How do we know an AI tool is using the current version of the law?

You cannot know it from the answer alone. The only reliable test is whether the tool names the source for each point and lets you open that source, so a fee earner can see for themselves which section they are looking at and whether it still reads that way. A confident paragraph with no source attached tells you nothing about how current it is.

Why AI tools drift out of date

There are two quite different things going on, and it helps to keep them apart.

The first is recall. A system that answers from what it absorbed during training is working from a snapshot. It may reproduce a section as it stood when that snapshot was taken, or blend several versions together, and it will do so in the same fluent tone it uses for everything else. It has no way of telling you that the wording moved on.

The second is retrieval. A system that goes and reads a source before answering is only as current as the source it reads. If it reads a textbook summary, a commercial commentary or a page it cached months ago, the answer inherits that lag.

Law changes in ways that are easy to miss at a glance:

• a section is amended, and the amendment is in force for some purposes only
• a provision is repealed but the repeal is not yet commenced
• secondary legislation changes figures, thresholds or time limits without touching the parent Act
• official guidance is reissued with different wording while the statute stays the same
• transitional provisions mean the old version still governs matters that started earlier

That last point is the one firms overlook. Currency is not always what you want. For a matter that began some time ago you may need the law as it stood then, which is a different question again, and one only the fee earner can frame.

What to ask a supplier

Ask plainly and expect plain answers. Useful questions include:

1. When the tool states what a section says, is it reading that section at the official source at the time of the question, or reproducing it from memory?
2. Does every point in an answer name the source it came from, and can I open that source in one step?
3. Does the tool read a provision in full, or work from a summary of it?
4. What does it do when it cannot find support for a point: does it say so, or does it fill the gap?
5. How does it handle guidance, which is often updated quietly and without a version note?
6. Where its coverage of official material is thinner, does it tell me in the answer?

The last two matter more than they look. A tool that admits a limitation is easier to supervise than one that performs evenly across everything and leaves you guessing where the soft ground is.

Be wary of an answer that rests on how much material the supplier holds. Volume is not currency. What you want to know is when the material was last read and whether you can see it yourself.

The checks that stay with the fee earner

None of this removes the checks you would do on a trainee's note.

Open the source. If the tool names a section, click through and read it. This takes seconds and is the single check that catches most problems.

Check the version. The official source may carry notes about amendments that have not been incorporated, or about provisions not yet in force. Read those notes rather than skimming past them.

Check commencement where it matters. If a provision is recent, ask whether it applies to your facts and from when.

Check the date you need. Decide, before you start, whether you want the law as it stands today or as it stood at a particular point, and say so in the question.

Note what you relied on. A short file note recording the source consulted and the date consulted is worth having if the position is later queried. It also protects the next person to pick up the file.

Where this matters most

Apply more care where change is frequent or consequential: procedural rules and practice directions, thresholds and prescribed figures, regulatory guidance, and anything where a time limit turns on the wording. Apply more care again where the same point is dealt with differently across the United Kingdom, and where official material is less complete.

Build this into supervision rather than treating it as an individual habit. If your firm's standard is that a legal proposition is not relied on until someone has opened the source and read it, that standard holds whether the proposition came from an AI tool, a search result or a colleague's recollection. The tool changes the speed at which propositions arrive; it does not change the standard.

Where Alesis fits

Alesis reads official sources at the source: legislation section by section, official guidance, and Financial Ombudsman decisions in full. Every point names its source, and official sources open in one click, so a fee earner can check the wording and the version for themselves. When it cannot find support for a point, it says what is missing instead of guessing, and where coverage of official sources is thinner, in Scotland and Northern Ireland, it says so in the answer. Alesis assists qualified professionals and does not replace them, and it does not provide legal advice.