Legal research in Microsoft 365 Copilot: how to connect verified legal sources

• How research with web sources works. An example of how Microsoft 365 Copilot answers without a legal source and with one.
• Why it happens. Without a connected legal source, Copilot builds its answer from texts on the web.
• How to get better legal research in Copilot. Connecting DirectCase to Copilot takes two minutes; step-by-step instructions are below.

Microsoft 365 Copilot searches the legal sources it finds on the web; these may be out of date or wrongly interpreted. You can connect the DirectCase Legal Search source from the Microsoft 365 Copilot connector gallery; connecting it in the chat settings takes about two minutes. That turns a general tool into a tool for lawyers. For legal research in Microsoft 365 Copilot, this then means that Copilot searches national and EU legislation and case law in one place, answers rest on verified legal sources and every citation links to the original document. The DirectCase source works with the links between documents, so it knows which decision cites which and how the courts later treated it, which makes a decision that changed earlier conclusions harder to miss. Results are ranked by the legal weight of the decision. You get the answer directly in Copilot, without opening another app.

When Copilot searches only the web for the law, it can easily miss something

This is an illustrative example, not an accuracy test. The example comes from Czech case law, but DirectCase Legal Search covers national legislation and case law in several countries as well as European Union law, so you will see a similar difference in other jurisdictions. A question we put to Copilot chat on 14 October 2026, once without a legal source and once with the DirectCase Legal Search source, shows what legal research in Microsoft 365 Copilot looks like with and without a source. The question read:

Can the criminal prosecution of a legal person continue if the legal person was struck off the commercial register while the prosecution was under way? Show me the 3 most relevant decisions with their case numbers and briefly summarise the court’s conclusion for each.

The version with the source had a single extra sentence: “Search only in DirectCase, give a specific link to the source, do not search the web.” You may not get the same result when you try it yourself; Copilot does not answer the same question the same way every time.

Legal question in Microsoft Copilot with web search only

Yes. Striking a legal person off the commercial register does not, as a rule, in itself prevent the criminal prosecution from continuing.

How it reached that conclusion: Copilot relied on article 32 of zákon č. 418/2011 Sb., o trestní odpovědnosti právnických osob a řízení proti nim (the Czech Act on the Criminal Liability of Legal Persons and Proceedings against Them),¹ which, in its words, “expressly provides for situations in which a legal person ceases to exist, is transformed or is wound up”. It also found the opinion of the Czech Nejvyšší soud (the highest court of ordinary jurisdiction in the Czech Republic) ECLI:CZ:NS:2024:CPJN.203.2023.1 and described it correctly: a pending criminal prosecution is a bar to striking the company off. From the rules under which a company should not be struck off during a prosecution, it then inferred that the prosecution continues. The question, however, asks what happens when the company is struck off all the same.

What it did not find: the judgment of the Grand Chamber of the Nejvyšší soud ECLI:CZ:NS:2023:15.TZ.9.2023.1, which deals with exactly this situation. A legal person ceases to exist when it is struck off, even if that happens in breach of article 32(2), and a legal person that no longer exists and has no legal successor cannot be prosecuted.

What it got wrong: it attributed conclusions on dissolution, transformations and legal successors to the decisions ECLI:CZ:NS:2015:8.TDO.627.2015.1 and ECLI:CZ:NS:2016:8.TDO.972.2016.1. Those conclusions are not in their text; both decisions deal with when a criminal offence can be attributed to a legal person.

The test was run in Czech, on Czech case law. DirectCase, however, works for several jurisdictions, where similar differences in accuracy will appear.

Microsoft Copilot with DirectCase Legal Search legal sources

Short answer: If the legal person actually ceased to exist without a legal successor when it was struck off the commercial register, its criminal prosecution cannot continue. If it does have a legal successor, however, criminal liability may pass to that successor and the proceedings continue against it.

The key point is that the answer with the source found the landmark judgment of the Grand Chamber of the Criminal Division of the Nejvyšší soud of 21 June 2023, ECLI:CZ:NS:2023:15.TZ.9.2023.1 (R 31/2023),² and put it first. The answer then lists the Nejvyšší soud order ECLI:CZ:NS:2022:5.TDO.1358.2021.1 and, for cases of legal succession, the ruling of the Czech Constitutional Court (Ústavní soud) of 21 April 2026, ECLI:CZ:US:2026:3.US.3031.24.1.³ You can open the full text of every decision cited straight from the answer and check the summaries against it.

Copilot is right most of the time. For a professional, most of the time is not enough.

This does not mean Microsoft 365 Copilot will get it wrong every time; in most cases it will probably reach the right conclusion. But a lawyer cannot make do with a tool that is right in most cases. A lawyer needs a tool they can rely on, where every claim is backed by sources they can open and read in the original. Copilot is not a bad tool; for a legal question, though, it needs legal sources.

Sources in Microsoft 365 Copilot: what they are

Microsoft 365 Copilot knows your email, documents, meetings and chats. When you ask about something outside them, it searches the web. The Sources setting is how you tell Copilot where to search instead of the web. Technically, a source of this kind is a standard MCP connector. It is the same connector through which ChatGPT, Claude and other AI tools can also connect to DirectCase; how it came about is described in the article on the law right inside your AI environment.

The worldwide Microsoft 365 Copilot connector gallery, which Microsoft maintains for all its customers, contains no more than 16 connectors focused on legal work (as at 13 October 2026).⁴ DirectCase Legal Search stands out among them because it does not only search legal sources by content; it also builds analytics of the links between decisions on top of them. You can also choose only the Maltese jurisdiction.

From an answer in Copilot you can click through to the more detailed DirectCase web interface. There you also see the citation map, showing which decision cites which, and for each citation a colour code based on how the courts later treated it. For statutory provisions you see the history of amendments and the case law that shows how the provision is applied in practice.

How to add legal sources to Microsoft 365 Copilot

A short instructional video:

1. Open Copilot chat at m365.cloud.microsoft/chat.
2. Click the three dots at the top right and choose Chat settings.
3. In the left-hand column, choose Sources.
4. Search for DirectCase and click Connect next to DirectCase Legal Search.
5. Confirm with Continue in the dialog. The dialog is a Microsoft template and mentions both reading and writing; the DirectCase tools are read-only.
6. Sign in with your DirectCase account, the same one you use in the app. If you do not have an account, you can create one while signing in; no payment card is needed. DirectCase moves to your connected sources.
7. Check that the Work IQ toggle above the chat at the top left is switched on. With Work IQ switched off, Copilot did not use the DirectCase source in our test. Then ask your first question and name the source in it.

If you cannot find DirectCase Legal Search in the list of sources, it may be switched off in your organisation; enable it, or ask your administrator to enable this specific connector in the Microsoft 365 admin center under Copilot, Connectors, Your connections. Our video guide shows the administrator steps one by one.

Copilot for lawyers: a practical guide

Ask how it can help you specifically

I have the DirectCase Legal Search source connected. How can I use it in my practice?

Copilot sees your chat history and can read the description of the DirectCase tools, so the answer is aimed at your own practice. You can also describe your practice yourself: “I mostly handle commercial litigation. How will DirectCase Legal Search help me?” Describe the type of work, not your clients.

How to ask: the first message and three example queries

As your first message in the chat, ask for sources from DirectCase only (“Search only in DirectCase, give a specific link to the source, do not search the web”); after that you usually do not need to repeat the instruction in that chat. Three example queries:

Use DirectCase. How does the Court of Justice of the EU interpret the right to compensation for non-material damage under Article 82 GDPR? Give the case numbers, a brief summary of the court’s conclusion and links to the source in DirectCase.

Find case law on unfair terms in consumer credit agreements. Give the case numbers, a summary of the court’s conclusion and links to DirectCase.

Under the case law of the Court of Justice of the EU, when is a Member State liable for damage caused by a breach of EU law? Show me the most relevant decisions and briefly summarise the court’s conclusion for each.

Legal research in Microsoft 365 Copilot: from the answer to the original decision

Every decision in an answer with the source includes a link to DirectCase. For a statutory provision, the link leads to the full text, with an overview of earlier versions and the case law that cites the statute. For case law, it shows the full text with details of the court and a list of relationships to other case law. For the 15 Tz 9/2023 judgment in the example, the link opened straight at the relevant passage “K nepřípustnosti trestního stíhání zaniklé právnické osoby” (on the inadmissibility of prosecuting a legal person that has ceased to exist). You can copy the original wording into a submission, for instance, with one click. You can look up decisions by case number even without a subscription.

When it does not work: common problems with the source in Copilot chat

What you see	Cause	What to do
DirectCase Legal Search is not among the sources	The option to choose external sources is switched off at Microsoft 365 administrator level	The administrator enables the DirectCase Legal Search connector in the admin center, see the video guide
“I don’t have direct access to the DirectCase source”	Your account has no Microsoft 365 Copilot licence; without it the source connects, but Copilot does not call it	The administrator assigns the licence; it takes effect shortly after assignment
“Expired” or a tool call error	Copilot cannot load an overly long output from DirectCase	For complex research, switch to the DirectCase web app, or ask a narrower question
Copilot says the source is not available, although it is switched on	The Work IQ toggle is switched off; in one round of tests this also happened with it switched on, and we do not know the cause	Switch on Work IQ; start a new chat; check Change data sources

Confidentiality: what leaves your environment

Copilot does not send the whole conversation to DirectCase, only a request it composes itself, typically a search query. DirectCase does not receive the rest of the chat or your files unless Copilot includes them in the request. You can influence what goes into the query with an instruction, for example: “Do not send DirectCase anything that could be classified as personal data.” This is an instruction to the model, not a technical safeguard. Processing in Copilot is subject to Microsoft’s terms.

The DirectCase tools are read-only. What exactly DirectCase processes is set out in our privacy policy. The tool documentation is public on the connector page, so you can check what each tool does.

First 10 AI queries free, case number search always free

You can try legal research in Microsoft Copilot straight away and free of charge, without a payment card. Creating a DirectCase account takes about two minutes, and connecting it to Copilot a few more. The best way to check accuracy is on a case where you know how it should come out: ask the question once without the source and once with it, and compare whether you get the same decisions and the same nuances you found yourself. Case number search stays free even after you have used up the ten queries. Try it.

Frequently asked questions

Can Copilot cite a decision that does not exist, or attribute to it something the court did not say?

It can. General AI tools such as Copilot treat a judgment as one block of text. They do not reliably distinguish the court’s conclusion from a recital of the parties’ arguments, so they may attribute to the court, say, the other side’s argument. Checking that the case number exists will not catch an error of this kind; you need to open the full text. A specialised tool such as DirectCase is therefore the safer choice: its own model distinguishes which parts of a judgment carry the court’s conclusion and maps the relationships between decisions, so for each citation you can see whether later case law confirmed it or departed from it.

How do I check that a citation from Copilot matches the actual decision?

Open the full text and find the cited passage in it. With the DirectCase Legal Search source, every decision has a link straight to the document in DirectCase, so it takes one click. Without the source you have to find the decision yourself by its case number, for example by searching by case number in DirectCase.

Is it safe to type client information into Copilot?

That is for your firm to decide; this article is not a legal opinion on professional secrecy. The facts: Copilot does not send the whole conversation to DirectCase, only a request it composes itself, typically a search query. When connected through the connector, DirectCase does not keep the content of queries and answers for longer than is needed to produce the answer, does not use it to train AI, and DirectCase’s servers are in the EU. Processing in Copilot is subject to Microsoft’s terms. For legal research you generally do not need the client’s personal data, so leave it out of the query.

Which is better for legal work: Microsoft 365 Copilot, ChatGPT or Claude?

It depends on where you work. Copilot has the advantage if your documents and email are in Microsoft 365; ChatGPT and Claude are standalone chats. Without a legal source, all three search only the web for the law. You can connect the DirectCase connector to any of them; we describe the steps in separate articles for ChatGPT and Claude.

Who enables the source, the administrator or me?

If you are a sole practitioner, you are probably also your own Microsoft 365 administrator and will both enable and connect the connector yourself. In a larger firm you are less likely to be the administrator, and IT enables the connector. The quickest way to find out whether you have administrator rights is to open the Microsoft 365 admin center; if it opens, you are an administrator. Each user then connects their own DirectCase account in Copilot chat.

Will I get the right answer every time with the source?

With the source, Copilot answers from verified legal documents, not from articles on the web, and you see a link to the original for every decision it cites. The model that answers, however, is chosen by Microsoft and may not answer the same question the same way every time; so check the conclusion in the original before you use it. For complex research and broader case law, we recommend the DirectCase web app.

Can Microsoft 365 Copilot do legal research and find case law?

Yes, but without a connected legal source it searches only the web: articles, commentaries and the decisions cited in them. A newer decision that is not cited on the web can therefore slip past it. With the DirectCase Legal Search connector, it searches national and EU legislation and case law, and gives a link to the full text for every decision. That turns a general assistant into Copilot for lawyers.

The DirectCase Legal Search source is developed and operated by DirectCase, the author of this article; we made the recordings above ourselves and they are unedited.

Author: Radovan Oprendek, co-founder and CEO of DirectCase. The tests described in this article took place on 14 October 2026; the text reflects the position as at 14 October 2026. This article is not a legal opinion.

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1. Zákon č. 418/2011 Sb., o trestní odpovědnosti právnických osob a řízení proti nim (Czech Act No. 418/2011 Coll., on the Criminal Liability of Legal Persons and Proceedings against Them), as amended, e-Sbírka: https://e-sbirka.gov.cz/sb/2011/418
2. Judgment of the Grand Chamber of the Criminal Division of the Czech Nejvyšší soud of 21 June 2023, ECLI:CZ:NS:2023:15.TZ.9.2023.1 (15 Tz 9/2023), published as No. 31/2023 in the Collection of Criminal Decisions (Sb. rozh. tr.). Full text on the Nejvyšší soud website: https://rozhodnuti.nsoud.cz/ ; full text in DirectCase: https://www.directcase.ai/app/doc/cz_ns/6ed16578-89f2-5af7-a21b-3b31d6cc6ebe
3. Ruling of the Czech Constitutional Court (Ústavní soud) of 21 April 2026, ECLI:CZ:US:2026:3.US.3031.24.1 (III. ÚS 3031/24). Full text in DirectCase: https://www.directcase.ai/app/doc/cz_us/65601870-ac19-5f0a-9015-249208bf1c15
4. Microsoft Learn, Microsoft 365 Copilot connectors gallery, page updated 30 September 2026, accessed 13 October 2026, category Legal + HR and recruiting: 28 items, of which 12 are HR and recruiting items (5 connectors and 7 synced sources) and 16 are legal items from 14 providers; the classification is ours, as Microsoft has no separate Legal category: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/connectors/connectors-gallery-microsoft