What really matters in 2026 when choosing a law-firm AI workspace.
EU hosting, confidentiality and whole-file AI are now offered by most providers. The six criteria below show where law-firm AI workspaces actually differ — and how Smart Legal Pro answers each one.
Full comparison: Why Smart Legal Pro →
The checklist
Six criteria for your choice
Check every provider — including us — against these six points.
Does the workspace bring its own matters?
Most law-firm AI workspaces are pure tools — they help with matters you already have, but no one acquires clients for you.
Smart Legal Pro also addresses consumers and hands over to a law firm as soon as a case gets too complex. Whether you take on such matters is your decision — the channel starts with the public launch.
Does the AI watch on its own, or does it wait for prompts?
Many workspaces offer chained flows that you have to assemble and actively start yourself.
Five watchers check every matter for free — deterministically, with no AI quota, before you even start a flow.
Is there a way in for your clients?
Law-firm AI workspaces usually stop at the firm's front door — clients keep communicating by email or phone.
A dedicated client portal: submit documents, answer follow-up questions, see approvals — logged per § 43e BRAO.
How is it billed?
In the market, we often see pure law-firm AI workspaces priced around €900–2,400 per user and year, exclusively on annual contracts — sometimes with license minimums.
A monthly, cancel-anytime subscription with fixed quotas, from your very first seat, with publicly listed prices.
Are deadlines and fees computed, or estimated?
Many workspaces let the AI phrase deadlines and fees too — with the hallucination risk that comes with it.
Deadlines and statutory fees run through deterministic calculators in code, not through the AI.
How far can the AI act on its own?
Autonomy is defined differently by different vendors — check whether sending something to court or a client really always needs your approval.
You set the autonomy level per agent; every change can be undone, and a brake prevents bulk runs after a bulk upload.
Where do the sources come from — and are they checked?
Citations are backed with varying rigour — check whether a statutory citation points to actual wording or merely sounds plausible.
Statutes and decisions are held as our own citation network; statutory citations are checked against it, and „not found“ expressly does not mean „does not exist“.
What does the AI know about the case — and from where?
Many workspaces re-search the documents on every request — ask whether that produces lasting, evidenced case knowledge.
The documents produce a fact network with a source quote for every fact and every relationship; you confirm, correct or discard each entry.
Who gets to see the matter texts in the clear?
Detection of personal data is often bought in as an extra service — ask whether that adds another processor who sees your texts unmasked.
Detection runs inside the same stack: legal forms and checksums structurally, the participants in your matter looked up in the fact graph instead of guessed. No additional provider — and which agents mask and which deliberately do not is stated openly.
Comparing law-firm AI workspaces
Common questions
Check us against exactly these criteria.
Register for free and see how the six points look in the portal yourself.