AI Legal Research — Frequently Asked Questions

AI legal research uses artificial intelligence to read, search and summarise legal material — especially court judgments. Instead of only matching exact keywords, modern AI can understand the meaning of your question and find judgments that deal with the same legal issue, even when they use different words.

A keyword search looks for the exact words you typed. If a judgment uses a different term — for example 'reckless driving' instead of 'negligent driving' — a keyword search can miss it. AI (semantic) search converts your question into a mathematical representation of its meaning and finds passages with a similar meaning, so you get results that a word-for-word search would overlook.

Semantic search matches by meaning rather than by exact words. You can type an ordinary sentence — for example, 'can my landlord evict me without a court order?' — and the system finds judgments that answer that question, regardless of the precise wording used in the judgment.

Yes. On this site we use AI to produce plain-language summaries of the judgments we have indexed, written so that a non-lawyer can understand what the court decided and why. The original judgment text is always one click away so you can verify the summary yourself.

AI can be accurate when it is forced to work from real source documents and must cite them. Our Ask AI tool only answers from judgments in our own database and shows you the exact passages it relied on, so you can check every answer against the source. General chatbots that answer from memory are far less reliable.

Some do — an AI that answers from memory can produce case names and citations that do not exist. That is why our system is built on a strict rule: every answer must be grounded in a judgment we actually hold, with a citation you can click through and verify. If the system cannot find supporting judgments, it says so instead of guessing.

Never rely on an AI answer alone. Check the cited judgment: open the original text (we link to the official source, usually SAFLII) and confirm that the case exists and says what the AI claims. For anything that affects your rights, confirm the position with an attorney.

Grounding means the AI is only allowed to base its answer on specific, retrievable source documents — not on its general memory. A grounded answer cites the judgment it relies on, which makes it checkable. Grounding is the single most important safeguard against invented law.

No. AI is a research aid, not a legal adviser. It can help you find and understand judgments, but it cannot weigh up your specific facts, advise you on strategy, or appear for you in court. Only an admitted attorney can give you legal advice you can rely on.

AI does not understand your personal circumstances, cannot judge credibility, may miss recent judgments not yet in its database, and can misread nuance. It also cannot apply professional judgment or carry professional indemnity. Treat AI output as a well-organised starting point, not a final answer.

Whenever a real dispute, deadline or right is at stake — for example an eviction, a dismissal, a land claim, or signing a contract. Use AI research to arrive better informed, then let an attorney apply the law to your facts. A short consultation early on usually costs far less than fixing a mistake later.

It is safe if you use a reputable tool, verify its answers against the cited sources, and do not treat the output as legal advice. Be cautious about pasting confidential or identifying information into any AI tool — read its privacy policy first.

The Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA) requires that personal information be processed lawfully, minimally and with consent. On this site we ask for your explicit consent before an AI query is processed, and we record that consent. Court judgments are public documents, but your questions may still contain personal information, so we handle them accordingly.

On this site, your questions are used to answer you and to maintain the service, and are handled under our Privacy Policy. As a general rule across all AI tools: do not share information you would not be comfortable storing on someone else's server.

We index South African court judgments sourced from SAFLII (the Southern African Legal Information Institute) and other public court sources. Our database grows continuously through automated collection, and each judgment's original source link is shown so you can read the full official text.

Yes — you can try Ask AI on this site. A free allowance is available, with optional paid packages (a once-off question pack or an unlimited subscription) for heavier use. Browsing and reading judgments and their summaries is free.

Searching and reading judgments and summaries on this site is free. Ask AI includes a free allowance; beyond that we offer an affordable question pack and an unlimited subscription, payable securely by PayFast in rand. The current prices are shown on the Ask AI tab before you pay.

Yes. Reading judgments is slow work. AI search and summaries can get you to the relevant cases and the essence of each decision in minutes instead of hours — leaving more time for verification and proper advice.

Yes. This site is fully bilingual — you can search and ask questions in English or Afrikaans, and the interface and summaries are available in both languages.

AI can explain legal terms in plain language in both English and Afrikaans. For example, it can explain what a 'grondeis' (land claim) or 'uitsetting' (eviction) means and point you to judgments that deal with it. For a binding interpretation in your matter, an attorney should always be consulted.