What CourtStairs does for lawyers vs individuals in Portugal

In short: CourtStairs is an AI legal research assistant for Portuguese and EU law that serves both practising lawyers and individuals in one product. Lawyers get deeper research with Max Mode, document drafting, case files with strategy tools (SWOT, evidence, win-probability), and meeting and call analysis, while individuals get plain-language, cited answers in Chat, with an optional Learning mode that explains the reasoning as it answers. It has a free tier (€0 for 15 credits and 2 minutes of voice per month), with paid plans starting at €49.99 per seat per month.

CourtStairs is an AI legal research assistant for Portuguese law, and for the EU law that applies alongside it. The same product is used by a lawyer building a case file and by a tenant who just wants to know where they stand, which sometimes makes it hard to describe. This post separates the two: what the product does for a practising lawyer, and what it does for a regular person or student, using the same underlying tools.

One thing first. CourtStairs is a research tool, not a lawyer: it gives you legal information to act on, and it cites its sources so you can check them. It is grounded in Portuguese and EU law, in English and European Portuguese. What follows is a tour, not a pitch.

What does CourtStairs do for individuals and students?

For a non-lawyer, CourtStairs turns a plain-language question into a cited answer you can act on. Most of what you need lives in one place: Chat. You ask a question in everyday words (for example, "how much notice does my landlord have to give before raising the rent?") and you get a written answer with a citation table showing the sources it relied on, in the Diário da República or EUR-Lex, plus web references, and a few suggested follow-up questions so you know what to ask next.

1. Ask in plain languageType your question in English or European Portuguese — no legal terms required.
2. Read the cited answerGet a direct answer with a citation table pointing to statutes like the Código Civil or NRAU.
3. Turn on Learning modeHave it explain the reasoning as it answers, for the same 1 credit as a normal message.
4. Check the sourceFollow each citation to the primary law and decide whether you need a lawyer.

Two things make this usable for a non-lawyer rather than intimidating.

The first is Learning mode. It answers your question and explains the reasoning as it goes: what a term means, why one rule applies instead of another, instead of assuming you already speak the language of statutes. It is built for students and people without legal training, and it costs the same as a normal message.

The second is that the answer is cited. You are not asked to trust a paragraph on faith; you can see where each point comes from and follow it to the source. For someone deciding whether a problem is worth a lawyer's time, that is often the whole value: a grounded, readable answer to "do I actually have a case here?" without paying a consultation fee to find out.

Students get a second use out of the same tool, working through a doctrine or a line of decisions with Learning mode on, and checking their understanding against the citations rather than a textbook's summary.

Real questions people bring to Chat look like the topics covered in our explainers — for example, rent increases and notice periods under the NRAU or notice and severance when a job ends under the Código do Trabalho. CourtStairs answers the same kind of question with citations you can open.

The Free plan exists for exactly this: 15 credits and 2 minutes of voice per month, at no cost. One credit is one message, so that is fifteen real questions before you decide whether to pay for more.

What does CourtStairs do for lawyers and firms?

For a practising lawyer, CourtStairs is a research, drafting and case-strategy workspace, not just a chatbot. Chat is the front door, not the whole building — the work happens across four surfaces.

Chat is still where research starts, but a lawyer will reach for Max Mode more often: a deeper, wider search with stronger reasoning, for the questions where a fast answer is not good enough. It costs 2 credits instead of 1. And when the output is a document rather than an explanation, Draft mode produces it into a side-by-side canvas you can edit and export.

Cases is where a matter actually lives. A case file holds its documents and its chats in one place, and layers AI strategy on top: a SWOT analysis, an evidence view, similar cases, a mind map, a win-probability estimate, and a theory of the case. This is the part built specifically for how litigators think: not just answering questions, but pressure-testing a position before you commit to it.

Meetings turns a recording into something searchable. Upload it and you get a transcription, an AI summary, and a mind map; you can search the transcript for a specific exchange and send any part of it straight into Chat, useful for client intake and witness prep where the exact wording matters.

Calls lets you phone an AI legal assistant and get answers grounded in Portuguese and EU law and your own research history. The call is recorded, transcribed, and summarized, so a question you asked while away from your desk does not vanish.

Around these, a few supporting tools: a legal-news feed, a document store holding both generated drafts and official forms, and a Microsoft Word add-in so you can draft in place instead of copying text back and forth.

How do lawyers and individuals use the same product differently?

The features do not change between the two audiences — what changes is which ones you lean on. Individuals live in Chat with Learning mode; lawyers add Cases, Meetings, Calls and Max Mode.

What do the four Chat answer modes do?

Chat has four answer modes: Default and Draft cost 1 credit, Max Mode costs 2, and Learning explains as it answers for the standard 1 credit. Here is what each does:

• Default: a standard cited answer. 1 credit.
• Max Mode: a deeper, wider search with stronger reasoning. 2 credits.
• Draft: produces a document into a side-by-side canvas you can edit and export. 1 credit.
• Learning: explains as it answers, for students and non-lawyers. 1 credit.

The four surfaces (Chat, Cases, Meetings, Calls) share the same research engine, so a citation you find in Chat, a document in a Case, and a transcript in Meetings all draw on the same grounding in Portuguese and EU law. That is the point of putting them in one product rather than four.

How much does CourtStairs cost?

CourtStairs has a free tier at €0 (15 credits, 2 minutes of voice per month); paid plans are Pro at €49.99 and Plus at €99.99 per seat per month, with custom Enterprise pricing. Pricing is per seat, per month, in euros. One credit is one message; Max Mode costs 2 credits.

If you run out of credits, top-up packs are available and never expire, in sizes of 15, 35, and 75 credits.

Which plan should you choose?

Start Free if you have one question, choose Plus for daily research, and Enterprise for a firm that needs case files and drafting for a team. If you have a single question and want a grounded, readable answer, start Free and turn on Learning mode. If you do legal research most days, Plus is built for the volume. And if you are a firm that wants case files, meeting analysis, and drafting in one place, that is what Cases, Meetings, and the Word add-in are for.

CourtStairs answers Portuguese and EU legal questions in plain language, in English and European Portuguese, with citations you can verify.