civil judgment on legal-document generator: smartlaw

Bundesgerichtshof · Germany · 2021-09-09 · I ZR 113/20

Unauthorized-practice litigationregulator describes the service as AI / software based

Outcome: Revision dismissed; the software-driven contract-document generator is held not to provide an impermissible legal service under the RDG.

The Bundesgerichtshof decides the smartlaw contract-document generator case on September 9, 2021. The court dismisses the bar chamber’s appeal and holds that a software-driven generator using a question-and-answer system and stored text modules does not provide an impermissible legal service under Germany’s Rechtsdienstleistungsgesetz.

In the regulator's words: “"mithilfe einer Software"”

Official document: bundesgerichtshof.de
Also: bundesgerichtshof.de
Read: 2026-09-07 · primary document read
Found via: AGENT-BRIEF.md, Bundesgerichtshof press release 171/2021
Notes: Included as directed; the official text describes a rule-based software generator rather than a generative-AI system.

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