OpenAI has launched Astra for Law, combining GPT-6 Astra with tools and instructions designed for legal work, including a new Legal Search Index spanning U.S. case law, statutes, regulations, court rules, and administrative decisions. OpenAI also launched 26 legal plugins that connect specialized legal tools and knowledge directly to ChatGPT.
The launch points to a larger shift in legal research: AI is becoming a place where lawyers can bring together different sources of legal information. For litigators, that makes access to state trial court data especially important, and creates a clear role for specialized sources like Trellis.
Connecting AI to the state trial courts
Astra for Law expands ChatGPT’s ability to research legal authority. But for litigators, legal authority is only one part of understanding a case.
Published opinions can tell attorneys what the law says. State trial court data can help answer a different set of questions: How has this judge ruled on similar motions? What arguments have been made in comparable cases? How has opposing counsel handled this issue before? What is a company’s litigation history?
That is the state court gap Trellis fills.
With the Trellis plugin for ChatGPT, attorneys can connect ChatGPT directly to Trellis as a specialized source of state trial court data. This gives ChatGPT access to the filings, rulings, dockets, judges, attorneys, parties, and cases that can show how litigation actually unfolds.
An attorney researching a motion, for example, could use Astra for Law to identify relevant law and precedent, then use Trellis to investigate how the assigned judge has ruled on similar motions, analyze the arguments made in comparable trial court cases, and identify patterns that could inform their strategy.
What connected legal research can look like
Connecting Trellis gives ChatGPT access to a specialized source of state trial court data, allowing attorneys to ask complex questions that require searching and synthesizing information across trial court records.
With Trellis connected, attorneys can use ChatGPT to research judges, attorneys, law firms, parties, litigation histories, filings, rulings, and comparable cases. For example:
- “I’m preparing a motion for summary judgment in a California employment discrimination case before Judge [Name]. Analyze how this judge has ruled on similar motions over the past five years, including the claims at issue, arguments made by each side, and reasons given for granting or denying the motion.”
- “Research [Company]’s state trial court litigation history over the past 10 years. Break down its cases by year, jurisdiction, case type, and plaintiff versus defendant, then identify recurring claims and notable matters.”
- “I’m defending a premises liability case in Los Angeles County. Find similar cases involving slip-and-fall claims at retail properties, then compare the arguments defendants made at summary judgment and how the courts ruled.”
- “Research opposing counsel [Name] in California state trial courts. Identify cases where they handled similar claims, the motions they filed, arguments they have made, and how those matters were resolved.”
Each of these questions requires information from the state trial court level. By connecting Trellis to ChatGPT, attorneys can bring that data into the same AI environment where they are conducting the rest of their research, giving them a more complete picture of the case, court, judge, attorneys, and parties involved.
The future of legal research is connected
Astra for Law is more than another legal AI launch. It signals a meaningful change in how legal research can be conducted: AI can increasingly connect attorneys to the specific sources of information they need, rather than requiring every question to be answered by a single model or database.
That makes specialized legal data even more important. The usefulness of an AI research workflow depends in part on the information it can access. For litigators, that should include the state trial courts where cases are filed, argued, and decided every day.
Traditional legal authority answers one set of questions. State trial court data answers another. It can show how judges have ruled, what arguments attorneys have made, how companies have litigated, and what happened in comparable cases.
Through the Trellis plugin, attorneys can connect ChatGPT to this state trial court data and bring practical litigation intelligence into the same environment where they are researching legal authority, analyzing issues, and developing strategy.
The future of legal research will not just depend on what AI models know. It will depend on the sources they can access. Trellis makes state trial court data part of that connected research experience.
Connect Trellis to ChatGPT and try it for free.
FAQ
Astra for Law is OpenAI’s foundation for professional legal work. It combines GPT-6 Astra with legal-specific instructions, tools, and a Legal Search Index designed to support legal research, analysis, and writing. The Legal Search Index covers U.S. case law, statutes, regulations, court rules, and administrative decisions.
Astra for Law’s Legal Search Index searches more than 230 million URLs spanning U.S. case law, statutes, regulations, court rules, and administrative decisions. OpenAI has also introduced legal plugins that can connect ChatGPT to specialized legal products and additional sources of information.
Legal plugins connect ChatGPT to specialized products, data, and capabilities, allowing attorneys to bring additional sources of legal information directly into their AI workflows. OpenAI launched Astra for Law alongside 26 partner-built plugins spanning legal research, knowledge management, document management, and other areas of legal work.
For litigators, the Trellis plugin for ChatGPT adds access to state trial court data. Attorneys can use Trellis in ChatGPT to research cases, filings, rulings, judges, attorneys, law firms, parties, and litigation histories, bringing a layer of trial court data into ChatGPT that complements traditional case law and legal authority.
Yes. The Trellis plugin for ChatGPT connects ChatGPT to Trellis’s state trial court data. Attorneys can use Trellis within ChatGPT to research cases, dockets, filings, rulings, judges, attorneys, law firms, parties, and litigation histories across state trial courts.
This extends legal research beyond published opinions and other traditional legal authorities, helping attorneys understand how cases are actually litigated at the trial court level.
The Trellis plugin can support research across state trial court cases and records. Attorneys can use it to investigate how a judge has ruled on similar motions, find comparable cases and filings, research opposing counsel or law firms, analyze party and company litigation histories, and uncover arguments made in similar matters.
Because Trellis is connected directly to ChatGPT, attorneys can ask complex research questions in natural language and use Trellis as a specialized source for the underlying trial court information.
Astra for Law expands access to case law and other legal authorities, but litigators often need information about what happens inside state trial courts. That can include trial court filings, motions, rulings, dockets, judges, attorneys, parties, and comparable cases.
Trellis provides an additional layer of legal data that traditional case law research does not: state trial court records. Connecting Trellis to ChatGPT gives attorneys access to the filings, rulings, dockets, judges, attorneys, parties, and cases that can show how similar matters have actually been litigated in practice.
State trial court records can reveal information that may never appear in published opinions. Attorneys can use them to examine the arguments made in motions and briefs, how individual judges have ruled, how opposing counsel has approached similar matters, what happened in comparable cases, and the litigation histories of companies and other parties.
For litigators, this information provides practical context alongside traditional case law and statutory research.