Check citations
Every citation in your brief is checked for existence against the public case-citation registries on NVNM Chain — the canonical citation record of the covered US court registries. A fabricated citation has no record to find.
Your brief is parsed in memory to find its citations, then discarded the moment your report is ready — never stored, never put on chain. Each citation is checked by reading NVNM Chain directly, so the verdict is the chain's answer, not ours, and anyone can re-run the same lookup. Nothing about your document goes on chain unless you choose to record a receipt.
| Status | Citation | Registry record | Names | Seen |
|---|
Replay these lookups against any node
Each checked citation is one keyed records() read against NVNM Chain. This page does not invent the answers — re-run any of these against an independent NVNM RPC and you get the same record, or the same “not found.”
Reading the results
- Verified
- A registry record exists for this citation. Existence only — it may still have been overruled, vacated, or superseded.
- Not found
- No record in the covering registry. Treat as presumptively fabricated until proven otherwise.
- Not covered
- The cited reporter or court is outside coverage (the covered court registries). No conclusion either way.
- Ambiguous
- The citation alone cannot place the court. Add the court parenthetical and re-check.
- Unparseable
- Looks like a citation but could not be read as one — usually a short cite of a case that appears nowhere else in the document (sometimes the brief’s own typo). Untraceable Id./supra references and statute sections are counted above the table instead.
Record verification
Anchor a filing receipt on NVNM Chain: an immutable, timestamped attestation that this exact document — by its SHA-256 fingerprint — was citation-checked, with the per-citation results, signed by your own wallet.
- 1Checked documentnot yet
- 2Registry line on filingnot yet
- 3Wallet connectednot yet
- 4Re-verify & signwaiting
Run a citation check first; its report is what the receipt attests to.
The receipt names your signing wallet as the attester. On NVNM Chain the identity is the wallet address — there is no separate identifier to enter.
Lists the receipt registries this wallet already created on this chain, with their permanent #ids — registry names are not unique, so the #id is what identifies a registry.
Enter the filer and case above — the registry line is generated from them.
Opposing counsel and clerks find the receipt through this line: it names the registry, owned by your wallet, where the receipt lives. The document you check and anchor below must be the final exported file that already contains it — editing the document after anchoring breaks the fingerprint match.
This re-checks the exact file against NVNM Chain at the current head block and builds the receipt. It is read-only — nothing is written until you sign.
What the receipt records
The receipt records this tally and the document's fingerprint — never the list of cited cases. The fingerprint binds the exact file, so anyone with it can reproduce every verdict; the authorities in your brief stay off the public chain. The full per-citation results are on the Check tab.
Receipt JSON — this exact text is what gets anchored
Your wallet shows the exact transaction before anything is sent. Gas is paid in the chain’s USD-pegged token; an anchor costs well under a cent.
- A document with this exact SHA-256 fingerprint was citation-checked.
- The check ran against the named registries at the stated head block.
- It produced exactly these per-citation existence results.
- The record was signed by this address at this chain time.
It does not assert that any case supports any argument, nor that any citation is good law. Provenance, not truth.
Verify a receipt
For opposing counsel, clerks of court, and judges: paste the citation-verification registry named on the filing, drop in the filed document, and see instantly whether a receipt exists for that exact file. Free, read-only — no wallet, no account.
It is fingerprinted (SHA-256) in your browser; only the 64-character fingerprint and the registry name are sent for the lookup. The file itself is never uploaded.
Copy it from the “Citation verifications” link printed on the filing. It points to the registry that holds the receipt.
Inspect a transaction
Every record NVNM Cite writes — each case citation and each filing receipt — is stored on NVNM Chain as plain, readable text. Paste a transaction's reference number to see exactly what it contains: the citation, the case it points to, and when it was recorded.
About & status
NVNM Cite checks whether the cases cited in a legal document are real. AI tools have caused lawyers to file briefs citing cases that don’t exist; NVNM Cite catches that before filing by checking every citation against an authoritative, public record of real published decisions — and can create a permanent, independently-verifiable receipt that you ran the check on a specific document at a specific time.
It checks citations are real
Every cited authority in a brief is matched against a public registry of real decisions: real, not found, or not yet covered. Parallel reporter citations of the same case count as one authority, short cites resolve to the case they refer to, and statute references are set aside and counted rather than guessed at. A fabricated cite has no record to find.
Existence, not endorsement
A verified citation exists as a real decision. It does not tell you the case is still good law, hasn’t been overruled, or supports your argument. Shepardizing / KeyCite is still your job.
Private to draft
Your brief is parsed in memory and discarded with the report — never stored, never put on chain. Citations are checked by reading the chain directly; the verdict is the chain’s answer, not ours, and anyone can replay the same lookup.
Free to verify
Anyone — opposing counsel, a clerk, a judge — can confirm a receipt exists for a document. Checking and verifying need no cryptocurrency, no wallet, and no account; only recording uses a wallet.
How it works
- Check — upload a brief; every cited authority comes back verified, not found, not covered, ambiguous, or unparseable. A case cited by several reporters in a run is one authority and gets one row, with the other reporters listed under it. Short forms (Id., “539 U.S. at 331”) resolve to the case they refer to. References that are not case citations — statute and regulation sections, untraceable Id./supra — are counted above the table instead of cluttering it. A miss in a newly-expanded state court carries an explicit caution, not a bare accusation.
- Record — optionally save a tamper-proof, timestamped receipt that this exact document was checked, signed by your wallet, into a registry you own for the matter. The verification line, with the registry number, goes on the filing itself.
- Verify — anyone with the filed document and the verification line printed on it can confirm, for free, that a receipt exists for that exact file.
Who it’s for
Drafting attorneys and their AI tools (catch fabrications pre-filing); opposing counsel and courts (confirm a filing was checked); malpractice insurers and legal-ops (proof-of-process). Checking and verifying need no wallet or account; recording a receipt uses a wallet, normally handled by the firm’s tool or agent. AI agents get the same API this page uses, documented at agents.md (machine-readable contract at openapi.json, discovery at llms.txt).
Live status
Current coverage
Loading coverage from the live registry…
| Registry | Lookup source | Citation keys | Detail |
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FAQ for lawyers
If a citation comes back “verified,” is it safe to cite?
It’s a real, published decision. You must still confirm it’s good law and on point — verification is existence only.
What does “not found” mean — is my citation definitely fake?
No record matched under that citation in the court’s registry. Before concluding it is fabricated, check three things. First, the volume and page as written — typos in briefs are real (one merits brief we tested cited “575 U.S.” for a case reported at 579 U.S.). Second, whether the case is recorded under its parallel reporter — some Supreme Court decisions are on record under only one of the official U.S. / S. Ct. citations, and the result says so when that may apply. Third, in newly-expanded state coverage the result carries an explicit caution: citation formats there are still being proven, so treat the miss as a flag to verify, never as proof of fabrication, and never delete a citation on this signal alone.
Why did several citations collapse into one row?
Briefs cite the same case by several reporters in a run — “133 Ohio St.3d 10, 2012-Ohio-5270, 979 N.E.2d 1229” is one authority, not three citations. It gets one row: the strongest result presents, and the other reporters stay listed under it with their own outcomes.
What are the “Id./supra unresolved” and “out of scope” counts above the table?
References that are not checkable case citations: Id. and supra references whose antecedent could not be traced, and statute or regulation section references. The registries hold case citations only, so these are counted — nothing is silently dropped — but they are not verdicts on anything.
Is my document made public or stored anywhere?
No. It’s parsed in memory to find its citations and discarded immediately — never stored, never put on chain. Only a fingerprint (and, if you record, the check tally) can go on chain, and only when you choose.
What exactly does the receipt prove?
That a citation check was performed, at a chain-stamped time, over the exact document with that fingerprint, by a specific wallet. Tamper-evident proof of process — not a ruling on your brief.
Is the timestamp legally meaningful?
It’s an immutable, independently-verifiable record; evidentiary weight is for the court, but it can’t be backdated or altered after the fact.
What if NVNM Cite shuts down?
Receipts live on the public chain and stay verifiable by anyone; the registries are public and rebuildable from the chain.
Do I need crypto to use this?
Not to check or verify. Recording a receipt uses a wallet, typically managed for you by the firm or its agent.
How much does it cost?
Checking and verifying are free. Recording costs a small network fee (fractions of a cent today).
Versions
Attribution
Case data: CourtListener / Free Law Project. Citation parsing builds on Free Law Project’s eyecite, reporters-db, and courts-db. Citation text and metadata are reproduced from the public record; registry curation and normalization by NVNM Cite.