They verify every citation. Research starts in DirectCase: Syrůčková, Pavlovský, Vaňková
The Prague law firm Syrůčková, Pavlovský, Vaňková uses DirectCase across its entire seven-person team. Most research starts directly in DirectCase, and the firm saves around 35 hours a month.
The Prague law firm Syrůčková, Pavlovský, Vaňková uses DirectCase across its entire seven-person team. Most research starts directly in DirectCase, and the firm saves around 35 hours a month.
'You can rely on the results more than with other tools. When I know I won't spend hours on research, I can focus on the matter itself. I've already shown DirectCase to colleagues at other firms.'
Mgr. Martina Vaňková, Partner, Advokátní kancelář Syrůčková, Pavlovský, Vaňková
About the firm
Advokátní kancelář Syrůčková, Pavlovský, Vaňková s.r.o. is a Prague law firm that continues a practice founded in 1992. Its work covers civil, family and commercial law, property, litigation and insolvency. It represents clients before the courts and in arbitration.
Seven people use DirectCase here today, from partners to trainee solicitors. Research at the firm is not left to the trainees alone; the solicitors do it themselves. Time saved is therefore time saved for client work.
The opportunity
The firm has tried a whole range of legal research tools. They value the verified content of the established databases, but working with them is slow: one answer often means piecing together several separate searches. Newer AI tools are quick, but the firm ran into reliability problems with them, including fabricated case numbers.
That left a choice between slow certainty and quick uncertainty.
The solution
Today, most research at the firm starts directly in DirectCase. The solicitors value how simple the work itself is: they just ask their question, with no digging through complicated interfaces.
A single query pulls together what once had to be searched for separately. 'One query gives me everything at once: the legislation, an assessment of the matter and references to case law,' explains Martina Vaňková. They work with the system iteratively, which the speed of the search makes easy, and they reach the detail they need within two or three queries.
Alongside disputes, contracts and insolvency, there are questions you simply never come across in everyday practice, such as what pâté actually is in the eyes of the law, and where to find its definition. Here too, one query was enough. 'It took me straight to the regulation where the definition is set out. It was the fastest way to get my bearings in a new problem,' Martina Vaňková says with a smile.
The firm always reads the full text of key decisions. Every conclusion carries a citation that leads directly to the text of the statute or decision, so the source is a moment away. Professional judgement stays with the solicitor; the tool shortens the route to the material.
Before an older judgment is relied upon in legal argument, a solicitor needs to check whether later case law has overruled it and whether a recent decision contradicts the original conclusion. For every decision, DirectCase displays the citation relationships: which decisions build on it, how often it is cited, and whether more recent case law follows it or departs from it. A check that once meant manual digging in another system now takes a single glance.
The impact
- Efficiency: around 35 hours saved each month across the firm
- Adoption: everyone at the firm uses it
A seven-person firm produces around a hundred research tasks a month. Even if each one saved just twenty minutes, that comes to roughly 35 hours a month. The value of the time saved is more than ten times the subscription cost.
Results you can rely on
DirectCase does not search articles or online advice forums; it draws on a defined set of verified legal sources. For a firm where every solicitor does their own research, that is a prerequisite.
More time for the legal analysis itself
A prompt answer means the solicitor never loses the thread. Matters the firm would once have put off are now dealt with straight away, because they know they will take half an hour rather than a whole block of time.
Flexible licences with no long-term commitment
The firm values the flexibility of DirectCase licences: colleagues can be added or removed as needs change, with no long-term commitments and no set-up fees. As a partner of the firm, Martina Vaňková takes a practical view. 'Committing to an AI technology three years ahead, at the pace things are developing, makes no sense to me. I want to be able to decide as I go, based on how the field evolves,' she explains.
Recommendation and looking ahead
Martina Vaňková has herself shown DirectCase to solicitors at firms she knows well, and they have taken out licences of their own. 'It doesn't matter how many people a firm has. It saves everyone time. Without DirectCase I'd feel like I'd lost my right arm,' she concludes.
Advokátní kancelář Syrůčková, Pavlovský, Vaňková