# Output Scoring En > Scores the quality of an AI legal output before it goes out, in two layers: objective (mechanically checkable - do the citations exist, are the provisions and dockets real) and subjective (LLM-as-judge on a 1-5 rubric: legal correctness, completeness, clarity, jurisdiction fit, grounding/anti-hallucination). Returns a scorecard and a decision: send / revise / full verification. A layer above the deliverable - it does not write, it scores. Jurisdiction-neutral. Pairs with reviewer-en, adversarial-legal-review-en and legal-syllogism-en. Use when: "score this output", "is this ready to send", "quality of this legal answer", "scorecard for the deliverable", "rubric check" - before sending an opinion, memo, or brief. - Skill: `matematicsolutions/output-scoring-en` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add matematicsolutions/output-scoring-en` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/matematicsolutions/output-scoring-en/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: AI & ML - License: Apache-2.0 - Author: matematicsolutions (https://skillmd.com/u/matematicsolutions) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/matematicsolutions/output-scoring-en --- # Output scoring - a scorecard before you send ## Philosophy **Before you send it, score it - and keep what is checkable apart from what must be judged.** An AI output can read smoothly and still be wrong. This skill scores it in two layers: objective (facts you can verify mechanically) and subjective (quality you have to judge against an explicit rubric). Mixing the two is where false confidence comes from - "sounds right" is not "the citations check out". It **scores**; it does not write or send. The decision is the lawyer's; the scorecard is the basis. ## Layer 1 - objective (mechanically checkable) Delegate, do not guess: - **Citations and provisions** - do they exist in the source verbatim; were they all caught. - **Dockets / identifiers** - real and correctly written. - **Completeness** - did any RED finding drop out of the summary. The objective result is binary per item: matches / does not. Even one mismatched citation means the output is not ready, whatever the subjective score. ## Layer 2 - subjective (1-5 rubric, LLM-as-judge) Score each dimension 1-5 with a one-sentence reason: | Dimension | 1 | 5 | |---|---|---| | Legal correctness | thesis wrong or unsupported | thesis sound and grounded in the rule | | Completeness | omits material issues | covers everything material to the question | | Clarity | muddled, inconsistent | precise, readable for the reader | | Jurisdiction fit | confuses systems/rules | correct for the governing law | | Grounding (anti-hallucination) | claims with no basis | every claim has a basis | ### UNCERTAIN instead of a number - a first-class score When the judge has no basis for a number, it does not invent one. Instead of a forced 3 it writes **UNCERTAIN**, with a subcategory and a note on what evidence is missing: - **INSUFFICIENT_EVIDENCE** - the score cannot be given without material that is not in the session (the judgment the output relies on, the contract it refers to). Write down WHAT is missing and where to get it. - **SOURCE_AMBIGUOUS** - the material is there but does not settle the point (an ambiguous clause, conflicting passages, a question that admits two readings). Write down WHERE the ambiguity sits. Hard rules: - UNCERTAIN does not enter the average and must never be quietly turned into a 3. A forced middle score is exactly the silence about uncertainty this skill exists to catch. - UNCERTAIN in Legal correctness or Grounding -> decision capped at **Full verification**. - UNCERTAIN in any other dimension -> decision capped at **Revise**. "AI that knows what it does not know" as a field on the scorecard, not a claim about it. ## Decision - **Send** - Layer 1 clean, no UNCERTAIN, subjective average >= 4, no dimension < 3. - **Revise** - Layer 1 clean but a dimension scores 2-3 (name it), or UNCERTAIN outside the critical dimensions. - **Full verification** - Layer 1 has a mismatch, a dimension = 1, or UNCERTAIN in Legal correctness / Grounding -> route to grounding / adversarial review. ## Re-scoring - monotonicity and anchors A score card is often issued twice: once on the first pass, once after revisions. The second pass is where scores quietly rise, because the author now knows the charges and can argue around them. Two hard rules. **Monotonicity.** A re-score may lower the decision at any time, for any reason. Raising it requires **new evidence**, not new argument. New evidence means Layer 1 re-run with a different result, or material that was not in the session before (the judgment finally supplied, the contract finally attached). "On reflection this is good enough" is not evidence and does not move the score. **Anchors.** While any of the following is open, the decision cannot rise above **Full verification**, whatever the subjective average says: - a citation, provision or docket number that does not match the source in Layer 1, - a RED finding dropped from the summary, - UNCERTAIN in Legal correctness or Grounding. Only re-running the tool that set an anchor can clear it. A judge's opinion cannot. Same rule `agentic-risk-asi-pl` applies to finding severity: direct evidence is not negotiable. Record every blocked attempt to raise the score. Seeing who tried to move the verdict, and on what argument, is often worth more than the verdict. ## Output format ``` LAYER 1 (objective): citations OK/X | provisions OK/X | dockets OK/X | completeness OK/X LAYER 2 (1-5 rubric): Legal correctness: 4 - Completeness: 3 - <...> Clarity: 5 - <...> Jurisdiction fit: UNCERTAIN (INSUFFICIENT_EVIDENCE) - the output rests on a judgment whose text is not in the session; missing: the reasoning as handed down Grounding: 4 - <...> Average: 4.0 (from 4 numeric dimensions; UNCERTAIN outside the average) ANCHORS: none (or: citation [2019] UKSC 12 unmatched - decision capped at Full verification) DECISION: Revise (Completeness 3 - limitation period not addressed) ``` On a re-score, add one line: ``` RE-SCORE #2: Revise -> Revise. Raise to Send rejected: argument only, Layer 1 not re-run. ``` ## Limits - The subjective score is the model's judgement against a rubric, not an oracle - at high stakes the final call is the lawyer's, and the scorecard is evidence of due diligence. - Layer 1 does not replace the tools it calls - it aggregates them into one decision. - It scores the output; it does not create or fix it. ## Attribution Two-layer method (objective matching + a subjective LLM-as-judge rubric on a 1-5 scale) based on **DISC-Law-Eval** from DISC-LawLLM (Fudan DISC Lab), Apache-2.0. Exam data and judge model dropped; rubric dimensions, thresholds and framing are MateMatic's own. MateMatic interpretation, not the position of any bar or regulator.