings.
Due Diligence
Request List Tracker
What Is on a Due Diligence Request List? A Request List Tracker
A free tool that builds a due diligence request list for a share purchase, an asset purchase or an investment, ranks each item as critical, important or routine, and shows how complete the data room really is.
Sampling Planner
How Many Documents Must You Review in Due Diligence? A Sampling Planner
A free tool that plans a due diligence review when you cannot read everything: high-risk groups in full, a sample of the rest, and the ceiling on the rate of problems that a clean sample allows.
Deal Clause Scanner
How to Scan Contracts for Change of Control and Other Deal Clauses: A Clause Scanner
A free tool that scans contract text for the clauses that matter in a deal, such as change of control, assignment, exclusivity, non-compete, most-favoured pricing and termination for convenience, and shows what a keyword scan finds and misses.
Risk Allocator
Price, Condition, Indemnity or Warranty? A Due Diligence Risk Allocator
A free tool that takes due diligence findings and proposes a response to each: walk away, adjust the price, make it a condition of closing, take a specific indemnity, rely on a warranty or accept the risk.
Regulatory Compliance
Obligation Extractor
How to Extract Obligations From a Regulation: An Obligation Extractor
A free tool that takes the text of a regulation apart into duties, prohibitions, permissions and recommendations, and shows who must act, what they must do, the condition, the timing and the undefined standards.
Scope Screener
Does This Regulation Apply to My Business? A Scope Screener
A free tool that combines the tests a regulation uses (required conditions, alternatives and exemptions) with facts that may not yet be known, and shows whether the regulation applies, does not apply or is unclear.
Control Mapper
How to Map Regulatory Obligations to Controls: A Control Mapper
A free tool that links obligations to the controls that meet them and shows gaps, paper cover, single points of failure, orphan controls and overloaded controls, with an honest coverage figure.
Change Comparer
How to Compare Two Versions of a Regulation: A Change Comparer
A free tool that compares an old and a new version of a regulation sentence by sentence and shows what is tighter, looser, new or removed: shorter time limits, a recommendation that became a duty, new duties and changed figures.
Negotiation
BATNA Valuer
How to Value Your BATNA, Your Best Alternative to a Deal: A BATNA Valuer
A free tool that values the alternative to a negotiated deal: outcomes with probabilities, expected value, cost, delay and a risk adjustment, with a sensitivity test on your own estimates.
Settlement Benchmarker
How Does My Settlement Offer Compare With Past Settlements? A Benchmarker
A free tool that takes a table of past settlements, shows what share of the claim similar matters settled for, and shows where an offer would sit among them, with warnings about small samples and selection bias.
Concession Tracker
How to Read the Other Side’s Concessions in a Negotiation: A Concession Tracker
A free tool that records each side’s offers, measures how big each move was, shows whether the moves are shrinking and projects where each side would land if the pattern continued.
Package Trader
How to Find Trades in a Multi-Issue Negotiation: A Package Trader
A free tool that scores a negotiation package for both sides, compares the issues by how much each side cares, and shows which trades could leave both sides better off.
Visual Communication
Chart Chooser
Which Chart Should I Use? A Chart Chooser for Legal and Business Data
A free tool that recommends a chart type from the question you want to answer, the number of categories or time points and the audience, with how to draw it and what to avoid.
Chart Honesty Check
Is This Chart Misleading? A Chart Honesty Check
A free checklist tool that takes the features of a chart you describe (axis, period, counts or rates, uncertainty, source, colour and more) and lists what could mislead the reader and how to fix it.
Number Framer
Relative vs Absolute Change, Percent vs Percentage Points: A Number Framer
A free tool that takes a before and after figure out of a population and shows the change as natural frequencies, as a relative percentage and in percentage points, with the framings that alarm, reassure and inform.
Slide Checker
How to Write Clear Slides for a Legal Presentation: A Slide Checker
A free tool that reads the text of your slides and flags topic titles, too many words or points, legal formulae, passive sentences, very long lines and slides crowded with numbers.
General information, simplified, mainly on American law, not legal advice. States and countries differ, and real cases turn on facts that a tool cannot capture.