Lexis+ AI vs. Casetext: Which AI legal assistant is better?
A college student’s look into the AI application, “Lexis+ AI,” and how it compares to a similar application, Casetext.
What is Lexis+ AI, and who is it for?
Lexis+ AI is an AI application that is meant to help lawyers with their legal work, so this would be most useful for lawyers, and those who work in the legal field.
Lexis+ AI is marketed in a sleek, professional way. When you first open the website you see, “Transform Your Legal Work. Using the fastest legal generative AI with conversational search, drafting, summarization, document analysis, and hallucination-free linked legal citations.” This language targets lawyers who do these tasks for their work, and those who may be struggling with or annoyed by these tasks. The end of this phrase is very similar to the end of the first headline on Casetext’s website also, “hallucination-free linked legal citations.” Just like Casetext, Lexis+ AI immediately uses language that targets lawyers’ worst fear when thinking about using AI — reliability and accuracy.
As you scroll down the first page, there are headlines, and each says what this AI application can do, “AI Search That Interacts. AI That Drafts. AI That Summarizes. AI That Analyzes.” These headlines immediately show what this AI is capable of, and what it is best at. For the potential user, these work to persuade them to use this AI if these are tasks they want help with.
How much does Lexis+ AI cost?
For the pricing for Lexis+ AI, it was extremely difficult to find. I looked through every section of the website I could think of, but it would always send me to a page to fill out information and sign-up. I eventually just ended up Googling, “How much does Lexis+ AI cost monthly,” and found a link to the “Lexis Nexis Store” where I found these plans below. They explain what the different plan options are, how much they cost, and what you can do with each.
As you can see, there are 4 different plans: State Basic, State Premium, National Basic, and National Premium. The pictures above explain much better what is included in each than I will, but, I will say, I think the price for this is a bit outrageous, considering those prices are per month for 1 to 2 attorney law firms. Additionally, finding the pricing for Lexis+ AI was almost impossible, so many lawyers will get all the way through the sign-up process without knowing how much this actually costs. For many, it would be a dealbreaker, so I definitely think that was a business tactic on their end.
What can Lexis+ AI do?
Lexis+ AI seems to have many functions, but they do not explain them well. I would even say that the pricing page that I had to seek out much better explains its functions than the easily accessible information on their website. I have figured out that all of their functions operate in a way that I would describe as “legal ChatGPT,” because you prompt this AI to do something. The first function it promotes is AI Search, which it describes as a “conversational search” that you can work with like you would a colleague to ask legal questions. The next function it promotes is AI Draft, where you can prompt it to draft anything from arguments to contracts to communications instantly and accurately. The next function it promotes is AI Summarize, where you can ask it to summarize anything, but what it advertises is it being able to summarize any case or brief. The last function it promotes is AI Analyze, where you can upload your own documents and it will give you the highlights. Overall, Lexis+ AI has a lot of unique functions that would make a lawyer’s life much easier.
How does Lexis+ AI compare to Casetext?
Casetext is another AI application for lawyers that works as a legal assistant. If you have not already read my in-depth article on Casetext, you can here:
Casetext is very similar to Lexis+ AI, but they are also very very different. Their most significant difference is their cost. Casetext’s Basic Research plan and Lexis+ AI’s State Basic plan have almost the same functions from what I can tell, with Casetext’s plan being $110/year and Lexis+ AI’s plan being $115/MONTH! Further, Casetext’s CoCounsel Core plan and Lexis+ AI’s State Premium plan have almost the same functions, and, again, Casetext’s plan is $250/year and Lexis+ AI’s plan is $255/MONTH! No, I’m not kidding! This difference is seriously insane, and I really hope lawyers do their research before just picking the first legal AI they find.
Although I’ve obviously shown how wild Lexis+ AI’s prices are, I do want to acknowledge how it can do more than Casetext. In its two more advanced plans, the National Basic and the National Premium, there are some additional functions that, from what I can tell, Casetext does not have, but, obviously, they would come at a high price. These functions include access to a variety of materials, from all state and federal cases and statutes to all state and federal briefs and verdicts. It also has a Practice Guidance function that gives you checklists, annotated forms, and drafting tools for any practice area you could think of. These additional functions that are not included through Casetext may make a major difference for some firms, and justify the cost to them.
In all, Lexis+ AI and Casetext are both great AI applications that have functions that assist lawyers in ways they would have never imagined 10 years ago. With that said, I would say that Casetext has the best functions for the best price, by far, considering they can do almost the same things with Lexis+ AI being over 11x more expensive. As I mentioned, Lexis+ AI does have functions that you cannot get with Casetext, so there are advantages to it, but, overall, I think Casetext is the best option. If you are still unsure, I recommend starting with Casetext, and, if you find that it doesn’t do everything you need it to, switch to Lexis+ AI and see if that works better.