Juris Legal Research Chatbot

Juris is an AI-powered legal research assistant built to meet the unique needs of legal aid advocates. It provides a single, secure interface for staff to search across curated internal legal resources—streamlining the research process and reducing reliance on costly commercial tools like Westlaw.

Juris is designed to serve all staff, including those without access to premium research subscriptions, and to improve the consistency and quality of legal research outputs across the organization.

How It Was Built

Juris is deployed on Microsoft Azure with GitHub integrations that allow for continuous updates and improvements. Its database is seeded with more than 100 legal documents prioritized through an internal staff survey, ensuring the most-needed content is available first. Features include multi-document querying, automated citation checking, and a built-in PDF viewer for in-platform document access. Development has followed an iterative process with internal testing cycles and feedback from attorneys and paralegals to refine search accuracy and usability.

What Value It Has for Teams and Users

For legal aid teams, Juris addresses a key operational challenge: how to locate reliable, up-to-date information quickly without duplicating effort or over-relying on external platforms. By consolidating high-priority legal documents and embedding advanced search capabilities, Juris helps staff:

• Find answers in minutes rather than hours.
• Improve research consistency across cases and staff roles.
• Reduce operational costs by shifting some research away from commercial databases.
• Ensure equitable access to legal research tools for all staff members.

For clients, the indirect value is faster turnaround on legal work, more consistent advice, and stronger case preparation.

How to Measure It

Impact evaluation will focus on:

• Research Efficiency – average time to locate needed information before vs. after Juris deployment.
• Usage Metrics – number of searches, active users per month, most-accessed resources.
• Content Coverage – tracking the growth and diversity of included resources.
• User Satisfaction – periodic staff surveys to capture ease of use, perceived reliability, and impact on daily work.
• Cost Savings – reduction in paid subscription hours or licenses for commercial tools.

How It Can Be Adapted

The Juris framework can be replicated or adapted by other legal aid organizations by:

• Replacing LSLA’s internal resource set with local/state-specific content.
• Hosting on a preferred secure cloud environment.
• Customizing features (e.g., adding jurisdiction-specific statutes, form libraries, or integration with case management systems).
• Expanding beyond legal research to include training manuals, policy guides, or client-facing reference material.