Veracity-Engine Responsible Use Policy

1. Our Philosophy: A Collaborative Endeavor

Welcome to Veracity-Engine. This document serves as a guide to our shared philosophy, establishing the principles for a productive and ethical collaboration. Our platform is designed to be a powerful co-pilot, a tool to augment your own intelligence and expertise, whether you are a seasoned legal professional or a determined pro se litigant. This policy outlines the principles of responsible use that will ensure you get the most out of the platform while upholding the highest standards of professional and ethical conduct.

2. Scope, Definitions, and Agreement

This Responsible Use Policy ("RUP") supplements the Veracity-Engine Terms of Use, or any other governing agreement or order form between Veracity-Engine ("we," "us," "our") and you, being any customer or user thereof ("you"). This RUP applies to your access to and use of Veracity-Engine's platform, website, generated output, and other products and services (collectively, the "Service").

For the purposes of this RUP:

"Input" refers to any data, prompts, questions, or other information you provide to the Service.

"Output" refers to any text, documents, or other content generated by the Service based on your Input.

"Agreement" refers to the primary contract governing your use of the Service, such as the Terms of Use. Capitalized but undefined terms used in this RUP have the meanings set forth in your applicable Agreement with us.

3. The Role of the User: You are the Final Authority

Veracity-Engine is an advanced tool, but it is a tool nonetheless. It does not, and cannot, replace your independent professional judgment. By using the Service, you acknowledge and agree that:

You are the Author: You are solely and ultimately responsible for any work product created using the Service. You are the final editor and the ultimate authority on the accuracy, completeness, and strategic soundness of any Output.

You Must Exercise Judgment: The AI provides information and suggestions, not directives. It is your responsibility to critically review, analyze, and independently validate all Output before relying on it or filing it with a court.

Compliance is Your Duty: You are responsible for ensuring that your use of the Service and any resulting work product complies with all applicable laws, court rules, and rules of professional conduct in your jurisdiction.

4. AI Output, Verification, and the Limits of Automation

The Service includes a verification architecture designed to constrain the failure modes most commonly associated with legal AI, most notably fabricated citations, misstated holdings, and ungrounded propositions. Our Proactive Authority Detection (PAD) system cross-checks propositions against source text; our Veracity Engine verifies claims against a curated legal corpus; and our Sentinel citation auditor applies Bluebook-aware review to detect and flag defective citations before Output reaches you.

This architecture materially reduces, but does not eliminate, the risk of error. You acknowledge and agree that:

• Verification is a Floor, Not a Guarantee. Our verification components are engineered to catch common hallucination patterns, but no automated system can substitute for the professional judgment of a qualified reviewer. You must independently confirm the accuracy, currency, and applicability of any Output before relying on it.
• Citations Require Independent Shepardization. Even where a citation has been verified against source text by the Service, you remain responsible for confirming, using the citator and research tools you customarily employ, that the cited authority is currently good law, has not been overruled or abrogated, and supports the proposition for which it is cited in the context of your matter.
• Technology Competence and Professional Conduct. Users who are attorneys are reminded that the duty of competence includes an obligation to understand the benefits and risks of the technology used in the representation of a client. Use of the Service does not relieve you of your obligations under applicable rules of professional conduct, including but not limited to duties analogous to ABA Model Rules 1.1 (competence), 1.6 (confidentiality), 3.3 (candor toward the tribunal), and 5.3 (responsibilities regarding nonlawyer assistance), as adopted in your jurisdiction.
• Court Disclosure Obligations. A growing number of courts and individual judges have issued standing orders regarding the disclosure of AI-assisted work product. You are solely responsible for knowing and complying with any such disclosure obligations in the forums where you practice.

5. Understanding the Unauthorized Practice of Law (UPL)

We are committed to transparency and have a clear, well-reasoned position on the critical issue of the Unauthorized Practice of Law. The following is our analysis of the issue, designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of our ethical and legal framework.

Our Position on UPL: A Summary

Argument 1: Not the Practice of Law: Veracity-Engine is a "self-help" tool, not a legal representative. It does not exercise independent legal judgment or form an attorney-client relationship, and therefore does not meet the definition of "practicing law."

Argument 2: UPL Rules' Purpose: Applying UPL rules to Veracity-Engine would contradict their core purpose of protecting the public from deception, a harm that is absent when a user knowingly interacts with a software tool.

Argument 3: The Chain of Causation: Veracity-Engine is a distinct application layer that provides structure and verification. It is the instrumental tool, not the author of the act; any potential UPL would be caused by the user's prompt and the foundational LLM's raw output.

Argument 4: The Untenability of UPL: The current UPL framework is an outdated and anti-competitive barrier to access to justice that relies on a flawed proxy for professional competence.

Our Detailed Analysis

*Our detailed analysis can be found on the UPL & Ethics page

6. Prohibited Uses

You agree not to provide any Input, nor knowingly use the Service to generate any Output, for the following purposes or in the following ways:

A. Infringing, Misappropriating, or Violating Rights

• To violate any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, or other intellectual property or proprietary rights of any person.
• To generate or disseminate content that is defamatory, libelous, or violates an individual's right to privacy or publicity.

B. Engaging in Unlawful, Deceptive, or Harmful Activities

• To violate any applicable national, federal, state, local, or international law or regulation.
• To generate or disseminate verifiably false, misleading, or deceptive information with the intent to defraud or cause harm.
• To harass, abuse, defame, disparage, or cyber-bully others.
• To discriminate against or harm individuals or groups based on legally protected characteristics or categories.
• To generate content for the purpose of impersonating others (e.g., "deepfakes") without their explicit consent.

C. Compromising Platform Integrity

• To reverse-engineer, decompile, or otherwise attempt to discover the source code or underlying components of the Service.
• To transmit or make available any malicious code, including any virus, worm, or trojan horse.
• To attempt to circumvent the technical and other safeguards set out by Veracity-Engine or our third-party service providers.

D. Involving High-Risk Use Cases Without Sufficient Human Oversight

The Service must not be used in contexts where failure or inaccuracy could lead to severe harm. You explicitly agree not to use the Service for the following without direct, independent, and final human judgment:

• Final Legal Decisions: You may not use the Output to make final, binding legal decisions without a thorough review and the application of your own independent professional judgment.
• Regulated Professional Advice: You may not use the Service to provide legal, financial, or medical advice to others unless you are a qualified and licensed professional in the relevant jurisdiction. The Service is a tool for your use, not a replacement for your professional obligations.
• Administration of Justice: You may not use the Service in any capacity for the administration of justice, law enforcement, immigration, or asylum processes where the Output could be used to adversely impact an individual's legal rights or freedoms.
• Safety-Critical Applications: You may not use the Service for any application where an inaccuracy could lead to death, personal injury, or severe property or environmental damage.

7. Enforcement and Reporting

Enforcement of this RUP is at our sole discretion. A violation may result in the suspension or termination of your account, removal of content, or other actions as detailed in the Agreement. We reserve the right to investigate any suspected violation of this RUP.

If you become aware of any Output or use of the Service that you believe violates this policy, you agree to notify us in writing without undue delay at [compliance@yourdomain.com].

Thank you for joining us on this mission to build the future of legal work, responsibly.