Complete guide — Research, Multi-Document Upload, Voice Dictation, Drafting, Firm Accounts & more. Version 2.8
⚠ Important — Please read
Cecile is a sophisticated legal research and document-formatting tool, but like any tool — or any human — it can make mistakes. Research output may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect. Formatted legal documents may contain errors or may not comply with the specific requirements of your court or matter.
It is your personal and professional responsibility to review and verify everything Cecile produces before relying on it, filing it, or serving it on any party. Never file a Cecile-generated document without thorough review by a qualified legal practitioner.
Seekefy (Pty) Ltd accepts no liability for any loss, prejudice, or harm arising from the use of Cecile Pro.
Cecile Pro is a professional legal research platform for lawyers, advocates, judges, legal researchers, and law students. It has three core functions:
All processing happens on Cecile's secure EU (Stockholm) server. Your documents are not shared with any third party.
| Tier | What you get |
|---|---|
| Free | 3 complimentary research queries — no credit card required |
| Pro ($22/month) | Unlimited research queries, multi-document upload, case analysis, document formatting, firm accounts |
Each result shows:
From the result you can:
Cecile Pro has a built-in voice dictation function on the Research page (query box) and the Drafting page (instructions box). Instead of typing a long question, click the mic button and dictate it. Your words are transcribed in real time and inserted into the text box.
The Research page lets you upload a single PDF or Word (.docx) judgment or legal document and interrogate it directly. Upload a judgment from SAFLII, SCA, ConCourt, or any other source and ask questions about it alongside your normal research.
Multi-Document Upload lets you select up to 10 PDF or DOCX files simultaneously and load them all into a single research session. Cecile extracts text from each file, combines them in order, and treats the entire set as one unified document you can interrogate. This is ideal when you have multiple related judgments, exhibits, or affidavits that you want to analyse together.
The Court Bundle Upload function is designed for litigators who need to interrogate a full court bundle — typically a CaseLines PDF export containing all the pleadings, affidavits, exhibits, heads of argument, and practice notes for a matter, sometimes running to hundreds of pages.
Instead of reading through the entire bundle manually, you upload it once and ask Cecile questions about it directly. The bundle is indexed in full and remains available for the entire session.
Typical use cases:
| Section | What Cecile provides |
|---|---|
| Case Overview | Nature of proceedings, court, case number, stage of litigation |
| Parties | All parties and their procedural roles |
| Key Facts | Chronological factual background extracted from the papers |
| Legal Issues & Grounds | Every legal issue, ground of appeal, cause of action, or defence raised |
| Applicable Law | Legislation, constitutional provisions, and areas of common law that apply |
| Spelling, Grammar & Terminology | Every error and inconsistency with paragraph references — useful for identifying weaknesses in opposing papers |
| Bundle Completeness | Are all required documents present? Pagination gaps, unsigned affidavits, missing commissioners of oaths |
| Strengths & Vulnerabilities | Strongest and weakest arguments for each side; concessions in the papers |
| Suggested Research Topics | 3–5 research topics that would materially assist preparation |
| Hearing Preparation Checklist | Practical steps to take before the hearing date based on what is in the bundle |
Pro subscribers may upload 10 large court bundles per month. This limit resets on the 1st of each month. Standard document uploads (under 6 MB) are unlimited and do not count against this limit.
If you need additional uploads before the monthly reset, email support@askcecile.com.
You can paste text from a judgment, a statute, or any legal document directly into the research text area. Cecile will treat it as context for your question. Useful for short excerpts where you do not want to upload a full file.
Cecile covers 125+ countries. Switch the country selector for each query. For comparative research, run the same question with different countries selected and compare results.
If your selected country's primary legal language is not English (e.g. France, Germany, Brazil, Morocco), a language toggle appears in the header. Cecile produces output in the local legal language. Toggle back to English at any time.
The Drafting page takes your draft document — a working .docx or .pdf containing your facts, arguments, or rough notes — and reformats it into a court-ready legal document in the correct formal style for your jurisdiction, returning a clean .docx for final review and filing.
Type the document name in the instructions field. Cecile recognises all of the following:
| Document type | What to type | Applicable rule / Act |
|---|---|---|
| Notice of Motion | Notice of Motion | Uniform Rule 6 |
| Founding Affidavit | Founding Affidavit | Uniform Rule 6 |
| Answering Affidavit | Answering Affidavit | Uniform Rule 6 |
| Replying Affidavit | Replying Affidavit | Uniform Rule 6 |
| Particulars of Claim | Particulars of Claim | Uniform Rule 17 |
| Plea | Plea | Uniform Rule 22 |
| Replication | Replication | Uniform Rule 25 |
| Exception | Exception | Uniform Rule 23 |
| Application to Strike Out | Application to Strike Out | Uniform Rule 23 |
| Heads of Argument | Heads of Argument | — |
| Notice of Appeal | Notice of Appeal | Uniform Rule 49 |
| Grounds of Appeal | Grounds of Appeal | — |
| Notice of Set-Down | Notice of Set-Down | Uniform Rule 30 |
| Notice to Oppose | Notice to Oppose | Uniform Rule 6 |
| Rule 35 Notice (Discovery) | Rule 35 Discovery Notice | Uniform Rule 35 |
| Bail Application | Bail Application | CPA s60 |
| Section 112 Statement | Section 112 Statement | CPA s112 |
| Written Representations | Written Representations | — |
| Pre-trial Memorandum | Pre-trial Memorandum | Uniform Rule 37 |
| Judgment (for judicial officers) | Judgment | — |
| Legal Opinion / Memorandum | Legal Opinion | — |
Add "Magistrates' Court" to your instruction and Cecile will apply Magistrates' Court Rules instead of Uniform Rules:
Every research result can be exported or copied in several ways:
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Export DOCX | Downloads the current research result as a formatted Microsoft Word document — proper headings, font, margins, and page numbers. Ready to insert into heads of argument or attach to a memo. |
| Export Session | Downloads all research results from the current session in one document. Useful when you have run 3–5 queries in a research session and want everything in a single file. |
| Copy | Copies the full research result to your clipboard. All markdown formatting symbols are stripped automatically so you paste clean, readable text into Word, Outlook, or any other application. |
A Firm Account allows a law firm, chambers, or legal department to manage multiple Cecile Pro user seats under one centralised billing and administration account. The firm owner (administrator) registers the firm, adds member seats, and manages billing — individual users simply log in and use Cecile without managing their own subscriptions.
| Plan | Seats | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Firm Starter | Up to 5 users | Contact us |
| Firm Growth | Up to 10 users | Contact us |
The History tab shows every research query you have run while logged in to Cecile Pro. Click any entry to reload the full research result — including the original analysis and sources.
From a loaded historical result you can:
Click Sign In / Register at the top right. Creating an account is free and unlocks 3 free research queries. No credit card required to register.
After your 3 free queries, a paywall prompt appears. Subscribe for $22/month (R399/month) for unlimited research, multi-document upload, case analysis, document formatting, and court bundle uploads (10 large bundles per month). Payment is processed securely via PayFast (Visa, Mastercard, Instant EFT, and other SA payment methods).
Law firms, chambers, and legal departments can register a Firm Account to manage multiple user seats under centralised billing. See the Firm Accounts section above for full details.
Once logged in, a 💬 Open WhatsApp button appears at the bottom-right. Register your WhatsApp number to send Cecile Pro research queries from WhatsApp — the same deep research delivered directly to your phone. Useful when you are in court or away from a computer.
Click the logout icon at the top right of the header. Your research history and subscription remain intact — sign back in at any time.
| Problem | Solution |
|---|---|
| Research is taking a long time | Deep Research can take up to 60 seconds. Standard Research is usually 15–25 seconds. If the spinner is running after 90 seconds, try refreshing and resubmitting. |
| PDF upload says "no text extracted" | The PDF is likely a scanned image with no selectable text. Try a different copy — SAFLII provides text PDFs for most post-2000 judgments. |
| Multi-document upload — one file fails | All files are processed individually. If one file fails (e.g. password-protected PDF), the others still load. Check the confirmation pill for the total page count — if it seems low, one file may not have extracted. Try re-uploading just that file to identify the problem. |
| Mic button is not visible | Voice dictation is only available on Chrome and Edge. It does not appear on Firefox, Safari, or iOS browsers. If you are on Chrome/Edge and still cannot see it, check that JavaScript is enabled and that no browser extension is blocking the page script. |
| Mic button does not respond | Check that your browser has microphone permission for pro.askcecile.com. Go to browser Settings → Site settings → Microphone and ensure the site is not blocked. Reload the page after changing the permission. |
| Dictation stops mid-sentence | This should not happen on Chrome/Edge — dictation is set to continuous mode. If it does stop, click the mic button again to resume. Short pauses are fine; only clicking Stop or losing microphone access will end the session. |
| Drafting download never arrives | Processing can take up to 60 seconds. If nothing downloads after 90 seconds, check that your browser is not blocking popups/downloads from pro.askcecile.com, then try again. |
| Export DOCX gives an error | Reload the page, re-run the research query, then export again. If the problem persists, email support@askcecile.com. |
| Free searches counter stuck at 0 | You have used your 3 free queries. Subscribe to Pro ($22/month) for unlimited access. |
| Getting wrong jurisdiction's law | Make sure the country selector shows the correct flag before submitting. Also explicitly mention the jurisdiction in your query: "under South African law…" |
| Court bundle — processing never completes | A 400-page scanned CaseLines bundle can take 3–6 minutes. Keep the tab open. If the spinner is still running after 10 minutes, refresh and try again. If the problem repeats, email support@askcecile.com with the filename and page count. |
| Court bundle — "file too large" | Maximum file size is 50 MB. If your CaseLines bundle exceeds this, download individual sections separately (pleadings only, or affidavits only) and upload them as a multi-document set using the standard upload. |
| Monthly upload limit reached | Pro subscribers have 10 large bundle uploads per month. The limit resets on the 1st of the month. Email support@askcecile.com if you need more before then. |
| Firm account — user not receiving invitation | Check the email address for typos in the Firm Dashboard. Ask the user to check their spam folder. If the problem persists, have the user register manually at pro.askcecile.com and then email support@askcecile.com to link their account to the firm. |
Still need help? Email us at support@askcecile.com
Cecile Pro is built and operated by Seekefy (Pty) Ltd · seekefy.com