In one sentence
The autopilot in the lawyer portal now shows a weekly overview of what got done on its own and what it cost — cleanly separating free observation from paid work.
What got done for you this week
Instead of a list of individual runs, you now see a summary phrased as outcomes: "9 documents reviewed · 2 hints about recorded deadlines · 3 case files updated · 1 dormant case flagged · used: 6% of your month · pending: 2 suggestions waiting on you." That same overview now also arrives as a Monday email — not because we assume you check the portal daily, but because you probably don't. A lawyer opens email more reliably than any add-on app, and that's exactly where the proof of what you're actually paying for belongs: not a promise, but a week you would otherwise have had to review yourself.
Two very different things run on their own
The most important point first, because it's easy to misread: "on its own" doesn't mean "AI doing something" by default. We deliberately separate two layers. Watchers only observe — they are not AI, but a purely deterministic check of your own entries: a deadline or hearing is coming up, a client hasn't replied to a request, a requested document is overdue, or a contradiction in the fact graph is still unresolved. This costs zero tokens and runs out of the box. Workers, on the other hand, are the actual agents: they read, draft, and write into the case file — that costs quota, and you decide in one place how much of it you allow at all: nothing, only observing and suggestions, or additionally finished drafts to approve.
The 15-runs brake — a safety valve we're happy to talk about
If 200 documents land in a case file at once, that shouldn't turn into 200 simultaneous AI runs. So a fixed hourly ceiling on automatic runs applies per case file; once it's reached, automation pauses briefly for that one case file and tells you so — individual runs can still always be started manually. We could hide this. We'd rather say it out loud, because that's exactly the difference between "autonomous" and "unsupervised": automation that can limit itself is automation you can actually trust. The same idea sits behind the per-case token cap (a monthly limit you set yourself) and the "pause this week" brake in the autopilot — a genuine, reversible pause for all automatic runs, for the one week you don't want them.
Why we build it this way: AI software, not law-firm management software
Smart Legal Pro is AI software for drafting, analysis, and research — deliberately not case-management software for running a firm. No beA, no service-of-process channels, no case register in the sense of firm organization. What we flag, we flag exclusively from what you yourself have recorded in a case file — we cannot know about deadlines and appointments that were never recorded, and your own deadline monitoring remains, unchanged, your responsibility. That's exactly why the regular deadline reminder stays its own, independent channel: it still goes out even if an agent run happens to fail. A deadline must never depend on AI.
Plain chat tools wait for your question. Our agents scan on their own.
That's the real difference from a general chat tool that only reacts once you type: our agents scan new mail on their own, sort it, and flag what needs attention — and that free observation runs before you've even spent a click. Only once a hint is actually meant to become preparatory work does your quota get touched. That's the difference between a tool that waits and one that thinks along.
What comes next
Today we already chain analysis and drafting automatically in one go — a reply to opposing counsel's brief can flow straight into a verified hearing preparation for the next date, without you clicking twice. Next, we want to let you assemble these chains yourself instead of only offering the ones we predefined — the foundation for that is already built; it just isn't shipped yet, on purpose.
Staying honest
A weekly review is evidence, not a victory lap for its own sake: it shows just as clearly when little happened as when a lot did. More on how it works and its limits: Autopilot in the law-firm wiki; how the co-pilot is built overall: The co-pilot that thinks along; not on board yet? For lawyers shows how to get started.
