Law as a service · Kenya

The file is built before the lawyer opens it.

Most people never have the first legal conversation, because in Kenya there is no lawful cheap first hour. LASS prepares the whole matter on proxy data first — so what you pay an advocate for is the review and the signature, not the typing.

LASS/QC/0416Nyeri County

THE ASSISTANT CHIEF
[SUB-LOCATION] SUB-LOCATION

RE: REQUEST FOR CLARIFICATION — BOUNDARY DETERMINATION, PARCEL [PARCEL NO.]

I write in respect of the boundary determination made at the baraza held on [DATE] concerning the parcel registered in the name of [REGISTERED OWNER].

I respectfully request written clarification on three points: the basis on which the boundary was fixed, whether the Land Registrar was notified under the relevant provisions, and the procedure by which I may seek review.

I raise this in good faith and would prefer resolution at this level.

Yours faithfully,
[COMPLAINANT]

DRAWN BY [PANEL ADVOCATE] · Advocates
Advocate of the High Court of Kenya

Statement of facts

Why the first conversation never happens

63% of Kenyans faced one or more legal problems over four years — roughly 18 million people. Around half of those problems never reached resolution.HiiL Justice Needs & Satisfaction, Kenya

Fewer than one in three people with a legal problem seek advice from anyone at all. Most turn to family, friends, or the chief.World Justice Project

About 17,000 practising advocates serve some 57 million people, and 63% of law firms sit in Nairobi.Law Society of Kenya · market data

The Advocates (Remuneration) Order fixes minimum fees and bills attendance per fifteen minutes or part thereof. Charging below it is misconduct.Advocates Act, Cap 16

State legal aid runs offices in five counties out of forty-seven, and the Legal Aid Fund that would pay providers has never been meaningfully financed.National Legal Aid Service

The move

The expensive part is not the judgment. It is the preparation for the judgment.

The chain

Three steps, one file

Each step hands the next one a finished artefact. Nothing is retyped, and nothing is paid for twice.

01 — Quick clarity

Do I even have a case?

A plain-language read of your situation, ending in something you can hand over: a clarification letter to a chief, landlord, employer or county office.

KSh 500 / month
02 — Case simulation

See it before you pay for it

The full matter drafted on proxy data — filings, filled templates, correspondence. You see the shape and cost of your case before a lawyer is involved.

KSh 1,000 / month
03 — Check & sign

An advocate signs it

A panel advocate reviews the file, replaces proxy data with your real details, and issues a scoped written opinion under their own endorsement. Because the file arrives prepared, review takes about thirty minutes.

Published fee band

Both subscriptions free for three months

Worked case · Demonstration

The same matter, carried through both tiers

An intestate succession concluded in August 2026. Every name, identifier, location, coordinate and date below has been replaced. The procedure, the statutory citations and the outcome are real.

No person, parcel, registry or officer named here exists. Nothing in this pack is advocate-issued.

Tier 1 · Quick clarityKSh 500 / month·6 days

An unofficial fee, met with the law that governs official fees

The petitioner needed a chief's counter-signature on a succession letter. She was told KSh 10,000 was payable. She had no advocate and could not afford one.

The engine did not tell her to refuse, and did not tell her to complain. It produced a letter asking four procedural questions that a lawful fee can answer and an unlawful one cannot.

Fee withdrawn. Sign-off obtained. Nothing paid. The letter never accused anyone, which is precisely why the officer could step back without losing face.

10,000KSh not paid
500KSh spent
6Days
0Advocate hours
LASS/QC/2211Nakuru County

FORMAL REQUEST — ESTATE OF SAMUEL KIPTOO RONO (DECEASED)

To: Chief Alice Njoki, Township Location, Nakuru
From: Mercy Chepkoech Rono, ID No. 29517640
Re: Requested KES 10,000 fee for confirmation of succession letter

Mercy is ready to pay any lawful official fee. Before payment, we respectfully request:

  1. The law, regulation, Gazette Notice, fee schedule or Service Charter authorising the charge.
  2. The exact Government service for which the amount is payable.
  3. The official Government payment channel.
  4. An official Government of Kenya receipt showing the amount paid and the service provided.

Article 201(a) of the Constitution requires openness and accountability in public financial matters. Section 68 of the Public Finance Management Act, 2012 requires public money to be handled lawfully and with proper records.

This request is made respectfully and is not an allegation of wrongdoing.

MERCY CHEPKOECH RONO · ID No. 29517640

Tier 2 · SimulationKSh 1,000 / month·Proxy data

The filing, built before a lawyer is paid

REPUBLIC OF KENYA
IN THE CHIEF MAGISTRATE'S COURT AT NAKURU
IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF
SAMUEL KIPTOO RONO (DECEASED)

P&A FORM 5 — SCHEDULE OF ASSETS (EXTRACT)

ItemAssetParcel no.Value
A1Land, Kiamunyi
approx. 0.25 acre		NAKURU/KIAMUNYI/4187[value]
A2Land, Kiamunyi
approx. 0.47 acre		[pending official search][value]
L1Liabilities, if any[details][amount]

Simulation flag — A2 cannot be averred until an official search confirms the registered proprietor. The engine will not populate an ownership averment from coordinates.

With the chief's confirmation secured, the same matter becomes a full simulated cause: P&A Forms 80, 12 and 5, a sole-heir declaration under section 29 of the Law of Succession Act, and an asset schedule.

Note what the engine refuses to do. Where no official search exists, the ownership averment stays blank. A system that declines to guess a fact a court will rely on is worth more than one that fills every field.

Tier 3 · Check & signPublished fee band·30 minutes

Where the advocate takes responsibility

Everything above is a template until a practising advocate reviews the file, substitutes verified identifiers for proxy data, and accepts responsibility on the face of the document.

That endorsement is what makes it a legal instrument. It is the only step LASS charges a professional fee for, and the fee is banded, not contingent.

LASS/CS/2211Scoped written opinion

ADVOCATE'S REVIEW AND ENDORSEMENT

Scope: petition, supporting affidavits and declaration, reviewed for form, completeness and consistency with the Law of Succession Act and the Probate and Administration Rules.

Findings: proxy identifiers replaced with verified originals. Jurisdiction confirmed against gross estate value. Item A2 withheld pending official search. Sureties not required by the registry.

Limits: an opinion on the documents reviewed. Not conduct of the matter; no representation at any hearing.

DRAWN BY [PANEL ADVOCATE] & Co. Advocates
Advocate of the High Court of Kenya

Provenance

What was changed, and what was not

ElementTreatment
NamesFully replaced — deceased, petitioner, chief, assistant chief
IdentifiersFictitious, structurally valid formats only
PlaceRelocated to a different county and registration section
CoordinatesDisplaced; approximate parcel sizes retained
DatesShifted; intervals between events preserved
CitationsUnchanged — Article 201(a); PFM Act s.68; Succession Act s.29
ProcedureUnchanged — this is what the pack demonstrates
OutcomeReal. The demand was withdrawn and nothing was paid.

Non-negotiable

Four rules the model is built on

§ 1

Two entities

The advocates sit inside an advocate-owned practice. LASS licenses software to that practice for a fixed fee and never takes a share of legal fees.

§ 2

Opinion, not conduct

Sign-off is a scoped written opinion with endorsement, not conduct of the matter. Full representation is a separate retainer, agreed separately.

§ 3

Bands, not percentages

Fees sit in published bands anchored to the Remuneration Order scale. No percentage of case value, no payment contingent on the outcome.

§ 4

Hard exclusions

The engine refuses capital offences, gender-based violence and child custody, and routes those users straight to NLAS, FIDA-Kenya and Kituo cha Sheria.

Distribution

The subscription is affordable. The signature is the cliff.

KSh 500 is about three per cent of the urban minimum wage. The review fee is not. Four decisions carry people across that gap.

Groups, not individuals

SACCOs, chamas, unions and employers buy seats in blocks — which collapses acquisition cost and borrows trust that already exists.

Sliding scale

Sponsored seats carry the review fee for the lowest-income users. The paying tier subsidises the priced-out tier instead of abandoning it.

M-Pesa and WhatsApp first

Payment, delivery and follow-up happen where people already transact. A web-only product would exclude the person this is for.

One county, one problem

The pilot proves resolution rate and lawyer utilisation in a single narrow lane before anything scales.

Position

Answers are commoditising. Signatures are not.

Kenya already has legal chatbots at KSh 50 a question. LASS does not compete on answers. It competes on the one thing no chatbot can produce — an advocate's endorsement at the end of the chain, reached cheaply because the file was built before the lawyer opened it.

The AI is the cost structure. The signature is the product.