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How to use the Search Module?

The Search module provides AI-powered semantic search across all Library documents, to retrieve contextually relevant passages, clauses, and legal precedents without requiring exact keyword matching.

Written by Magali @Nora
Updated over 4 months ago


Step-by-step instructions
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1. Navigate to Search from main navigation sidebar
2. Enter your question or search query in natural language in the search bar
- Example: "What are the tax implications for property donations in Brussels?"
- Or: "Find all liquidation clauses with creditor payment terms"
3. Press Enter or click Search button
4. AI searches across all Library documents
5. Results displayed showing:
- Document title and location (folder)
- Relevant excerpt with your search terms highlighted
- Confidence score indicating relevance (0.0 to 1.0)
- Link to open full document
6. Click any result to open the source document at the relevant section
7. Refine search by adding more specific terms or asking follow-up question
8. Filter results using advanced filters (document type, date range, folder)



Using Ask AI for Comprehensive Answers:

  1. Click "Ask AI" button (available in Search or Library)

  2. Type conversational question: "Summarize the liquidation process for Belgian companies"

  3. AI retrieves relevant passages from multiple documents

  4. AI generates comprehensive answer citing specific sources

  5. Click cited document references to view sources

  6. Ask follow-up questions in same conversation to refine answer



Practical example

Notary Pierre Dubois needs to find all precedents related to tax optimization in property donations for the Brussels region. He opens Search and types "tax implications property donations Brussels" (no need for exact phrases). The semantic search understands his intent and retrieves 5 relevant documents even though none contain that exact phrase: two donation deeds with tax optimization clauses, one legal memo on Brussels regional tax rates, and two templates with donation tax provisions. Each result shows a relevant excerpt with key terms highlighted. He clicks the first result, reads the tax clause, and inserts it into his current draft. This search took 30 seconds versus the 30 minutes it would have taken to manually review documents.


Notes and limitations

  • Library-only search: Can only search documents in Library - not emails, CRM notes, or external sources

  • Large documents: Very large PDFs (200+ pages) may have less accurate results

  • Search history: Previous searches are saved below

  • Confidence threshold: Results with confidence score below 0.7 are filtered out



FAQ

Q: How is Search different from Library filters - when should I use each?

A: Library filters are for finding documents by metadata (name, date, folder, type) - useful when you know the document you're looking for. Search is for finding information across document content using natural language - useful when you know what legal concept you need but don't remember which document contains it. Use Search for: "find clauses about X", "summarize Y", "show precedents for Z". Use Library filters for: "show PDFs from last week", "list files in Clients folder".
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Q: How long does it take for newly uploaded documents to become searchable?

A: Documents typically become searchable approximately 5 minutes after upload. During this time, Nora.Legal prepares them to be searchable. For very large documents (100+ pages), indexing may take up to 10 minutes. You'll see a "Processing" status indicator during indexing.
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