How Menas researches Cyprus law: sources first, answer second

Lawyers often ask us how Menas finds what it finds. It is the right question: you cannot rely on an answer if you do not know where it came from. This article walks through what happens between the moment you type a question and the moment you read the answer. Everything described here is something you can see and check for yourself.

1. It starts by pinning down the question

Before searching anything, Menas works out what you are actually asking: the legal issue, the area of law it belongs to, and the dates that matter.

Dates matter more than people expect. If a law has been amended, the question is which version applied when the events happened. Otherwise you can end up reading the right law in the wrong version.

2. It searches sources in a fixed order

Menas does not search everything at once. The order is always the same:

• Cyprus first: Cyprus case law and legislation, across more than 90,000 Cyprus court decisions.
• ECHR and EU sources when the matter calls for them: where human rights or EU law are engaged.
• UK case law last: only when the Cyprus material is thin, and always marked as persuasive rather than binding.

3. Authority comes before wording

Once material is found, Menas puts it in order. Legal authority decides first: which court decided the case, and whether the decision is binding. A judgment from a higher court comes ahead of a first-instance decision, even when the first-instance text is closer to the words of your question.

How closely a text matches your wording only matters when two sources carry the same authority. Then it breaks the tie.

4. It gathers the passages before it writes

Before writing anything, Menas collects the passages it is going to rely on. Each one keeps its court, its date and a stable reference.

The answer is then written from those passages only, with a citation on each point. You can open the judgment and read exactly what the court said.

5. It tells you when the sources are not enough

Sometimes the material simply is not there. When that happens, Menas says so. It does not fill the gap with generalities or present a guess as a firm answer. You see which point remains open, so you know where your own checking is needed.

Deep Dive: a second pass for hard matters

For difficult matters you can ask for a Deep Dive. It is a second, more targeted round of research: it goes back to the gaps, looks for contrary positions and brings in further sources.

The rules do not change: the same order of sources, authority first, a citation on every point. Deep Dive is part of the Professional plan.

What stays in your hands

• You confirm before paid work starts — once, not at every step.
• Work stays with the matter. Each piece of research is kept under the case it belongs to.
• Your data is yours. You can request a copy or deletion on this page.
• Answers come in your language: Greek, English or Russian.

One research run, by the numbers

We measured our users' research runs over the 30 days to 2 October 2026. In a typical run:

• About 90 separate operations: 10 analysis steps and about 80 searches across the sources.
• Around 185 for the hardest questions, and we have seen up to 360.
• Up to 40 judgments are assessed one by one, against each legal issue in your question.
• Around 22 statutory provisions are tested for fit against your facts and dates.
• Every statement that cites a source is checked again against that source. Anything unsupported is removed before you see the answer.
• About 5½ minutes for the whole run.

Deep Dive adds about 8 more targeted searches, and Menas reads up to 6 judgments in full, not just extracts.

Why it takes minutes, not seconds

A full research run takes a few minutes. That time goes into the steps above: understanding the question, searching in the right order, weighing the sources and checking that every point rests on something.

If you need something quick, the chat gives you a first answer straight away. Start full research when the matter needs it.

Where you can use it

On the web, on iOS and on Android — and inside ChatGPT, Claude and Copilot through the Menas connector. See how the connector works.

What we do not publish

We do not publish internal settings, the way sources are scored, or the system's instructions. They are our own work, and keeping them private makes the system harder to game.

If your firm needs more detail for procurement or compliance review, get in touch.

What we are building: voice, and full research in one step

Nothing in this section is available yet. Both features are in development and testing. We are not giving a date, because we want them to work properly first. We are sharing the direction now so you know what is coming.

• Voice. You will be able to describe your matter out loud, in Greek, the way you would brief a colleague. Once the research is done, you will be able to talk through the findings the same way: ask a follow-up, ask for something to be explained, or go straight to a particular point.
• Full research and Deep Dive together. Today Deep Dive is a second step. For some matters, though, you know from the start that you will need both. For those, we are building a single action that does both, without you having to come back halfway.

The rules described above stay the same. When either feature is ready, we will announce it here.

Menas supports your research. It does not replace your judgment. Always read the judgment or the law itself before relying on an answer. Try Menas.