Expert Letter Studio

• Runs an independence check on a named expert (using their CV/profile text, plus an optional ORCID for a metrics-based check), a suitability map against your chosen criteria, and a letter skeleton written in the expert's own register.
• Leaves genuine placeholder slots in the skeleton — [PETITIONER'S OWN VOICE: ...] blocks — that only the expert can fill in; the tool never fabricates their personal observations.
• Runs a Letter Similarity Guard across every letter in the case, flagging passages that read too similarly to each other — a signal of shared drafting, not a verdict on any single letter.

Use it right after Expert Finder identifies a real, independent candidate — Finder's own "Start letter" button deep-links here with the candidate's name and citation profile pre-filled. It isn't tracked in the app's structured Journey map, but in practice it sits alongside Field & Narrative Studio in the case-positioning work that happens once you know who your evidence and your case story are.

• Same Case File readiness checklist as the other case-workspace tools: a CV in General, 3 analyzed criterion projects with distinct primary criteria, 8 ready documents case-wide.
• You need the expert's full name and their CV or professional bio text pasted in (their ORCID is optional but unlocks an independence metrics check).
• Pick which of the case's criteria the letter should address before generating.
• Cost: 2 credits per letter generated. Viewing existing letters, expanding them, and re-running the Similarity Guard cost nothing extra.

• Independence assessment — the check on whether this expert is genuinely independent of you (no shared authorship, no shared institution), same underlying logic Expert Finder uses, re-run here directly against the pasted profile.
• Suitability map — how well this expert's background actually maps to the criteria you selected.
• Letter skeleton — the drafted structure in the expert's own register, with explicit [PETITIONER'S OWN VOICE: ...] placeholder blocks the tool deliberately leaves blank.
• Status: Draft / Generated / Failed — a letter's lifecycle state; only "Generated" letters can be expanded, exported, or checked for similarity.
• Letter Similarity Guard severity: Low overlap / Moderate overlap / High overlap — a per-letter share of flagged content across the case's other letters, plus specific pair labels: Boilerplate phrase, Structural echo, Verbatim risk.
• Every letter carries a standing "DRAFT — the expert must add their own observations before this is usable" banner. This is AI-generated drafting language, not a finished document — it needs the expert's own input before it's usable.

• Not available on the Free plan at all — it's one of the tools in the Pro plan's tool list (expert_letter_studio).
• A 7-day Pro trial includes it, drawing from the plan's shared 40 credits/month rather than a separate trial allotment — at 2 credits per letter, a trial covers several drafts.
• Starting the trial requires a card at Stripe Checkout — cancel from the billing portal before the trial ends to avoid a charge. Start it from Expert Letter Studio's own page, using the main button under the headline; that button's label follows your plan ("Start your free trial" before you have used one, "Run Expert Letter Studio" once your plan or trial already covers the tool, "Upgrade to Pro" if you have already used it).

• Pasting a thin or generic bio instead of the expert's actual CV — the suitability map and skeleton are only as specific as the profile text you give it.
• Selecting every criterion "just in case" instead of the ones this specific expert can genuinely speak to — a suitability map that doesn't actually fit invites the exact overlap issues Similarity Guard exists to catch.
• Treating the skeleton as a finished letter — the [PETITIONER'S OWN VOICE: ...] placeholders are load-bearing; a letter exported and sent with those still blank isn't ready.
• Ignoring a Moderate or High Similarity Guard flag because each individual letter reads fine in isolation — the flag is specifically about cross-letter patterns, which you can't see from any single letter.