Legal research 5 min read
Reading a research answer: the four streams
An answer separates the substantive law, the procedural pathway, the judicial interpretation and any persuasive foreign authority, so you can see each layer distinctly.
A Molao answer is not one block of prose. It is organised into streams so you can see the substantive law, the procedure and the case law as separate layers.
The streams
- 1The answer — a direct, grounded response to your question.
- 2Substantive law — the legislation sections the answer turns on, with point-in-time flags showing whether a section is current or repealed.
- 3Procedural pathway — the court rules that govern how to act on the answer, with day-counts you can send straight to the Deadline Calculator.
- 4Judicial interpretation — the authorities behind the answer, with citation counts and treatment signals.
Persuasive foreign authority
When local judgments themselves rely on a foreign case, Molao shows it in a fifth, deliberately subordinate stream, clearly marked as persuasive and not binding. It is muted on purpose — foreign authority never outranks the local streams.
Not every answer has every stream. Streams only appear when Molao has real content for them.
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