This AI Policy sets out our approach to the development and deployment of artificial intelligence in Writford. It provides transparency about our practices and principles relating to AI, including compliance with applicable laws, responsible use, data handling, and safeguards.
Research Tool, Not Legal Advice
Writford is a research and drafting assistant. Its output is AI-generated and must be verified by a qualified solicitor before use.
Your Data is Never Used for Training
We contractually prohibit all AI model providers from training on your data. Your queries are processed, then discarded.
Transparency
Every AI response includes source citations. We label source authority levels so you can assess reliability.
Human Oversight Required
All AI output requires solicitor review. We do not make legal decisions or give legal advice.
1. Purpose and Scope
Writford provides AI-powered legal research and document drafting assistance for UK solicitors (England & Wales). The service is designed to accelerate legal research and produce draft documents — it does not replace professional legal judgment, provide legal advice, or make legal decisions.
2. AI Models Used
Model
Provider
Use Case
Claude Haiku
Anthropic (via AWS Bedrock)
Standard chat, research queries, document analysis
Claude Sonnet
Anthropic (via AWS Bedrock)
Deep research, professional drafting (Pro mode)
All inference runs on AWS Bedrock in the eu-west-2 (London) region. We do not use OpenAI, Google, or other model providers.
3. Data Handling Principles
No training on your data: Anthropic is contractually prohibited from using your queries or content to train AI models under AWS Bedrock terms.
Documents stay local: Uploaded documents are parsed in your browser. Only extracted text is sent for AI processing — original files never leave your device.
Minimal retention: AI queries are processed in real-time. We do not store the content of your queries beyond what is needed for the active conversation.
PII detection: Our system automatically detects and redacts personal identifiable information (NI numbers, phone numbers, postcodes, etc.) before sending to the AI model.
4. Accuracy and Limitations
Important: AI models can make mistakes. They may occasionally cite incorrect sources, misinterpret legislation, or produce inaccurate legal analysis. All AI output must be independently verified by a qualified solicitor before being relied upon or shared with clients.
Source citations: Every research response includes clickable citations to authoritative UK legal sources (legislation.gov.uk, National Archives Case Law, SRA guidance).
Source quality scoring: Sources are scored by authority level (legislation scores highest, followed by case law, then regulatory guidance, then web sources).
Strict citation rules: Our AI models are instructed to cite ONLY from provided sources and to explicitly state when sources are insufficient rather than generating unsupported claims.
Jurisdiction focus: Writford is primarily trained on English & Welsh law. Scottish and Northern Irish law may differ — users should verify jurisdiction-specific points.
No hallucination guarantees: While we implement multiple safeguards, we cannot guarantee zero hallucinations. Professional verification is always required.
5. Safeguards
Prompt injection protection: We detect and block attempts to manipulate AI behaviour through injection patterns.
Input sanitisation: All user input is sanitised before processing.
Audit logging: All AI interactions are logged for security and compliance purposes (metadata only, not query content).
DRAFT watermark: All exported documents include a "DRAFT — For Solicitor Review Only" watermark.
Disclaimer on every response: Every AI response ends with "AI-generated — verify before relying on this."
6. Human Oversight
Writford is designed to require human oversight at every stage:
The solicitor decides what to research or draft
The solicitor reviews all AI output
The solicitor verifies all citations against primary sources
The solicitor decides whether to use, modify, or discard the output
The solicitor bears professional responsibility for any work product shared with clients or submitted to courts
We do not make legal decisions, give legal advice, or determine the outcome of any legal matter. Writford is a tool — the solicitor is always in control.
7. Compliance
Our AI practices are designed to align with:
UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018
SRA Standards and Regulations (including Principles 2 and 7)
SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors (paragraph 3.3 — competence in use of technology)
Emerging UK AI regulatory framework
8. Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy as our AI practices evolve. Material changes will be communicated to users via email. The latest version is always available at this URL.