AI contract review in Microsoft Word for UK lawyers

LexDraft is an AI drafting and review add-in for Microsoft Word. Choose England & Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland as your jurisdiction, and the Assistant and Review answers follow that legal system's law, spelling and drafting conventions. You can also look up UK judgments from the Case law tab without leaving the document.

This page explains what changes when you work under a UK jurisdiction, which clauses deserve a closer look, and where the limits are.

Choose your UK jurisdiction once

The jurisdiction chip at the top of the LexDraft panel offers three UK options. The UK has three legal systems, so LexDraft treats them separately:

• UK: England & Wales. Answers refer to English law, or the law of England and Wales, rather than "UK law", which is not a single system of contract law.
• UK: Scotland. Scots law is a mixed system with its own terms and rules: delict rather than tort, interdict rather than injunction, and no doctrine of consideration. See our guide to contract drafting under Scots law.
• UK: Northern Ireland. Close to English law, but with its own statutes, often made as Orders in Council, and its own courts.

Answers use UK spelling and conventions: "organisation", "licence" as a noun, "judgment" in the legal sense, and dates written day first.

What LexDraft does in Word

• Draft. Describe the agreement in plain English and LexDraft writes a first draft straight into your Word document, following the jurisdiction you chose.
• Review. Run a review with one of the built-in playbooks (NDA, SaaS MSA, DPA and Services). Findings are graded Critical, High, Medium or Low, and proposed changes are word-level edits that you accept as native Word tracked changes.
• Quick checks. Rule-based checks that run without AI. They catch defined terms that are used but never defined, cross-references that point nowhere, gaps in clause numbering and inconsistent capitalisation of defined terms.
• Case law. Search UK judgments by citation, case name or keywords, and check UK neutral citations. See UK case-law search in Word.

Governing law and jurisdiction clauses

These clauses are short, and they are often copied from a precedent without a second look. Points to check in a UK contract:

• Name the legal system, not the country. "The law of England and Wales" or "the law of Scotland" works. "UK law" or "British law" invites an argument about which system applies.
• Cover non-contractual claims. Disputes about misrepresentation or negligence may fall outside a clause that covers only "this Agreement". Many English law precedents add "including non-contractual disputes or claims".
• Exclusive or non-exclusive. An exclusive jurisdiction clause gives certainty. A non-exclusive or one-way clause can suit a lender or a party that may need to enforce abroad. Make the choice deliberately.
• Cross-border enforcement. The Brussels Ia regime generally ceased to apply to new UK-EU proceedings after the transition period ended on 31 December 2020, but transitional rules preserve its application to some cases and judgments. For international deals, check where enforcement may be needed, whether the Hague Choice of Court Convention 2005 or the Hague Judgments Convention 2019 applies, and whether arbitration would suit the transaction. Hague 2005 principally concerns qualifying exclusive choice-of-court agreements. Hague 2019 entered into force for the UK on 1 July 2025 and applies only where it was in force between the relevant states when proceedings were instituted, and its other conditions are met.
• Scotland. Scots law clauses usually prorogate the jurisdiction of the Scottish courts, often naming the Court of Session.

English law points LexDraft keeps in view

When you work under England & Wales, LexDraft's answers draw on the statutes a commercial lawyer checks most often:

• Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977. Exclusion and limitation clauses in business contracts must pass the reasonableness test where it applies.
• Consumer Rights Act 2015. Fairness and transparency rules for consumer contracts and notices.
• Misrepresentation Act 1967, section 3. In non-consumer contracts, terms excluding or restricting liability or remedies for pre-contractual misrepresentation must satisfy the statutory reasonableness test. This matters for entire agreement and non-reliance wording. Consumer contract terms are assessed under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 instead.
• Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999. If third parties should not be able to enforce the contract, say so expressly.
• Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998. Statutory interest applies to late commercial payments unless the contract provides a substantial remedy.
• UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. Data processing terms, international transfers and security obligations.
• Limitation Act 1980 and execution formalities. Six years for simple contracts and twelve for deeds; company deeds must be duly executed and delivered as deeds under sections 44 and 46 of the Companies Act 2006.

These are prompts for your own judgment, not a checklist that replaces it. LexDraft can be wrong, and qualified counsel must check every output.

A UK review workflow in Word

1. Open the contract in Word and open LexDraft from the Home tab.
2. Set the jurisdiction chip to the governing law of the contract.
3. Run the quick checks first. They are instant, and fixing defined terms and cross-references first makes the review findings easier to read.
4. Run the review with the closest playbook and start with Critical and High findings.
5. Accept or reject each proposed redline. Accepted edits become tracked changes, ready to send to the other side.
6. Look up any authority you rely on in the Case law tab, then open the judgment on Find Case Law and read it yourself.

UK case law, with clear limits

UK case-law lookup uses The National Archives' Find Case Law service. Results show the court, the date and the neutral citation, with a link to the judgment on Find Case Law. LexDraft does not summarise judgments. UK judgments in LexDraft come from The National Archives' Find Case Law service, which only partially represents the activities of the courts and tribunals. Not every judgment or decision is included.

Find Case Law includes the UK Supreme Court, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the Court of Appeal, the High Court and the Upper Tribunal, among other courts and tribunals. Find Case Law does not include judgments from Scottish or Northern Irish courts or tribunals. UK Supreme Court judgments can include appeals from those jurisdictions.

Plans and prices

The Free plan needs no card and includes 5,000 generated words and 5 case-law lookups a month. Professional is $99 a month for 100,000 words. Business is $199 a month with unlimited words. Both paid plans include unlimited case-law lookups. Prices are in US dollars; see pricing for annual billing.

Install LexDraft free for Word

This guide is general information, not legal advice. LexDraft does not give legal advice; qualified counsel must review every draft. LexDraft is not affiliated with or endorsed by The National Archives or any court. Spotted something out of date? Email support@lexdraft.ai and we will fix it.