How REGULA Works, Start to Finish

REGULA is a digital paralegal for criminal defense attorneys. It lives in your web browser, the same place you check email, so there is nothing to install.

1. 1You give it the papers you already have: the arrest affidavit, the police report, discovery.
2. 2It reads them, sets up the case, and fills in the details for you.
3. 3It drafts the filings, looks up the law, and keeps track of your dates.
4. 4You review everything and sign it. You can file it yourself, or ask Rachel, REGULA’s AI paralegal and Second Chair, to file it after you confirm you reviewed it. REGULA never sends anything to a court, a client, or anyone else on its own.

1. 1Go to regulalegal.com and click Try For Free.
2. 2Type your name, your email address, and choose a password.
3. 3REGULA emails you a 6-digit code. Open that email, then type the code into the box on the screen. This proves the email is really yours.
4. 4A few cards ask for your firm name, bar number and state, office address, and phone number, one at a time. This is what gets printed on your filings. You can skip any card, and fill them in later from your Account page.
5. 5You land on your home screen. You are in.

After you log in, this is what you see. The numbers in the picture match the list below it. Everything in REGULA starts from here.

1

Left menu. A slim strip of icons down the left edge. Click the three-line button at the top to open it and see the names: New chat, All cases, Motion drafter, File explorer, Templates, Integrations, with Settings at the bottom. Your past chats are listed underneath once it is open. Clicking the REGULA name at the top always starts a fresh, blank chat.

2

The chat box. Type a question or an instruction, like a text message. The + button on the left is where you attach a police report.

3

Six quick buttons. New Case, Daily Brief, All Cases, REGULA Second Chair, Routine Filings and Motion Drafter. These are the things you will do most.

4

Your account circle. Your initials, in the top-right corner of every page. Click it to see your plan, open your Account page, or sign out.

There are two ways to start a case. The first is the one most attorneys use, because it means you type nothing.

Way 1: Upload the police report or arrest affidavit

Do not worry about whether the client already has a case in REGULA. Just upload the document. REGULA figures out where it belongs. Watch the animation, then follow the steps under it.

1. 1On your home screen, click the round + button at the left of the chat box.
2. 2Choose what kind of document it is: Arrest Report, Warrant Affidavit, Discovery PDF, or Media (a photo or a still from a video).
3. 3Click Upload and pick the file. PDFs and pictures (PNG, JPG, WebP, HEIC) both work.
4. 4Wait a few seconds. REGULA tells you what it found, and either files the document into the right case or asks if you want a new case.

And that is not all it does with an arrest affidavit. It reads the whole thing and fills in the case for you:

Way 2: Fill in the New Case form

1. 1Click New Case on the home screen (or in the Cases page).
2. 2Type the defendant’s name, the case number, and the county or jurisdiction. These are the only three required boxes.
3. 3Optionally attach the arrest report right there, so it gets read at the same time.
4. 4Click create. The case appears in your Cases list.

Click any case on your Cases page to open it. Across the top is a row of seven buttons. Each is a different tool for that one case. Nothing you do in one case touches another. Watch the row below cycle through them:

• Case Overview

  Client, case number, court, judge, prosecutor, bond, next court date, and the docket. Start here every time you open a case.

• Motions

  Pick a filing, review the draft, edit it like a Word document, sign, and download.

• Case Notes

  Jot down calls, thoughts, and to-dos. It is a notebook that stays attached to this one case.

• Regula + AI

  It has read the case file. Ask it for case law, statutes, or “what did the officer say about the stop?”

• Charges

  Every count, its statute, the elements of the offense, and your maximum sentencing exposure.

• Evidence

  Every upload and every piece of evidence logged, sorted into categories and searchable.

• Defense Prep

  Reads all the documents together and flags weak spots, inconsistencies, and possible defenses.

There are two ways to get a document, depending on what you need.

1. 1Open the case and click Motions (or use the Routine Filings and Motion Drafter cards on the home screen).
2. 2Choose the filing, or type what you want.
3. 3Read the draft. Click anywhere in the text to change it, exactly like Word. Bold, italics, headings and tables are in the toolbar.
4. 4Want case law in your argument? Use the AI helper beside the document. It finds a real case and puts the citation in for you.
5. 5When it is right, add your signature (you save it once on your Account page) and download it as a PDF or a Word file. Signed documents also collect on the Downloads page.

Type a legal question into the chat box, either on the home screen or inside a case (the Regula + AI button). Inside a case, it has already read that case’s file, so you can ask things like “What did the officer say about why he stopped the car?”

The important part is the last step. REGULA does not answer legal questions from memory. It looks up real case law and the actual text of state and federal statutes, and shows you the list of what it found under every answer. If it cannot find anything, it says that instead of inventing something.

Inside a case, the Charges button goes a step further. It lists each count, pulls up the text of each statute, explains what the State has to prove for each element, and calculates your client’s maximum sentencing exposure.

The Evidence button opens the case’s vault. Every document you upload to the case lives here, along with each piece of evidence REGULA found in your reports. Evidence is sorted into categories, and there is a search box at the top, so you can type a word and find it, instead of digging through folders.

1. 1Open the case and click Evidence.
2. 2Pick the document type (Arrest Report, Charging Document, Discovery, or Other) and upload. Discovery gets a plain-language summary automatically.
3. 3Use the search box or the category buttons to find what you need.

Once you have a few documents in the vault, click Defense Prep. It reads everything together and hands you a report: a timeline, weak spots in the State’s case, inconsistencies between documents, and possible defenses. It is like asking a colleague for a second opinion. After you add more documents, run it again.

A live assistant that takes notes, schedules your next hearing, and verifies the law while you stay focused on your client. It never tells you what to say; your judgment leads. Open it from the REGULA Second Chair button on the home screen, or from inside a case to give it that case’s context.

1. 1Click REGULA Second Chair and pick the case from the list. Only your active cases appear. Then click the microphone. Your browser asks permission to use the mic. Click Allow.
2. 2Tell it once which speaker is the judge, the prosecutor, and so on. It labels voices by number, and you match them to people.
3. 3Keep your eyes on the court. When the prosecutor or the judge cites the law, Second Chair looks it up and checks it. If something is misstated or contradicts the record, a flag appears with the authority behind it. You can also press Check what was just said at any time.
4. 4When the hearing ends, click End. The transcript and notes are saved into the case file, and the next hearing date is added to your calendar if the court set one.

• New chat

  Starts a fresh, blank chat on the screen from Chapter 3. Clicking the REGULA name at the top of the open menu does the same.

• All cases

  A list of all your cases, each showing its stage. Click one to open it.

• Motion drafter

  A blank live document with your AI drafting assistant beside it. Nothing is saved until you type, and if you leave a new document without naming it, REGULA asks what to call it.

• File Explorer

  Every document you have drafted, grouped by case, like a filing cabinet. Documents not yet attached to a case sit under “No Case.”

• Templates

  Your own custom forms. The top of the page lists the fields that fill themselves in, such as [Defendant’s Name] and [Case Number]. Type them into any document, choose File → Save as Template in the editor, and it lands here and in One-Click Filings. Click a template to edit it. Save just your court heading with File → Save as Case Caption to build reusable captions, listed below the templates.

• Downloads

  Your signed, finished documents, ready to view and download again whenever you need them.

• Integrations

  Download the REGULA Chrome extension that syncs your court dockets, pick which courts it checks and when, and connect the software you already use: Clio, MyCase, and PracticePanther, plus Zapier and Make for automations. Once connected, case information can flow between the two so you type it once.

• Chat history

  Below the menu, your past conversations with REGULA are listed by date. Click one to pick up where you left off.

Open it from the round circle with your initials in the top-right corner of any page, or from Settings in the left menu. Everything is a card. Click a card’s title to open or close it.

• Plan

  Your subscription, when it renews, how many cases you have, and how many AI credits and searches are left this month. This is also where you upgrade.

• Signature

  Draw your signature once with your mouse or finger. REGULA reuses it every time you sign a filing.

• Account Info

  Your name, firm, bar number, office address, phone, and main jurisdiction. This is what gets printed on your documents, so keep it current.

• Install the app

  Puts REGULA on your phone or computer’s home screen as an icon, so it opens in one tap. A QR code lets you do it from your phone.

• AI Memory: What I Remember

  REGULA remembers your standing preferences, such as how you like motions worded. Here you can read, edit, or delete anything it remembers.

• Change Password

  What it sounds like.

• Billing History

  Every charge and refund, with dates.

Four things to keep in mind. They protect your license and your clients.

1. 1You review everything. Every draft, every extracted fact, every citation. REGULA is a drafting tool, like a word processor with a very good research assistant. You are the attorney.
2. 2You sign, and you decide what is filed. Nothing leaves REGULA unless you download it and send it yourself, or you review the signed PDF and tell Rachel to file it.
3. 3REGULA is not a law firm. It gives no legal advice and never talks to your clients.
4. 4Your files are private. Uploads are visible only to your account, and REGULA is hosted on enterprise-grade, SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certified cloud infrastructure.

The full details are in our AI & UPL Disclaimer, Terms and Privacy Policy.

If any word on this page, or in the app, sounds like tech-speak, it is probably here.

Upload

Sending a file from your computer to REGULA. You click a button, pick the file, and it goes. It works like attaching a file to an email.

Dashboard

The screen you see after you log in. Your home base.

Tab

One of the labeled buttons in a row. Clicking one switches what is shown below it, the same way tabs work on a folder.

Click / Tap

Press the left button on your mouse (click), or touch the screen with your finger (tap).

Sidebar

The menu down the left side of the screen. On a phone it hides behind the three-line button in the corner.

Chat box

The text box at the bottom of the home screen. You type to it like a text message and it answers.

AI

Software that reads and writes text. In REGULA it works as your paralegal: it drafts and looks things up. You decide what goes out.

Extraction

REGULA reading a document and copying the important facts (names, dates, charges) into the right boxes so you do not have to type them.

Vault

A private, organized storage area. The Evidence Vault holds the evidence and discovery for one case.

Docket

The court’s running list of everything filed and scheduled in a case. REGULA can copy it in from the clerk’s website.

Credits (AI Document Credits)

A monthly allowance your plan gives you for AI actions like reading a document or drafting. Your Account page shows how many are left. Standard routine filings do not use them.

Chrome extension

A small add-on for your Chrome browser. REGULA’s extension quietly looks up your cases on the clerk’s website and copies each docket into REGULA, so you never have to. You install it once from the Integrations page.

PDF

A document file that looks the same on every computer. Courts like them. REGULA can create one and read one.

Log in / Log out

Log in: type your email and password so REGULA knows it is you. Log out: leave, so nobody else at your computer can see your cases.