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A written research memo with the authority attached — every case pinpoint-cited, every cite retrieved before it was written down. $250 flat, five business days.

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For solo and 2–5 attorney firms in California. Research support for a supervising attorney — not legal advice.

Research Memorandum · Privileged & Confidential

RE: Cal. Civ. Code § 1717 and unilateral attorney's-fees clauses in residential unlawful detainer

III. Discussion. Section 1717 makes a unilateral fee clause reciprocal as a matter of law, so a prevailing tenant may recover fees under a lease that grants them only to the landlord. Reynolds Metals Co. v. Alperson at 128 — confirmed from retrieved text.
8 authorities · full text attached0 fabricated

What the same memo costs today

$190/hr
Standard rate at a national research service
NLRG published rate card, verified 2026-09-07
$285/hr
Their 1–2 day rush rate, plus a 6 % database surcharge
Same rate card
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A 6–8 hour memo, bought that way
Or an afternoon you write off entirely

The deliverable

A memo, and the authority behind it.

Written the way you'd write it yourself if the afternoon were free — and delivered with the cases attached, so you can check any line in it without opening a database.

  • Question presented — your question, restated in the jurisdiction and posture you gave us
  • Brief answer — the short form, up front
  • Controlling authority — statutes, rules and the case line, in order of weight
  • Discussion — the analysis, with pinpoint pages on every proposition
  • Open questions — what the research did not settle, named rather than smoothed over

The authority pack

Every case, in full.

The retrieved text of each authority cited, tabbed and ordered to match the memo. You adopt, verify and sign — the pack is what makes that a five-minute job instead of a second research afternoon.

  • Pinpoint pages marked where the proposition actually sits
  • Retrieval recorded — each cite carries the source and the date it was pulled
  • Confirmed vs. inferred, labelled — a pinpoint we read is marked differently from one derived from the citation
  • What we could not verify is written down — including any authority we could not reach, and any point for which we found none

Proof, before you spend anything

Three sample memos exist. You can read them and check them.

Written across three practice areas, with a citation ledger you can audit line by line — every case, its source URL, its pinpoint, and whether that pinpoint was confirmed from the retrieved text or inferred from the citation.

Landlord–tenant

Civ. Code § 1717 and unilateral fee clauses in unlawful detainer

8 authorities · 1 statute, 7 cases

Read the memo →

Employment

§ 226.7 premium pay — wage or penalty, and the derivative claims

6 authorities · 1 statute, 5 cases

Read the memo →

Family

Move-away custody: Fam. Code § 7501 and the Burgess / LaMusga line

6 authorities · 2 statutes, 4 cases

Read the memo →
20
Citations across the three memos
0
Fabricated citations — every case confirmed to exist in a public database before it was cited
9 / 17
Case pinpoints confirmed from the text we actually retrieved. The other 8 are labelled inferred from the citation rather than passed off as read. The remaining 3 citations are statutes, cited by subdivision

An independent blind audit of all 20 citations is scheduled for 2026-09-28 and its result will be published here whichever way it goes.

Read all three memos and the full citation ledger →

Pricing

Flat, because you can't bill an open clock.

One price per memo, agreed before the work starts. No hourly meter, no database surcharge.

$250 flat
Five business days
  • Memo and full authority pack
  • One round of follow-up questions
  • Money back if it's unusable
$400 flat
48 hours
  • Same deliverable, same standard
  • Subject to capacity — we confirm before you commit
  • Money back if it's unusable
$95 First memo, for the first attorneys who try this. Same deliverable, same guarantee — we're buying evidence that this is worth $250 to you, and you're buying an afternoon back.

This is research support, not legal advice.

The memo contains no conclusion of law and no recommendation to act. It is prepared for a supervising attorney who is the licensed party, and who adopts, verifies and signs the work — the footing described in ABA Formal Opinion 08-451. We do not advise your client and we never contact them.

Research agents write it. A human checks it before it ships.

Memos are produced by AI research agents working from public case-law databases and the official California codes, and no memo leaves here until a person has independently checked citations against source. We say that plainly because you would find out anyway — and because what we sell is a memo you can verify, not one you have to trust.

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