Frequently Asked Questions
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Agentic, Data & Source (ADS) is the AI legal platform built specifically for pro-se litigants — people representing themselves in court without an attorney. It generates court-ready documents, performs jurisdiction-specific research, tracks every filing deadline, and explains every step in plain English. ADS was built and battle-tested by a pro se in four concurrent active matters, including a federal RICO case and a Ninth Circuit appeal.
No. ADS is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Use of ADS does not create an attorney-client relationship. See our UPL Disclaimer.
ADS was founded by Dustin L. Clemons, a pro se litigant in four concurrent matters: LASC 25STCV11123, C.D. Cal. 5:25-cv-01404 (RICO), 9th Cir. 25-6944, and C.D. Cal. 5:25-cv-03000. The platform is operated by Agentic Agentic Enterprises. All four cases are listed on our Proof page.
The Clemons Format™ is a document layout derived from filings authored by Dustin L. Clemons and accepted by California state court, U.S. District Court, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. It standardizes captions, section ordering, verification language, and proof-of-service patterns for pro se litigants. Reference templates are here.
Create a free account with just your email — 10 lifetime questions unlock instantly. After that, pay only for what you need: $0.50 for 1 question, $1.99 for 5, $4.99 for 20, or $9.99 for 50. Generated documents $4.99, e-sign envelopes $2.99, document upload for counsellor review $1.99 (new V1.9). If you litigate regularly, subscribe: Essential $9.99/mo, Unlimited $19/mo, or Practitioner $79/mo (the multi-matter pro-se tier · unlimited doc uploads · 1 free Risk Score/month · 1 free Office Hours/month · API). Risk Management is a separate product line: Ask the Founder $19 group · Get Grilled $99 private · Document Risk Score $79. Annual subs save 17%. See /pricing.html for the full matrix.
Just an email gets you a free account with 10 lifetime questions, full dashboard access, all four counsellors (Para, Agentic, Data, Source), deadline tracking, and thread saving. No credit card. No trial. No expiry. Generated documents, e-signatures, and document uploads for counsellor review require a micro-purchase or subscription — but the questions, research, and dashboard are yours from day one. Risk Management sessions ($19/$79/$99) are available to everyone, paid or free.
ADS covers all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia for practical guidance, plus federal trial and appellate courts. Court-formatted templates currently include California Superior Court, U.S. District Courts, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
ADS verifies every citation against authoritative case-law databases before output. AI models can hallucinate. Users are responsible for confirming each citation against the official reporter and the current version of the cited statute or rule before filing.
The four Counsellors are persona-tuned AI agents: Para handles paralegal-speed tasks, Agentic orchestrates strategy across the case, Data performs research and citation-checking, and Source drafts and shapes documents. All four are accessible from the Chambers chat workspace at ask.adslaw.ai.
Visit /account/cancel.html and complete the three-step flow (review, reason, confirm). You retain access until your current billing period ends. We do not charge after cancellation.
Visit /account/delete.html. You will type DELETE to confirm, then check two consent boxes. Deletion is queued immediately; there is a 30-day undo window during which you can email support@adslaw.ai to restore the account.
No. ADS is a software platform. Output from ADS is not legal advice and does not establish an attorney-client relationship. Always consult a licensed attorney admitted in your jurisdiction before relying on any output for legal action.
ADS offers an E-File integration at efile.adslaw.ai for courts that accept third-party electronic filing. For courts that require their own e-filing system, ADS exports documents in PDF and DOCX formats ready to upload to the court's portal.
Documents in the Clemons Format have been filed and accepted by the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles (Case 25STCV11123), the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (Cases 5:25-cv-01404 and 5:25-cv-03000), and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (Case 25-6944). All four matters are listed on our Proof page.
Yes. ADS encrypts data at rest and in transit. We do not sell user data. We retain audit logs for compliance and payment records for tax purposes per our Privacy Policy. Users can request deletion at any time.
No. ADS does not use customer content to train AI models unless the user explicitly opts in. Default setting is opt-out. See Privacy Policy section 4 for details.
Yes. ADS is built specifically for pro-se litigants — people representing themselves without an attorney. The platform's founder is a pro-se litigant in four active federal and state cases. The Practitioner tier ($79/mo) is built for the pro-se warrior carrying multiple matters concurrently — RICO, appeals, state court, administrative complaints — all in one workspace.
Microtransaction credits are non-refundable once consumed. Unconsumed credits are refundable for 30 days from purchase. Subscriptions can be canceled anytime; you retain access until the end of the current billing period. See Refund & Cancellation Policy.
LegalZoom and Rocket Lawyer focus on form-fill document automation. ADS focuses on litigation support: AI-driven research, drafting, citation-checking, and court-accepted document templates. ADS is built by an active pro se litigant for active litigation, not consumer paperwork.
ADS is technically accessible from any country but the legal content is U.S. jurisdiction-focused (50 states, D.C., federal courts). Non-U.S. users can use the platform for general research and document structure but should consult local counsel for jurisdiction-specific work.
ADS commits to 99.5% monthly uptime per our SLA. Service credits are issued for downtime exceeding the commitment. Maintenance windows are scheduled and announced in advance.
Email security@adslaw.ai for security disclosures and support@adslaw.ai for bug reports. Security disclosures are acknowledged within 24 hours. Critical vulnerabilities receive a CVE acknowledgment if applicable.
Yes — via Risk Management, a separate product line: Ask the Founder ($19, group of up to 6, 30 min) · Get Grilled by the Founder ($99, private 1-on-1, 30 min) · Document Risk Score ($79, async statistical analysis cross-referenced against the founder's own federal-court filings). The line is 1 (800) 237-4899 — you call at your scheduled time and enter the 6-digit passcode from your booking confirmation. The founder is not a licensed attorney; nothing in Risk Mgmt is legal advice or creates an attorney-client relationship. For free anytime, the four AI counsellors (Para, Agentic, Data, Source) answer questions in the chat.
RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c) and (d)) is a federal statute providing civil and criminal liability for patterns of racketeering activity. ADS can assist with RICO drafting because the platform's founder is currently appealing a pro se federal RICO complaint to the Ninth Circuit (Case 25-6944). RICO requires pleading specific predicate acts — the platform's research engine is tuned for this requirement.
Documents generated in the Clemons Format™ display the trademark stamp on every page. The format itself is not citable as legal authority — it is a structural template. Substantive citations within ADS-generated documents come from the underlying case-law database and should be verified against the official reporters before filing.
Yes. The right to self-representation is constitutionally protected and was reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806 (1975). Every state and federal court in the United States must accept filings from pro se (self-represented) litigants, and judges are required to liberally construe pro se filings (Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519 (1972)). You are not doing something unusual — 73% of civil cases in state courts already involve at least one self-represented party. ADS exists so you can do it well.
That's exactly who ADS was built for. The four Counsellors (Para, Agentic, Data, Source) give you the same document quality, citation-bound research, and strategic thinking opposing counsel uses — without the $300–$700 hourly bill. Your filings will meet the court's exact formatting standards, your deadlines will be tracked, and the Latin phrases in their motions will get translated into plain English with suggested response strategies.
Specificity and verification. Generic AI doesn't know your court's local rules, doesn't format documents to jurisdiction specifications, can't track your deadlines, and frequently hallucinates citations. ADS verifies every citation against authoritative case-law databases (CourtListener / 6.7M cases) before output, applies jurisdiction-specific formatting automatically, and is updated as rules change. Generic AI gives you confident-sounding text. ADS gives you something you can file.
Yes — V1.9.0 ships document upload for counsellor review. Tap the paperclip in the chat composer, drop your PDF, and the four counsellors (Para, Agentic, Data, Source) read it in their context window for the rest of that thread. Quotas: Essential 3/mo · Unlimited 15/mo · Practitioner unlimited. Free accounts cannot upload; PayG is $1.99 per document if you don't want to subscribe yet. PDFs only for now (DOCX coming). Your source PDF is deleted from ADS systems within 24 hours; the text excerpt persists with the thread.
Risk Management is a separate product line: Ask the Founder ($19, group, 30 min), Get Grilled by the Founder ($99, private 1-on-1, 30 min), and Document Risk Score ($79, async statistical scoring by the Aegis Engine). Risk Management is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. The founder is not a licensed attorney. It exists for pro-se litigants who can't afford a $400/hr lawyer and want lived-experience guidance or statistical document analysis. The chat (Para/Agentic/Data/Source) is AI-only legal research and drafting; Risk Management is human-led (live tiers) or software-only (Aegis). See /risk-management.html and the structural legal explanation at /upl.html#risk-management.
When you upload a court document, the Aegis Engine auto-detects the jurisdiction (e.g., C.D. Cal., 9th Cir., LASC), then runs a TF-IDF cosine similarity against an indexed corpus of the founder's own court filings in that same jurisdiction. Output example: "Your motion scores 78% structural similarity vs the founder's C.D. Cal. filings (n=23 comparable docs)." It's a comparison metric, not a prediction of outcome — the founder's wins don't predict yours. The corpus includes 1,300+ filings from four active federal and state matters. The founder never sees your uploaded document; the engine deletes it within 24 hours of report delivery.