A firm works with third parties' data and under a duty of confidentiality. That is why it is worth knowing exactly where each thing lives in JUDLEX and what goes out from the computer. The short answer: your clients' files stay on your computer, and the little that goes out does so for a specific reason that you can check.
Where your papers are stored
JUDLEX works on your computer. Splitting a dump into documents, numbering, foliating, ordering and storing all happen there.
The firm's papers are stored in a folder that JUDLEX calls the vault. By default it is inside your Documents folder, in a folder called JUDLEX, and you can choose another one in Settings → Data. It belongs to the firm: you can take it with you whenever you like.
The information JUDLEX records about those papers (clients, matters, exhibits, parties, facts) lives in an internal folder of the application that cannot be moved. This is deliberate: cloud sync services can damage this kind of file without warning while it is open.
Your originals are not touched. JUDLEX copies each file into the vault and works on the copy.
Disk encryption
JUDLEX does not encrypt the information it stores by itself. What protects your case files if someone takes the computer is the disk encryption offered by the operating system itself: FileVault on macOS and BitLocker on Windows.
JUDLEX checks that computer's disk and tells you in Settings → Data: if it is not encrypted, with an amber notice pointing to where to turn it on; if the system does not allow it to be checked, without raising the alarm and telling you where to look. With the disk encrypted, there is nothing to warn you about.
Artificial intelligence keys are stored in a file that, on macOS and Linux, only your user account can read. The JUDLEX backup does not include them, so keeping that backup on an external disk or in the cloud exposes neither the keys nor your session.
What goes out from the computer
To our server go the licence check and, only if you agree to it, the usage summary. To the artificial intelligence provider you choose goes whatever you ask it to read. We explain them one by one.
The licence
To check that the licence is current, JUDLEX contacts our server. It sends the licence key and an identifier for the computer; when the computer is first registered, also the computer's name and a fingerprint of it already reduced to a code. Nothing from your case files: no clients, no parties, no documents, no spending figures. That is why the licence keeps working even if the firm goes a few days without a connection.
What the artificial intelligence reads
When you ask JUDLEX to read a paper or ask it a question, what is needed travels straight from your computer to the provider you have chosen, using your firm's key. It does not go through us. Fragments of the case file travel, never the files.
That transmission does go out from your computer, to the provider with whom you have your own contract. That is why every button that uses artificial intelligence tells you beforehand how much it will send (documents, pages), and the heavier work, such as splitting or analysing, waits until you ask for it. With the chat's automatic steps switched on, the chat also uses your key to tell you what it sees when papers come in. How each provider handles that data is set out in its terms, which your firm should review. More detail in Add your artificial intelligence key.
If you add your own provider (a service that is not in the JUDLEX catalogue, or a server of the firm's own), what is sent to it goes to the address you entered, also directly and without going through us. JUDLEX has not reviewed that service: it handles the data under its own terms, and if it is an intermediary it may forward it to other companies. That is why, before anything is sent to it, not even the request for its list of models, JUDLEX asks you to accept a notice that says so. If the server is on your computer or the office network, what is sent does not leave for the internet, unless that server forwards it; and over the internet only encrypted addresses are accepted. More detail in Add an AI provider that is not on the list.
What you have spent with your key is recorded on your own computer, so you can see it. That tally does not leave your computer: if you accept the usage summary, the only thing it carries about artificial intelligence is how many calls were made that day, with no amount, no model and no provider.
The usage summary
The usage summary lets us find out when something is failing across several firms and which parts of JUDLEX are really used. This is how it works:
It is off by default. JUDLEX asks you only once, the first time you open it. Until you say yes, nothing is stored.
It carries only numbers. How many times the application was opened and for how many minutes it was used, which screens were visited, how many documents were processed, how many calls were made to the artificial intelligence, which sections were opened that day (Personal, Professional or both) and what failed. Not a single word from your case files: no client names, no titles, no parties, no dates from the matter, no file paths.
It is pseudonymised. It does not carry your account or your licence: it goes with an identifier that your own computer generates using a key that stays on your computer, so we cannot link it to you. It also states the JUDLEX version, the system, the language, whether you are a firm or a sole practitioner and, if you have entered it in your profile, your profession. The country and city are inferred from the connection, and the connection's address is not stored.
You can see it before it goes out. In Settings → Data, See what gets sent shows you the exact transmission.
It turns off with one click, in the same place. When you turn it off, the identifier is destroyed and whatever has built up is deleted.
Everything else
JUDLEX also asks our server whether there is a new version, and downloads the what's new notes and this documentation. No data about your firm goes in those requests: for updates, all it takes is knowing which version you have and for which system.
There are three more downloads, always from our server and checked before use: the voice model for dictating to the chat, the first time you ask for it; ffmpeg, when a viewer needs it to play an audio or video file, and you are asked first; and the public price list of the artificial intelligence models, to put an amount on what you have already spent. None of them sends anything about your firm, and the audio you dictate is transcribed on your computer and does not leave it.
If you use the Correspondence and filings extension, JUDLEX connects to your own mail server, with your account details, to read and send your messages. That email does not go through us.
What you can check for yourself
The encryption status of your disk, in Settings → Data.
What you have spent with your key and on what, in Settings → History, and how each model performs in Settings → Performance.
The exact content of the usage summary, before it is sent.
If your licence expires
You lose nothing. JUDLEX switches to read-only mode: you can open, consult, correct, delete and export all your work. What stops is creating new clients and case files, bringing in documents and any reading with the artificial intelligence, including with your own key.