SCC Online tests conversational AI to simplify legal research in India’s crowded courts
The legal publisher is piloting a plain-language research assistant aimed at cutting search time and improving access to case law, as firms experiment with AI tools to manage mounting backlogs.
SCC Online is piloting a conversational legal research assistant that allows lawyers to ask questions in plain language rather than relying on complex Boolean search strings.
In a statement, the company said the tool is built on Microsoft’s cloud and AI stack, including Azure OpenAI Service, Azure AI Search, Cosmos DB and Document Intelligence. The aim, according to SCC Online, is to make legal research faster and more intuitive, particularly in a system under strain from growing caseloads.
The scale of that strain is stark. Estimates drawn from the National Judicial Data Grid show that India’s district courts are dealing with more than 40m pending cases. High Courts add a further 6.2m, while the Supreme Court’s backlog exceeds 90,000 cases. Against that backdrop, even modest improvements in research efficiency can have an outsized impact.
Sumain Malik, chief executive and director of SCC Online, said the assistant is designed to reduce the time lawyers spend searching for relevant judgments while improving the quality of research. “Besides speed and accuracy, it’s about using AI to make the law accessible to more people, easier to find and understand,” he said.
For a lay reader, traditional legal research often involves crafting precise keyword combinations and operators to locate relevant cases. That process can be time-consuming and unforgiving. A conversational assistant, by contrast, allows users to ask questions in everyday language, with the system interpreting intent and surfacing relevant material automatically.
SCC Online said its platform already aggregates insights from more than four million judgments across over 400 databases and supports around 150,000 users. The new assistant is expected to benefit more than 75,000 legal professionals by helping them navigate that volume more efficiently.
The company emphasised safeguards around accuracy and data handling. It said all information remains within a closed environment, every AI-generated statement is accompanied by a citation, and accuracy is treated as a non-negotiable requirement. “Accuracy is non-negotiable,” Malik said, underlining concerns within the legal profession about relying on automated tools.
The pilot comes as Indian law firms increasingly integrate AI into daily workflows. SCC Online pointed to Trilegal as an example of a firm embedding AI across drafting, summarisation and analytics, using tools such as Microsoft 365 Copilot, Azure OpenAI and Power BI.
Partners at Trilegal described the shift as both technological and cultural. Nishant Parikh said the firm is curating AI solutions to handle complexity at speed, while Dr Avnish Kshatriya said adoption has accelerated as lawyers use AI tools in everyday work rather than treating them as experiments.
Senior associate Kuruvila Jacob highlighted practical gains. He said secure upload features introduced in 2024 reduced routine data extraction tasks that once took entire evenings to just minutes, freeing up time for higher-value legal analysis.
The experience reflects a broader pattern in professional services, where AI adoption often starts with efficiency gains before reshaping how work is organised. In law, the promise is not to replace judgment or advocacy, but to remove friction from research and documentation.
SCC Online’s pilot suggests that conversational AI could play a role in that transition, particularly in jurisdictions grappling with overwhelming volumes of cases. By lowering the technical barrier to finding and understanding the law, the company is positioning AI as an access tool as much as a productivity one.
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Whether the assistant becomes a core feature will depend on trust. Lawyers are cautious by training, and errors can be costly. SCC Online’s emphasis on citations, closed systems and accuracy reflects that reality.
If the pilot proves successful, it could signal a shift in how legal research is taught and practised in India. In a system defined by scale and backlog, tools that help lawyers find the right law faster may not solve structural problems, but they could make navigating them more manageable.
The Recap
- SCC Online pilots conversational AI for legal research.
- Platform indexes more than four million judgments across databases.
- District courts hold over forty million pending cases.
