Local AI for law firms: working through a case file

Three dates you must not swap

The first page of a letter carries the date 3 May. The second has a confirmation of receipt dated 5 May and a handwritten „Dispatch date” field that cannot be read. The PDF file has a different creation date in its metadata. The file creation date is about the file, and it gives no basis for filling in the dispatch date or changing the date of the letter.

A useful chronology shows the date of the letter from page 1, the date of receipt from page 2 and the dispatch date as unconfirmed, with a link to page 2. The person handling the case opens the page and sees why the date stayed unconfirmed. The link needs checking too, because pointing to the wrong page is a separate error.

What it costs and when it pays back

The count covers the time spent searching, reading and compiling material. What remains is the time to check the result against the source, 25% of today's work in the scenario. We measure both times in a trial on 20 to 100 cases the team has already handled.

Weak scans and text recognition

A scanned page is an image, and OCR reads the text from it that the model receives. So an error can arise before the AI starts building the chronology. The trial needs access to both the recognised text and the page image, and the application marks illegible spots and lets you go back to them.

One computer or several people working

If one person prepares the chronology, an application on their computer is enough, and the trial covers the usual start of work with the model loading. Microsoft describes Foundry Local as a solution on the user's device for one person using the model at a time. A shared solution for a team has to handle several jobs at once, which we check on the hardware planned for the firm. Choosing hardware is covered in the post on a model on a workstation or a server.

Where to start

The first trial covers the files of one case that the firm may use in the test. For each error we record the entry, the source cited and the correct information, to find out whether the reading, the kind of date or the page assignment failed. We deploy local models as part of private LLMs, and we build the view for working with sources as an AI app. For the free review, a description of one case and the places where the materials are kept is enough. Confidential files stay in the firm, and you receive the written plan within 2 working days.