For a South African law firm, AI is safe and useful at the front of the matter and dangerous in the middle of it. Intake, conflict-check questions, fee-structure explanations and appointment booking are all routine, repetitive and answerable from what the firm already publishes. Legal advice is not, and a chatbot that drifts into it exposes the firm rather than helping it.
What should a law firm let a chatbot do?
- Take the intake. Name, contact details, matter type, urgency, whether there is a court date — the same questions a secretary asks, asked consistently, at any hour.
- Explain how the firm charges. Consultation fee, whether the first consult is free, hourly versus fixed fee, what a deposit covers. This is public information and answering it fast converts.
- Book the consultation against whichever diary you nominate.
- Answer the practical questions — where the offices are, parking, what documents to bring, which languages the firm works in.
- Route by matter type. A conveyancing enquiry, a labour matter and a deceased estate go to different people. The bot can put each in front of the right person immediately instead of into a shared inbox.
What must it never do?
| Enquiry | Correct behaviour |
|---|---|
| "Do I have a case?" | Refuse. Book a consultation |
| "How much will I get?" | Refuse. That is advice with a number on it |
| "What does section 189 mean for me?" | Explain the process generally; refuse the application to their facts |
| "Can you look at my contract?" | Take the matter details, escalate to an attorney |
| "What is your consultation fee?" | Answer, from the firm's own published fee |
| "Am I speaking to an attorney?" | Say what it is. Never imply otherwise |
The distinction that matters is between information and advice. Explaining that a CCMA referral has a thirty-day time limit is information and is on a hundred websites. Telling somebody whether their referral is still in time is advice about their facts, and no chatbot should be anywhere near it.
Is this a professional-conduct risk?
It is a risk worth taking seriously and it is manageable. Three things keep it manageable: the bot is grounded only in what the firm publishes and refuses everything else rather than improvising; it identifies what it is when asked; and every conversation is logged so the firm can see what was said. A bot that invents an answer about a limitation period is the failure mode to design against, and grounding plus a refusal rule is how you design against it. If you are unsure where your professional obligations sit, raise it with your risk committee before you switch anything on — not after.
What about privilege and POPIA?
An intake conversation is not privileged in the way a consultation is, but it is personal information and it is often sensitive. The safe configuration is minimal collection — enough to route and book, not a narrative of the matter — with the data in a store belonging to the firm and deletable on request. Our piece on AI and POPIA covers the Act; privilege is a separate question and one for the firm's own risk view.
What does it cost?
A small firm is a Starter build at R299 a month plus R250 once-off — R549 at checkout. Firms wanting matter-type routing, several diaries and stricter refusal rules usually sit on Pro at R1 199 a month. Month to month, no contract. If the bigger problem is the shared inbox rather than the website, our AI email assistant starts at R349 a month.
The distinction is not between simple questions and hard ones. It is between what the firm has already published and what would require somebody to apply it to a stranger's facts.
What is the realistic gain?
Fewer enquiries lost between Friday evening and Monday morning, and a secretary who is not answering the fee question for the ninth time that day. It will not win work that was never going to come, and it will not shorten a matter. Judge it on how many after-hours enquiries you currently never reply to.
Where we do this
We run AI for law firms for businesses across South Africa. Pietermaritzburg, Bloemfontein and Sandton each have a page covering what is different about doing it there, down to the suburbs and the languages.