Closed beta terms (version 1)

Law DB is a New Zealand legal research tool run by Rob Ashton of Ashton Legal. You have been invited to test it. By using it you agree to the following.

A research aid, not advice

• Answers are produced by an AI model working from a database of published New Zealand decisions and legislation. Every citation and quotation is checked automatically against that database, but answers can still be incomplete, out of date or wrong.
• Read the decisions you rely on. You remain responsible for any advice you give and for checking the current law.
• The database does not yet hold every decision, and its analysis of some courts is still being built.

What is kept, and what is not

• Not kept: your questions, the answers, and any files you attach. A file is read to text in memory and discarded; your conversation exists only in your browser tab and is gone when you close the tab or start a new chat. Download a PDF or Word copy of any answer you want to keep.
• Kept: your name and email, your sign-in, and a usage record for each answer: the time, the research mode, the amount of computing used (tokens and compute minutes), and the number of files attached. This is needed to manage allowances and, later, to charge for use.
• Everything runs on hardware in New Zealand under Ashton Legal's control. No question, answer or file is sent to an outside AI service.
• While this is a beta, please remove or anonymise client-identifying details where you can.

Your allowance

• Use is measured in compute minutes: the time the AI model spends on your question. A typical research answer uses a few minutes. Your remaining allowance is shown at the top of the page.
• Answers asked with Detailed ticked research more deeply and are charged at a higher rate, shown beside the switch.
• When it runs out, ask Rob for more.

Your account

• Keep your password to yourself and do not share your account. Tell Rob straight away if you think someone else has used it.
• Access may be suspended or ended at any time, and the service may be unavailable or change during the beta.

Feedback

Tell Rob what worked and what did not, especially wrong or missing authorities. That is the point of the beta.