Legal questions without a document: a structured initial assessment with clarification, deadlines, sources and chat integration

What this is about

Sometimes there is no letter to hand — but the legal question is real: a neighbour dispute, a dismissal, a fine, data protection, employment law. Until now the path was often: ask ChatGPT, get an unstructured answer, remain unsure.

From now on there is a dedicated Legal Questions area at /app/rechtsfragen: a personal library of structured initial assessments — without an upload, but with the same quality stack as the document analysis.

1. Phrasing your question — precise rather than vague

Country & context: DE, AT or CH — plus subject area (tenancy, employment, traffic, family, consumer, data protection …).
Location/region: optional, e.g. federal state or canton — important for country-specific nuances.
Minimum length of 300 characters: forces a comprehensible set of facts instead of one-sentence questions.
Tips sidebar: context-specific checklists (What, Who, When, Evidence?) — a pure UI aid, not a hidden prompt.
Voice input (dictation): the browser-native Web Speech API — free, without server tokens. Dictated text is appended to your question.

2. Preliminary clarification — 0 credits

Before the actual analysis runs, you can choose "Refine question":

The AI asks 3–6 targeted follow-up questions (e.g. date, contract in place, already responded?).
0 credits — spam protection via rate limits, not via price.
Your answers feed into the main analysis — less hallucination, less "it depends".

Alternatively: go straight to "Start analysis" (3 credits, preflight before charging).

3. Structured analysis — 3 credits

The legal-master-question edge function uses the same hardened stack as all AI features:

PII masking before the model
JSON schema + repair loop — broken answers are corrected afterwards or refunded
Country playbooks — DACH-specific rules instead of a generic chat prompt
Perplexity sources — external references with a type badge (statute, judgment, authority …)
Telemetry in prompt_runs — every run is traceable

4. Answer detail — more than Markdown

Every completed legal question shows:

Short and long version with a confidence note
Opportunities & risks — explicitly separated, honest even about the other side
Next steps — concrete, with reasoning
Legal provisions — clickable references to individual sections (a Google search as a springboard)
Source cards — favicon, hostname, type
Table of contents — a sticky TOC on desktop, printable

5. Answering open questions — without duplicate follow-ups

If gaps remain, the AI lists open questions. The OpenQuestionsPanel allows:

Typed input (date, yes/no, number, free text) — inferred from the question
Save answer — persisted in clarifications
Re-analyse — all saved answers are included as additional_answers; no duplicate follow-ups
Clarify in the chat — an alternative for a more detailed discussion

Credit cost of the re-analysis: 3 credits again, shown transparently before you click.

6. Deadlines & recommended attachments

From next_steps and obligations, the module automatically extracts:

Deadline notes ("within 14 days", fixed ISO dates)
Recommended documents — with an upload link to My Documents if you want to add evidence

Not a replacement for the Deadline Manager — but a direct jump when time is pressing.

7. Continue in the chat — the context is preserved

From every answer: "Continue in the chat". The chat is linked via legal_master_question_id — the AI knows your initial assessment, opportunities, risks and open points. No copy-paste, no loss of context.

8. Your personal library

Search & filter by category
Pin important cases
Archive instead of delete
Print for a file folder or a conversation with a lawyer

What it is not

Not legal advice — an initial assessment and orientation, not a mandate.
Not a replacement for a document upload — if a notice or contract exists, My Documents remains the more precise route.
Not contract generation — only classification and next steps.