Legal Research with AI

In the complex world of legal research, finding relevant case law and understanding its implications can be a daunting task, even for seasoned professionals. For the average citizen, navigating through dense legal documents can seem nearly impossible. This is the challenge we set out to solve with Rechten.app—a platform designed to make Dutch legal information accessible to everyone.

The Problem We’re Solving

Legal knowledge has traditionally been locked behind paywalls, complex interfaces, or buried in dense, technical language. In the Netherlands, although court decisions are publicly available, finding specific cases and extracting their relevance to your situation requires expertise and time that many don’t have.

Key challenges we identified:

• Difficulty in locating specific court decisions through ECLI references
• Lack of user-friendly interfaces for legal research
• The gap between legal language and everyday understanding
• Limited accessibility of legal knowledge for non-professionals

Rechten.app addresses these issues by providing a straightforward, intuitive platform where users can:

1. Quickly search for court decisions using ECLI identifiers
2. Ask natural language questions about Dutch law and receive AI-generated explanations
3. Access summaries and key points of legal documents without needing specialized knowledge

How It Works

The platform consists of two main components:

ECLI Search: Users can enter an ECLI reference (like ECLI:NL:HR:2006:AX9405 shown in the screenshot) to retrieve the full text of a court decision, along with metadata such as the court, date, and case number.

AI Assistant: An intelligent chat interface where users can ask legal questions in plain language. The AI draws on its knowledge of Dutch law and the specific case documents to provide informative, contextual answers.

This dual approach ensures that whether you’re a legal professional looking for specific precedents or a citizen trying to understand how the law applies to your situation, Rechten.app offers valuable assistance.

Technology Stack

Building a platform that balances robust legal research capabilities with user-friendly interfaces required a carefully selected technology stack:

While the technical implementation is complex, the user experience remains simple—just enter an ECLI or ask a question, and get clear, accurate information in return.

Impact and Future Direction

Since launching Rechten.app, we’ve seen encouraging adoption among law students, legal professionals, and citizens seeking to understand their legal rights. User feedback highlights the platform’s ability to:

• Save hours of research time for legal professionals
• Make legal concepts more accessible to non-experts
• Provide quick reference to case law during court preparations
• Help citizens understand the implications of legal decisions

We’re continuously improving the platform based on user feedback and expanding the knowledge base to cover more areas of Dutch law. Future plans include:

• Adding more visualization tools for understanding legal relationships
• Implementing features for comparing similar cases
• Creating personalized dashboards for legal professionals & students
• Expanding language support for non-Dutch speakers navigating the Dutch legal system

Conclusion

Rechten.app represents our commitment to democratizing access to legal information through technology. By combining traditional legal research methods with cutting-edge AI, we’re building a bridge between complex legal documents and everyday understanding.

Whether you’re a lawyer looking to streamline your research process or a citizen trying to make sense of a legal situation, we invite you to explore Rechten.app and experience a new way of interacting with the law.