Approach the right office first
Knowing the general category of forum before making contact saves the time and frustration of being redirected after already explaining the situation once in full.
Coming soonLegal Information Assistant
Find the right law and authority for a situation
The business owner understands whether a matter is governed by central or state law, and which government authority or forum actually handles it, before they waste time contacting the wrong office.
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What it does
How Vakil handles this
The owner describes a general situation (e.g., "a customer is refusing to pay," "my landlord raised rent without notice") and Vakil identifies the general category of law involved and whether it is typically a central statute, a state-specific one, or both, along with the type of forum that usually handles such matters (e.g., consumer commission, MSEFC, civil court). It does not assess the specific facts of the owner's case.
A landlord dealing with a tenant who stopped paying rent knows something needs to happen next, but not what — does this go to a rent-control authority, a civil court, or somewhere else entirely, and is that even a state matter or a central one. Approaching the wrong office first wastes weeks he doesn't have to spare.
Vakil helps him figure out the category before he wastes a trip. He describes the situation in his own words, and Vakil identifies the general area of law involved, whether it typically falls under central or state legislation, or both, and the type of forum that usually handles such matters — a rent-control authority, a civil court, a consumer commission. It is an orientation tool. It does not assess his specific facts, and it will not tell him what happens if he pursues the matter — only where such matters are typically heard.
Where find the right law and authority for a situation happens
Vakil runs this directly on the platforms your customers already use — no separate app for them to install.
- Google Drive
- Adobe Acrobat Reader
- Gmail
How it works
Step by step
- 01
Describe the situation plainly
Explain what's happening in plain terms — a tenant not paying rent, a customer refusing payment, a workplace dispute — without needing to know any legal terminology or the exact right words for it beforehand.
- 02
See the general area of law
The situation is mapped to a broad legal category — tenancy, contract, consumer protection, labour — based on the type of matter described, not the specific outcome being sought by anyone involved at all, either.
- 03
Check central, state, or both
Vakil explains whether the relevant law is usually a central statute applying uniformly, a state-specific law, or an area where both genuinely overlap, which matters enormously given India's own federal structure and its long history.
- 04
Learn the type of forum
Get the general category of authority or forum that typically hears such matters — a rent authority, a consumer commission, a civil court — as an orientation point before contacting anyone at all directly, ever.
Why it matters
What you get out of it
Understand the central-state divide
India's overlapping central and state legal structure gets confusing fast, and a clear general answer on which typically applies avoids one common source of wasted effort.
A map, never a verdict
The tool orients toward the right general direction without pretending to assess the specific facts or predict what will happen if the matter is pursued further.
The detail
What to know before you rely on it
This capability performs a single, bounded task: mapping a general description of a situation to a general category of law and forum. When the landlord describes a tenant who stopped paying rent, Vakil identifies this as typically a tenancy matter, that tenancy law in India is largely state-specific, and such disputes are commonly heard by a rent authority or a civil court, depending on relief sought. It does not tell him which forum his case should go to — that requires applying law to his facts, work reserved for an advocate.
The risk this tool is built hardest against is a wrong mapping, because a wrong central-versus-state or forum answer can send someone to the wrong authority, which wastes weeks. India's federal structure makes this genuinely hard: many areas, labour and licensing among them, have real central-state overlap where the honest answer is that it depends on the state, not a clean category. Vakil says exactly that when true, rather than simplifying a contested area into false certainty.
This is also why the tool stops firmly at orientation and never moves into prediction. Identifying that a matter is typically heard by a consumer commission tells the landlord where such matters generally go — it says nothing about whether his facts would succeed there, or what relief he might expect. Those questions require assessing his case, which an orientation tool answering would be doing an advocate's job with none of the training. The map gets him to the right door; what happens is a conversation for the lawyer he consults next.
Industry use cases
Where this earns its keep
13 industries where Vakil applies this directly.
Vakil helps a vehicle dealership or service center organize warranty-dispute facts, prepare questions before consulting a lawyer on a supplier contract, and check standard service-agreement templates for missing clauses.
A car service center owner uploads a supplier parts agreement into the plain-english-document-explainer to understand the payment and return terms before their scheduled call with an advocate about a recurring late-delivery issue.
See the automotive playbookVakil helps a B2B seller draft a factual payment-reminder letter for an overdue invoice, understand the MSME Samadhaan/ODR route if they are Udyam-registered, and organize a chronological record of a vendor dispute for their advocate.
A wholesale distributor whose buyer has not paid an invoice 60 days past the agreed term uses the delayed-payment-notice-preparation capability to draft a factual reminder letter and reads the linked explanation of the MSEFC reference process before deciding whether to pursue it.
See the b2b sales playbookVakil helps an independent financial advisor or lending-adjacent business understand which compliance deadlines and disclosures typically apply to their structure, and prepares plain-language explanations of loan or agency agreements before signing.
A financial advisory firm uses the compliance-deadline-tracker to see upcoming annual filing dates for their private limited company, then separately runs a referral-partner agreement through the document coverage checker before their advocate reviews it.
See the banking and finance playbookVakil helps a beauty or cosmetics brand check trademark availability for a new product line name and organize supplier agreements before a launch.
A home-based skincare brand owner runs a proposed product-line name through the trademark-name-availability-check before commissioning packaging design, then separately requests a plain-english explanation of a co-packer's manufacturing agreement.
See the beauty and cosmetics playbookVakil helps a coaching institute or edtech founder prepare a checklist of documents needed for a business structure change and understand student-refund policy documentation basics.
A coaching institute founder converting from a proprietorship to a private limited company uses the document-checklist-builder to see what is generally needed, then books a lawyer consultation using the question-prep tool to confirm specifics with an advocate.
See the education playbookVakil helps an independent freelancer understand a client's service agreement before signing and draft a factual payment-reminder letter when a client pays late.
A freelance designer uploads a new client's service contract to the plain-english-document-explainer to understand the IP-ownership and payment-milestone clauses, then later uses the delayed-payment-notice-preparation tool when an invoice goes unpaid past its due date.
See the freelancers and consultants playbookVakil helps a clinic or wellness practice organize patient-service-agreement templates and understand which general compliance categories (such as PF/ESI contribution thresholds) apply as they hire staff.
A physiotherapy clinic owner hiring their first three employees uses the employment-document-starter-kit to draft appointment letters and reads the linked general note on labour-law categories before finalizing terms with their HR consultant.
See the health and wellness playbookVakil helps a home decor or furniture seller check a supplier or logistics contract for missing clauses and prepare a consumer-complaint draft when a shipment is damaged by a courier.
A furniture seller whose delivery partner damaged a high-value shipment uses the consumer-complaint-preparation-helper to structure their complaint against the courier before submitting it through the National Consumer Helpline.
See the home decor and furnishing playbookVakil helps a marketing agency check client service agreements for missing clauses and organize documents for a name/trademark check before rebranding.
A small agency about to sign a new retainer client runs the agreement through the plain-language-clause-flagger to see whether a dispute-resolution clause is present before sending it to their advocate for final review.
See the marketing agencies playbookVakil helps a real estate broker or landlord organize facts for a tenancy dispute, check a rental agreement for missing clauses, and understand which authority (state rent-control law vs. civil court) generally handles such matters.
A landlord dealing with a tenant who stopped paying rent uses the consultation-briefing-fact-organizer to log the missed-payment dates and notices sent, then uses the jurisdiction-and-authority-finder to understand generally whether their state's rent law or a civil suit route is the relevant path, before consulting an advocate.
See the real estate playbookVakil helps a restaurant owner draft a factual response to a customer or vendor complaint letter and check a lease or vendor agreement for missing terms.
A restaurant owner who received a written complaint letter from a food-delivery aggregator about a recurring order-fulfillment dispute uses the notice-and-letter-response-drafting-helper to prepare a factual first draft of their reply before their advocate finalizes it.
See the restaurants and food playbookVakil helps a salon or spa owner check franchise or license agreements for missing clauses and prepare employment paperwork as they hire stylists.
A salon owner entering a franchise agreement with a brand uses the plain-language-clause-flagger to see whether territory and termination clauses are present before their scheduled review with a franchise lawyer.
See the spas and salons playbookVakil helps a travel agency or tour operator check customer booking-terms templates for missing clauses and prepare a consumer-complaint draft when a supplier (hotel, transport vendor) fails to deliver a booked service.
A tour operator whose transport vendor cancelled a confirmed booking at the last minute uses the consumer-complaint-preparation-helper to structure a complaint against the vendor while separately checking their own customer-facing booking terms for a force-majeure clause using the document-explainer.
See the travel and tourism playbookMore from Vakil
Everything else it handles
Explain any legal document in plain English
The business owner understands what a contract, notice, or legal letter actually says and what it asks of them, without waiting for a lawyer callback just to understand the basics.
Learn morePrepare questions before you see a lawyer
The business owner walks into a paid lawyer consultation with an organized list of questions and facts, so the lawyer's limited time is spent advising rather than gathering basic information.
Learn moreUnderstand a legal topic before IT becomes a problem
The business owner gets a plain-language overview of a legal topic relevant to their business (e.g., what a security deposit clause typically covers) before they need it urgently.
Learn moreKnow which documents you need to gather
The business owner knows exactly which documents and pieces of information to collect for a common business task (hiring, renting, registering) before starting it, avoiding wasted trips and delays.
Learn moreStart from a reviewed document template
The business gets a professionally structured starting draft for a common business document (NDA, service agreement, offer letter) instead of writing one from a blank page.
Learn moreSee what a contract might be missing
The business owner sees which standard clauses (termination, liability, confidentiality, dispute resolution) are present, weak, or absent in a contract before signing it, so they know what to specifically ask a lawyer about.
Learn moreQuestions
Straight answers.
Does Vakil tell me exactly which court or authority to file with directly?
It tells you the general category of forum that typically handles matters like the one you've described — a rent authority, a consumer commission, a civil court — not the exact court, its jurisdiction over your specific case, or how to file with it. The specific forum for your matter depends on facts about your situation that an advocate needs to assess directly, in full.
Why does the answer sometimes say a law could be either central or state, rather than giving me one clear answer?
Because that overlap is genuinely real in parts of India's legal structure, particularly in areas like labour and licensing, and giving a single clean answer where the true position is contested or state-variable would be misleading rather than helpful. Vakil is built to say plainly when an area has real central-state overlap instead of oversimplifying it into a false certainty.
Can Vakil tell me what will happen if I pursue this matter further?
No — this is explicitly outside what the tool does. It orients you toward the general area of law and the general type of forum involved; it never predicts outcomes, estimates chances, or tells you what to expect if you pursue a matter. That kind of assessment needs an advocate who has reviewed your actual facts and the applicable law in real detail.
What if my situation seems to fit more than one legal category at once?
That's common, and it's worth flagging directly rather than expecting one clean answer — a landlord-tenant dispute involving an unpaid deposit, for instance, can touch tenancy law and contract law at once. Vakil will identify the categories that plausibly apply, but sorting out which one actually governs your situation, or whether more than one does, is a job for an advocate reviewing your specific facts.
The rest of your stack
It plugs into what you already run.
Vakil connects to your tools
No rip-and-replace — find the right law and authority for a situation works alongside the systems already running your business.
- Dropbox
- Google Docs
- Notion
- Google Calendar
- Typeform
- Google Forms
Coming soon