Safety & compliance

When you chat with Zara — our AI assistant — you're receiving general legal information. This is information about what the law generally says in your jurisdiction. It is not legal advice.

Legal advice is what a licensed lawyer gives you after they've formally engaged with you, reviewed your specific facts and documents, and considered the strategic implications for your particular case. Two cases with similar surface facts can need completely different advice. That's a lawyer's job.

Zara's role is to help you understand the landscape, prepare good questions, and decide whether you need a lawyer at all. If you do, we connect you with one we've verified.

Every lawyer we match you with has cleared the same verification process:

• Bar registration check. In South Africa, against the Legal Practice Council (LPC). In Nigeria, against the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). We confirm active, in-good-standing status.
• Identity verification. Government-issued ID matched to the bar registration.
• Practice number.We record and display the lawyer's practice number on the match handoff so you can independently verify them.
• NDA. Every lawyer signs a non-disclosure agreement covering anything you share through Legal Buddy.
• Ongoing review. We monitor for complaints and re-verify standing at least annually. Lawyers who fall out of good standing are removed.

This matters and is easy to misunderstand. Privilege does not begin when you talk to Zara. Conversations with our AI are not privileged. We treat them confidentially under POPIA / NDPA, but they are not protected by attorney-client privilege.

Privilege starts the moment you are formally engaged with a matched lawyer — usually when you sign their engagement letter or terms of representation. Anything you tell that lawyer from that point forward is protected.

If you have something genuinely privileged to share, share it directly with your lawyer after engagement, not in the intake chat.

Legal Buddy operates under POPIA(South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013) and Nigeria's NDPA(Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023). In both, we act as the "responsible party" for the data we hold on you.

• We never sell your data.
• We never share your data with third parties without your explicit consent, except where compelled by law.
• We do not train AI models on your conversations.
• You can request export or deletion of everything we hold via /data-deletion or by emailing privacy@legal-buddy.co.za. We action these within seven days.

Full detail in our privacy policy.

Legal Buddy is not for emergencies. If someone is in immediate danger, contact local emergency services before using our service:

• South Africa: 10111 (police), 10177 (ambulance)
• Nigeria: 112 (universal emergency line)

Once safe, come back. Zara can help you understand next steps and we can match you with a lawyer who handles the kind of matter you're facing.

Email safety@legal-buddy.co.za if you experience or witness:

• A matched lawyer behaving unprofessionally, being unresponsive after engagement, or quoting fees that differ from what was agreed.
• Any safety issue on the platform itself — content that shouldn't be there, a security concern, suspected impersonation.
• Any behaviour that might amount to professional misconduct under the LPC, NBA, or relevant body.

We respond within 24 hours and treat these reports as urgent. We will independently report serious misconduct to the relevant bar when we have credible evidence to do so.

We update this page as regulations, our verification process, or our jurisdictions change. The effective date above always reflects the most recent revision. Material changes are summarised in our next monthly user update.