The first thing a client says is always can you do mine, and you haven't seen a single document yet. Then you spend a fortnight chasing paperwork, and after the third chase two things are still missing. Every day someone asks where my matter is up to, you answer each one by hand, and the time you need for real thinking gets cut to pieces.
These six all sit outside professional judgement. None of them needs a licence, and all of them eat your time.
NowA new client comes in and the first twenty minutes go on background: what status they hold, what has been lodged before, whether anything is running out of time. You get to the end of it and find out you can't act for them.
Once it's inThe background is collected before you meet them, using the questions you wrote, and reaches you as a summary you can read in three minutes. It collects, it doesn't conclude. When the client asks whether it can be done, the answer is that a licensed person has to look at it first.
NowYou send the list and half of it comes back. Who is missing what, and how many times you've asked, lives in someone's head.
Once it's inWhat each person still owes and how long until the deadline gets watched. Reminders go out at the pace you set, what arrives is ticked off the list on its own, and all you see is the list of names.
NowWhere's my matter up to is the most common question and the least useful. You open the file, think about the wording, answer them one at a time, and if you don't, they ring.
Once it's inEvery time a matter moves, the client gets an update in wording you've approved: which stage it's at and what happens next. No timeframe promised, no outcome hinted at. They stop chasing.
NowDo documents need translating, how do you charge. You answer that several times a day. None of it's hard. What hurts is that it lands whenever it likes and pulls you out of a file.
Once it's inPure process and admin questions get answered in wording you've approved, with a line at the end saying anything about their own situation is decided by a licensed person. The moment it drifts towards the individual matter it doesn't guess and doesn't extend, it hands over to you. That line is the whole condition for using this in a licensed practice.
NowSetting a time takes four or five messages, changing it takes four or five more, and when someone doesn't turn up that hour is gone.
Once it's inAvailable times come out under your rules, the client picks, and time zones are worked out for them. Reminders go out on time and anyone who misses gets followed up straight away.
NowDocuments are scattered through email, chat apps and your camera roll, named every which way.
Once it's inWhat comes in is filed under the right client and the right matter, named the same way every time, with clear versions. Finding something from two years ago is one search.
Monday morning.At the top is the pile that has to be looked at by you today: two with deadlines, one where the client's situation has changed. Under that is who is stuck.
Tuesday.A new client is coming in this afternoon. You read the background summary before you see them, so twenty minutes of questions becomes two.
Wednesday.Nobody asks where their matter is up to. Not because they stopped caring, because the update went out yesterday.
Friday.You spend the afternoon writing the one piece of advice that actually needs your head, and nothing interrupts you.
The change isn't how much judgement AI made for you. It made none. The change is that the work which never needed your licence is no longer done by you.
Whether a matter can be run, which path to take, whether to sign, is practice. Only a licensed person makes that call and puts their name to it. AI must not give it, must not hint at it, and must not leave a client thinking they've been advised. Everything that goes out should say the formal advice of the licensed person is what counts.
Every summary, list and draft update has to be read by a person before it's used. However neat it looks, the responsibility doesn't move.
Where client material sits, who can see it, whether it gets used for training and whether it can be deleted all get settled before you install anything. A conflict check is a person's job, full stop.
A refusal, a loss, a claim declined. How you say it and when you say it is the hardest part of this work. The person sitting across from them has to be you.
You don't do all six at once. Some practices are stuck on intake, some on chasing documents, some on clients asking for updates every day. In a licensed practice there's one more question: which one can move first and still sit inside your obligations.
Run the free check. Five minutes.
The questions are asked in your trade's language. You get a score on the spot, the three things to install first, and a report where every point traces back to one of your answers.
Start the free check · 5 minutes Want to see what the member area installs? Plans and pricingThat's the first thing to nail down before you install anything. What it may say and what it may not is written as a hard boundary, not left to its own sense of proportion. The moment the conversation turns towards whether their situation can be run, it stops and hands over to you. Anything that can't do that shouldn't go live.
Work through it first: where the data sits, who can see it, whether it gets used for training and whether it can be deleted. Your duty of confidentiality doesn't loosen because you changed tools. The safe way is to start with the steps that carry no identifying information.
It doesn't answer it, and that's the right behaviour. Its job is to get the background, set out the documents and book the time, then tell the client that a licensed person has to look at it before anyone can say. By the time you meet them, the background is already sorted.
This page can't give you a compliance opinion. How your practice rules and advertising rules apply is for you and your compliance adviser to settle. The direction is: keep it to admin and communication, keep a person reviewing, keep records you can produce, and say plainly that the licensed person's formal advice is what counts.