Using Court Stairs well

How do I know I can trust an answer?

• ·Every answer comes with citations because verification is the point of the product. Open at least one before you act on what you read.
• ·Check the date on the source. A statute may have been amended since it was first written. The system flags this when it knows; sometimes it does not.
• ·Hedges in the answer ("in most provinces", "this depends on jurisdiction") are doing real work. Do not strip them out when you summarize the answer to yourself.
• ·Confident phrasing is not the same as correct phrasing. Your verification is the meter.

If you would not bet a paycheck on it without reading the source, do not act on it without reading the source.

How do I ask a question that gets a useful answer?

• ·Tell us your jurisdiction. Federal, provincial, or both. Quebec is civil law, the rest of Canada is common law, and the same question can have very different answers depending on which side of that line you are on.
• ·Give the facts that matter. Dates, what was said, what was signed. Use roles, not real names ("the landlord", "the employee", "the franchisee").
• ·Ask one thing at a time. Compound questions get diluted answers. Court Stairs remembers the thread, so follow-ups are free.
• ·If the first answer is too general, push back. "Be more specific to Ontario residential tenancies" or "what about the limitation period?" gets a sharper second pass.

What should I keep out of the chat?

• ·Use roles, not personal names. "The plaintiff" works as well as a real name and protects everyone if a screenshot ever leaves the screen.
• ·Do not upload documents covered by sealing orders, settlement confidentiality clauses, or solicitor-client privilege you cannot waive.
• ·Skip full identifiers (SIN, banking, licence numbers). The system does not need them to answer the question.
• ·Sessions are stored to your account so you can come back to them. They are not training data and they are not visible to other users.
• ·If you work at a firm, treat Court Stairs the way you would treat a research memo you might one day have to disclose.

When should I close the chat and call a real lawyer?

Court Stairs is a research assistant. Research is what you do before you act. Some signs you have moved from research into a moment that needs a licensed professional:

• ·A limitation period or filing deadline is running.
• ·A document is about to be signed and you cannot easily back out of it.
• ·The other side has lawyers and you do not.
• ·The answer depends on facts you have not put in the chat (often because you cannot, for confidentiality or strategic reasons).
• ·Being wrong would cost you more than the price of a consultation.

Outside Quebec, that means a licensed lawyer or, in Ontario, a licensed paralegal in their scope. In Quebec, an avocat or notaire depending on the matter. Court Stairs can help you prepare for that meeting. It cannot replace it.

How do voice calls work?

The voice agent answers questions out loud the same way the chat does, with the same boundaries. It is good for:

• ·Walking through what a clause or article means in plain language.
• ·Explaining what a process looks like (small claims, eviction, employment standards complaint).
• ·Pointing you to the right starting source.

It will not give you a position to take in negotiation or in court, fill in details so you can use them as advice, or replace a conversation with a lawyer who has read your file. If a call starts to feel like you are asking the agent to decide for you, that is the moment to hang up and find a person.

A note on Quebec

Quebec runs on civil law. The Code civil du Québec, the Loi sur la protection du consommateur, the Loi sur les normes du travail, and the Code de procédure civile are the primary authorities for most everyday questions. Common-law cases from Ontario or BC are not authority in Quebec, and Quebec cases are not authority outside Quebec.

If your matter is in Quebec, frame your question that way (for example, "au Québec" or "Code civil"). The system will pull from the right body of law. If you switch jurisdictions mid-conversation, say so out loud, otherwise assumptions from the previous question carry over.