10 Questions Every Attorney Should Ask Before Signing Up for a Legal AI Tool

Ask for their BAA (Business Associate Agreement). If they hesitate or don't know what a BAA is, walk away. Any legal AI tool that touches client records must support HIPAA requirements.

Your client documents should never be used to train their AI models. Ask explicitly: "Is my data used for model training?" The answer must be no.

Any AI summary, timeline, or contradiction flag should include the exact document, page, and paragraph it pulled from. If you can't verify the AI's work, you can't rely on it in practice.

It will be wrong sometimes. Ask how errors are surfaced, how you correct them, and whether corrections are saved. A tool with no error-correction workflow is a liability, not an asset.

PDFs, scanned records, handwritten notes, medical imaging reports, deposition transcripts — make sure it handles your specific document mix, including poor-quality scans.

Ask about user seats, permission levels, and whether a paralegal and attorney can have different access. Flat single-user tools won't scale even to a 3-person firm.

Per-matter? Per-user? Per-document? Understand the pricing model before you're locked in. Unpredictable per-document billing can make costs spike on complex cases.

"Self-serve" onboarding means you're on your own. Ask if there's a structured walkthrough, a dedicated contact, and what happens if you get stuck in week one.

Timelines, summaries, and extracted facts should be exportable to Word, PDF, or your case management system. You should never be locked into a proprietary format you can't take with you.

Month-to-month is ideal for a first tool. Ask what happens to your data if you cancel — you should be able to export everything before your account closes.