People navigating arbitration, mediation, or other forms of dispute resolution often face a steep learning curve — unfamiliar rules, complex procedures, and legal terminology that can be hard to parse without professional help. The American Arbitration Association (AAA) wanted to change that by making its authoritative content accessible to everyone, not just legal professionals. We built AAAi ChatBook as a free, public tool that lets anyone ask questions in plain language and get verified, source-backed answers. Whether you're a self-representing party preparing for an arbitration hearing, a small business owner dealing with a contract dispute, or a legal professional looking up specific rules, the ChatBook draws from AAA's own publications — including Case Preparation and Presentation by Jay E. Grenig and Rocco M. Scanza, AAA-ICDR rules and standards, and specialised editions for labor arbitration and non-attorney users.
Our architecture was deliberately designed to minimize hallucinations. The language model is used purely for search assistance — never for generating final answers. We implemented a semantical RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) pipeline that ranks, reranks, and retrieves document fragments by multiple criteria, returning either a precise, source-backed result or an honest "no answer" when the data is insufficient. Every answer shows exactly which source it draws from, so users can verify independently.
The system provides direct source links, citations, and document previews for every answer. LLMs are used only for search parsing — not for text generation — eliminating hallucinations entirely. A built-in fallback mechanism returns "no answer" when data is insufficient, rather than fabricating a response. Multiple ChatBook editions serve different audiences — case preparation, non-attorney guidance, and labor arbitration — each tailored to its users' needs.
AAA now offers a free, publicly accessible AI tool that makes dispute resolution guidance available to everyone — not just those who can afford legal counsel. The ChatBook handles thousands of queries, helping people understand arbitration procedures, prepare their cases, and navigate the ADR process with confidence. It either returns a verified answer or transparently acknowledges the lack of data — a level of honesty that builds the trust essential for a tool people rely on for legal guidance.
