# Forensic working documents: focused professional-tool comparison

Research date: 21 September 2026. This is a bounded primary-source comparison, not a ranking of jurisdictions, a census of prosecutors or a claim that a vendor is used by every leading firm. No account, purchase or upload to a new provider was made.

## Findings and source limits

**Casefleet — closest demonstrated passage-to-fact workflow.** Its official help describes selecting exact text or multiple separated passages, retaining source wording beside a paraphrase, linking entities and issues and generating a page pinpoint. Important limitation: PDF bookmarks/highlights are for in-app navigation; a downloaded paged original remains as uploaded. That is not equivalent to exporting a marked-up PDF. No prosecutor deployment was independently established in this review. [Official reviewer documentation, 25 April 2025](https://support.casefleet.com/en/articles/2013203-using-the-document-reviewer-to-create-facts). Its current AI workflow proposes source-cited facts for human acceptance, rather than making them established facts automatically: [AI fact creation](https://support.casefleet.com/en/articles/13057134-using-the-ai-assistant-to-create-facts).

**Opus 2 — collaborative litigation and investigation workspace.** Adoption is corroborated by the customer: Linklaters' own investigations page names Opus 2 as integrated into its practice. A 3 June 2025 supplier announcement describes the firm's expansion into Opus 2 Cases and AI. This is evidence of this firm's use, not a claim about every case or every practice. [Linklaters](https://www.linklaters.com/en/services/investigations); [Opus 2 announcement](https://www.opus2.com/en-us/resources/news/linklaters-adopts-opus-2-ai/).

**Everlaw Storybuilder — evidence-to-facts-to-drafting.** Official documentation describes discrete facts linked to evidence, people, labels and other facts, with fact timelines and use in litigation work product. The evidence workflow includes selected document highlights and testimony. Product capability is verified from vendor documentation; agency adoption was not independently verified in this bounded scan. [Fact Timelines, updated 14 May 2026](https://support.everlaw.com/hc/en-us/articles/42469701435803-Storybuilder-Fact-Timelines); [Add Evidence to your Story, updated 2 July 2026](https://support.everlaw.com/hc/en-us/articles/14988585590939-Add-Evidence-to-your-Story).

**Relativity — investigate the current case-strategy product, not a new legacy Case Dynamics deployment.** Official documentation says Case Dynamics will be deprecated at the end of October 2026. A March 2026 announcement describes aiR for Case Strategy availability in RelativityOne Government. Availability for government is not proof that a named prosecutor uses that particular module. [Deprecation notice](https://help.relativity.com/RelativityOne/Content/Relativity/Case_Dynamics/Case_Dynamics.htm); [18 March 2026 Government announcement](https://relativity.com/news-events/relativity-air-for-case-strategy-now-available-in-relativityone-government/).

**OpenText Axcelerate — actual economic-crime prosecution context.** The UK Serious Fraud Office's own 3 February 2025 account identifies Axcelerate as its current e-discovery system at that date. This supports actual agency use, not a claim that it is the closest word-processor interface. On 12 February 2026 the SFO reported further review of a separate legacy Autonomy container-expansion issue and expressly said it did not affect its current system. Do not conflate those products or infer an unsafe conviction. [SFO initial findings](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/initial-findings-of-our-e-discovery-review); [SFO update, 12 February 2026](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/update-on-the-serious-fraud-offices-e-discovery-review).

## Design implications — our recommendations, not vendor claims

Use a portable source-and-annotation model now; evaluate paid tools with a controlled, redacted pilot instead of migrating the entire archive. Separate bulk e-discovery (ingestion, deduplication, attachments, review and disclosure) from case preparation (passage, fact, issue, knowledge, chronology and drafting). A focused reader is not a replacement for a prosecution-scale disclosure platform.

Test: exact Spanish accents and quotations; original-page/paragraph anchoring; multiple passages per proposition; opposed explanations; separate date of act, document, receipt and review; persons versus legal entities and capacities; separate proceedings; proof of notice versus an unsupported knowledge inference; source/annotation export and re-import; preserved originals; redaction and confidential work product; role-based access, MFA, audit export, retention/deletion and exit rights; verified UK/EU/US processing, support-access and AI-subprocessor terms. These procurement controls must be checked contractually, not inferred from a product name.

A useful lesson from the SFO's review is that search/processing coverage itself needs auditing. Missing extracted text is not proof that a source contains no relevant material. Track embedded screenshots, nested containers and unprocessed attachments explicitly.

## Initial decision

Use the Por Derecho reader for the immediate source-bound pilot. Casefleet is the closest functional comparator for highlight-to-fact work; Opus 2 is a stronger comparator for a counsel-led collaborative workspace; Everlaw and current Relativity case-strategy capabilities warrant evaluation when broader review/drafting integration is needed. Axcelerate demonstrates the separate bulk-discovery/prosecution layer. No product is certified here as compliant with the user's residency, confidentiality or procurement requirements.