Guide · AI for lawyers
AI that knows your case file: today's filing, not its training data
A general-purpose chatbot answers about the law in the abstract. It doesn't know what the court published in your proceeding this week, or what the answer your firm just received actually says. This guide explains why, and what changes when the AI reads the matter.
It's Monday and you have a hearing on Thursday. You ask a general-purpose chatbot what the court decided in last week's order and what the defendant's answer says about the contract date. The reply sounds confident and talks about how such cases usually go. It doesn't mention the order, because it has never seen it. Or the answer, because it never read it.
Why the chatbot doesn't know your proceeding
A language model answers from two things: what was in the data it was trained on, and what you type into the conversation. Nothing else exists for it.
- Its knowledge has a cutoff date. The training data stops on a given day, and whatever the court published afterwards —yesterday's order, the hearing date, the notice to respond— isn't there.
- It doesn't check your proceeding's court portal. Even if the portal is public, the chatbot doesn't know your case number and won't look again tomorrow.
- It doesn't have the matter's documents. It only sees what you paste, and a fragment copied by hand loses the rest of the file: the evidence that contradicts it, the power of attorney, the service of process.
That's why the answer stays abstract. The model isn't bad: it's missing the case file.
How Custodio solves it
Custodio doesn't ask the model to remember your proceeding: it hands it over.
- Judicial monitoring brings the portal into the matter. You add the proceeding's number and, where the Service offers that lookup in your country, Custodio checks the official court portal periodically and brings new filings into the matter —and court publications, where the portal publishes them— with an alert when something new appears.
- Your firm's documents become searchable. When you upload a document to the matter, Custodio extracts its text, splits it into passages and indexes them. When you ask, it looks for the relevant passages among that matter's documents and answers from them, citing which document each part comes from.
- The matter's state updates itself. With every new document and filing, the AI re-evaluates the state of the matter: where it stands and what needs your attention, with the facts behind it, each fact tied to the passage of the document it came from. What it proposes, a person decides.
- The timeline joins the portal and the firm. Portal filings and publications, uploaded documents, facts and the firm's notes sit in one chronological order, so "what happened and when" is answered from the case file, not from a guess.
Ask your own matter, not the internet
Create a free account, add a proceeding you already handle and upload a document. Your next question gets answered from that case file, with the citation to where it comes from.
Create your free accountFrom Claude, too
If you already work in Claude, you connect Custodio once through the MCP connector and ask about your matters without switching windows. Claude reads the state, timeline and evidence of the matters the person who authorized it can see, and nothing is written to your firm without a person's approval. How to connect it is in the Claude section of the AI for lawyers page.
What this page doesn't promise
- It isn't real time. The AI knows what the portal had published the last time Custodio checked it. If the portal is down or publishes late, that arrives late too, and the portal remains the official source (Terms, Section 6).
- Coverage depends on the country and the court. Monitoring works where the Service offers it in your country; whatever isn't monitored, you add yourself as a document.
- It doesn't replace your judgment. What the AI produces is support material, not legal advice: check every answer against the document it cites (Terms, Section 21).
- It draws on your plan's allowance. Every question uses AI credits from the monthly allowance your plan includes.
The other three problems with generic AI
This is one of the four problems the AI for lawyers page takes on. The other three are the citations a chatbot makes up, the professional secrecy of what you paste into it, and the actions an AI shouldn't take without your approval.
Frequently asked questions about AI and your case file
Does Custodio's AI know what the court published today?
It knows what the official court portal had published the last time Custodio checked it, for the proceedings you monitor and where the Service offers that lookup in your country. It isn't real time: it depends on the portal being up and publishing on time, and the portal remains the official source.
Does it answer using documents from other matters?
No. A question is answered from the documents of the matter you ask it in, and the terms of use say so plainly: data from matters other than the selected one is never sent to the AI provider.
Can I ask these questions from Claude?
Yes. Through the MCP connector, Claude reads the state, timeline and evidence of the matters the person who authorized it can see. Anything it writes to your firm needs a person's approval.
Does the answer replace my own review of the case file?
No. What the AI produces is support material, not legal advice: check each answer against the document it cites, and critical procedural information against the official portal.
Ready to ask your own case file?
Create your free account, monitor a proceeding and upload a real document. No card required.