Frequently asked questions
For advocates deciding whether an AI drafting tool belongs in their practice. If something here is not answered, write to us.
Can an advocate in India use AI to draft court documents?
Yes — as a drafting aid, not as a substitute for your own judgment. Nothing in the Advocates Act or the Bar Council of India Rules prohibits using software to prepare a draft, in the same way word processors and precedent banks are used. What does not change is that you, the advocate on record, remain responsible for every word filed: you must read, correct and certify the draft, and verify every citation and provision before it goes to a registry. LegalNib is built around that responsibility rather than around hiding it — see the next answer.
How does LegalNib stop the AI inventing case law?
Every citation the model produces is checked against Indian Kanoon before the draft reaches you. Anything that cannot be found there is replaced with a visible [CITATION REQUIRED] marker instead of being left in the text, so a fabricated case name cannot quietly survive into a filing. The same posture applies elsewhere: where the model would have to guess a fact about your matter, it marks the point for your confirmation rather than filling it in. This is the core design decision of the product — refuse rather than guess.
What kinds of documents can LegalNib draft?
38 document types across civil, criminal, family, consumer and constitutional matters — including bail applications, plaints, writ petitions, written statements, vakalatnamas, divorce petitions, FIR complaints, consumer complaints, legal notices, affidavits, memoranda of appeal, cheque-bounce complaints under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, and responsive filings such as rejoinders, counter affidavits, replies opposing bail, written versions and written arguments. Each is structured for the correct court and procedure rather than produced from a generic template.
Is it safe to put my client's confidential case facts into it?
Case facts you type are sent to Anthropic in the United States to produce the draft, with phone numbers, email addresses, Aadhaar numbers, PAN numbers and account numbers replaced by placeholders before they leave our servers. Names and case particulars are not masked, because the draft cannot be written without them. Photographs you upload are sent as images and cannot be redacted — an ID card visible in a photo is readable in full — while a PDF's text is extracted and masked like typed text. All of this is set out in full in our Privacy Notice, and you accept it explicitly at signup rather than by implication.
Who is allowed to sign up?
Licensed advocates practising in Indian courts. Signup requires a Bar Council enrolment number and State Bar Council, and you can submit your enrolment for verification from your account. It is a professional tool, not a service for the public seeking legal help — LegalNib is not a law firm and does not give legal advice.
What does LegalNib cost?
A fixed price per document, shown to you before you generate it — the lowest band covers data-formatting documents such as a vakalatnama, the highest a long or evidence-heavy filing such as a plaint or writ petition. There is no monthly subscription and nothing runs in the background between filings. You add credit to a wallet and spend it only when you draft. Current pricing and any active launch offer are on the pricing page.
Can I draft in Hindi, Marathi, Tamil or another Indian language?
Yes. Drafts can be produced in English plus ten regional languages — Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu — and you can dictate the facts by voice in those languages instead of typing them, which is the point when you are working on a phone between hearings.
Does the exported document show that AI was involved?
Your drafts do, and what you file does not. While a document is still a draft it carries an AI Disclosure Certificate — which model wrote it, when, and how many of its citations were checked against Indian Kanoon — plus a visible AI DRAFT — NOT FILED mark in the corner of every page, so an unreviewed draft cannot be mistaken for a finished filing. Once you mark it filed, and in the filing pack you assemble for a registry, neither appears: no Indian court rule requires an advocate to disclose AI assistance in a pleading, and an extra page in a filing is a page the registry can object to. The certificate stays available to you as a separate download for your own file, and we keep our own record of it either way, so you can always show what was checked and when.
Does it calculate court fees?
No, and deliberately so. Court fees vary by state, by court and by the nature of the relief, and a confidently wrong number is worse than no number for a filing that a registry can reject. LegalNib points you to the applicable court-fee schedule instead of estimating it.
Can I delete a case or a client's file completely?
Yes. Deleting a case moves it to Trash, where you can restore it. From Trash you can also delete it permanently, which removes the case, its documents, hearings, exhibits and uploaded files for good — that cannot be undone and support cannot recover it. You can also export or delete your entire account and everything in it at any time, which is your right under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.
Is LegalNib available on Android?
Yes — the Android app is on Google Play, and it carries the full drafting flow, case management, hearing reminders and voice dictation. There is also a web app that does the same work from a phone browser or a desk. Either way you sign in with your mobile number; the same number signs you in and creates your account.
LegalNib says it is in beta — what does that mean for me?
It means the product is open and in active use, but still in development: you may hit bugs, and features may change. It does not change your own duty — every draft is yours to review, verify and certify before it is filed. If you find a bug, report it from the Support screen inside the app. Where a report helps us identify or fix a defect, we may add goodwill credits to your wallet as a thank-you. Those credits are discretionary rather than a fixed reward, and they are ordinary wallet credits you can spend on drafting or chat. Please do not include your client's confidential facts in a bug report — send the document reference and we will look it up.
LegalNib is a drafting assistant for licensed advocates. It is not a law firm, does not give legal advice, and every draft it produces must be reviewed and certified by the advocate before filing. See our Terms and Privacy Notice.