# How to use ChatGPT Work to gather and analyze research data, such as statutes, decisions, and legal articles, codes, and documents

Platform: chatgpt-work (2026-07-09-launch)
Guide coordinate: task/task-1636
Platform reviewed: 2026-07-11

## Direct answer

Use ChatGPT Work to build a reproducible legal authority map: fix the jurisdiction, issue, material facts, and research cutoff; collect controlling and persuasive sources; pin every proposition to its source span; expose adverse treatment, conflicts, and gaps; and preserve the search log for attorney review. Retrieval and synthesis are not legal judgment. ChatGPT must not declare authority controlling, treat a quotation as a holding, hide contrary law, give advice, or trigger filing, communication, or reliance. The attached figures are projected role-task priors, not measured ChatGPT adoption by paralegals, so they support supervised research rather than a claim about current practice.

## Best uses

- Gather and analyze research data, such as statutes, decisions, and legal articles, codes, and documents.
  - Artifact: Authority map: what supports, what cuts against, what is unsettled, every proposition pinned to its source span
  - Review: The attorney judges the authorities; anything unconfirmable from supplied sources stays marked UNVERIFIED.

## Workflows

### Draft a legal document under the role's own supervision structure, with the verification checklist as a first-class artifact beside the draft.

Steps: Interview for the facts and matter context; the occupational data carries no matter facts and the draft must not invent them. → Draft with three inline flag types: FACT (user-supplied), LEGAL ASSERTION (needs attorney verification), BOILERPLATE (template origin named). → Emit the verification checklist alongside the draft, mapping each flagged assertion to who verifies it. → Stop: nothing is filed, sent, or signed by the agent, and the draft footer says who verifies what.

Artifact: Flagged draft plus verification checklist

Human review: This guide treats attorney review as the structure of the work, not an add-on; the checklist routes each assertion to its verifier.

## Human-owned responsibilities

- Question-and-scope law: the attorney defines the jurisdiction, issue, material facts, temporal cutoff, research depth, and intended use
- Authority law: source hierarchy, precedential weight, current validity, adverse authority, and conflicts of law require qualified legal judgment
- Proposition law: every statement must stay within the cited source span; synthesis never silently enlarges a holding or erases limiting facts
- Completeness law: search logs, unavailable sources, contrary results, citator status, and unsettled questions remain visible rather than converted into certainty
- Reliance law: legal conclusions, advice, strategy, privilege decisions, client communication, filing, and external reliance remain attorney-controlled

## Sources

- [Paralegals and Legal Assistants occupational render model](https://singulariki.com/roles/paralegals-and-legal-assistants) — reviewed 2026-06-03
- [ChatGPT Work and Codex](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001275-chatgpt-work-and-codex) — reviewed 2026-07-11
- [Creating and editing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with ChatGPT Work](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001278-creating-and-editing-documents-spreadsheets-and-presentations-with-chatgpt-work) — reviewed 2026-07-11
- [Using cloud browser in ChatGPT](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001280-using-cloud-browser-in-chatgpt) — reviewed 2026-07-11
- [Using the built-in browser in the ChatGPT desktop app](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001277-using-the-built-in-browser-in-the-chatgpt-desktop-app) — reviewed 2026-07-11
- [Skills in ChatGPT](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001066) — reviewed 2026-07-11
- [Scheduled Tasks in ChatGPT](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/10291617-tasks-in-chatgpt) — reviewed 2026-07-11
- [ChatGPT Workspace Agents for Enterprise and Business](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001143) — reviewed 2026-07-11

Methodology: /methodology