The 6 Guards of QWED-Legal

Each guard uses a deterministic engine to verify a specific aspect of legal documents.

1. DeadlineGuard 📅

Purpose: Verify date calculations in contracts.

The Problem

LLMs frequently miscalculate deadlines:

• Confuse business days vs calendar days
• Ignore leap years
• Forget jurisdiction-specific holidays

The Solution

from qwed_legal import DeadlineGuard

guard = DeadlineGuard(country="US", state="CA")

result = guard.verify(
    signing_date="2026-01-15",
    term="30 business days",
    claimed_deadline="2026-02-14"
)

print(result.verified)           # False
print(result.computed_deadline)  # 2026-02-27
print(result.difference_days)    # 13

Features

Feature	Description
Business vs Calendar	Automatically detects "business days" vs "days"
Holiday Support	200+ countries via python-holidays
Leap Years	Handles Feb 29 correctly
Natural Language	Parses "2 weeks", "3 months", "1 year"

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2. LiabilityGuard 💰

Purpose: Verify liability cap and indemnity calculations.

The Problem

LLMs get percentage math wrong:

• "200% of $5M = $15M" ❌ (Should be $10M)
• Float precision errors on large amounts
• Tiered liability miscalculations

The Solution

from qwed_legal import LiabilityGuard

guard = LiabilityGuard()

result = guard.verify_cap(
    contract_value=5_000_000,
    cap_percentage=200,
    claimed_cap=15_000_000
)

print(result.verified)      # False
print(result.computed_cap)  # 10,000,000
print(result.difference)    # 5,000,000

Additional Methods

# Tiered liability
result = guard.verify_tiered_liability(
    tiers=[
        {"base": 1_000_000, "percentage": 100},
        {"base": 500_000, "percentage": 50},
    ],
    claimed_total=1_250_000  # ✅ Correct: 1M + 250K
)

# Indemnity limit (3x annual fee)
result = guard.verify_indemnity_limit(
    annual_fee=100_000,
    multiplier=3,
    claimed_limit=300_000  # ✅ Correct
)

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3. ClauseGuard ⚖️

Purpose: Detect contradictory clauses using formal logic.

The Problem

LLMs miss logical contradictions:

• "Seller may terminate with 30 days notice"
• "Neither party may terminate before 90 days"

These clauses conflict for days 30-90!

The Solution

from qwed_legal import ClauseGuard

guard = ClauseGuard()

result = guard.check_consistency([
    "Seller may terminate with 30 days notice",
    "Neither party may terminate before 90 days",
    "Seller may terminate immediately upon breach"
])

print(result.consistent)  # False
print(result.conflicts)
# [(0, 1, "Termination notice (30 days) conflicts with minimum term (90 days)")]

Detection Types

Conflict Type	Description
Termination	Notice period vs minimum term
Permission/Prohibition	"May" vs "May not"
Exclusivity	Multiple exclusive rights

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4. CitationGuard 📚

Purpose: Verify legal citations are properly formatted and potentially real.

The Problem

The Mata v. Avianca scandal: Lawyers used ChatGPT, which cited 6 fake court cases. They were fined $5,000 and sanctioned.

The Solution

from qwed_legal import CitationGuard

guard = CitationGuard()

# Valid citation
result = guard.verify("Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954)")
print(result.valid)  # True
print(result.parsed_components)
# {'plaintiff': 'Brown', 'defendant': 'Board of Education', 
#  'volume': 347, 'reporter': 'U.S.', 'page': 483, 'year': 1954}

# Invalid citation (fake reporter)
result = guard.verify("Smith v. Jones, 999 FAKE 123 (2020)")
print(result.valid)   # False
print(result.issues)  # ["Unknown reporter abbreviation: 'FAKE'"]

Supported Reporters

Category	Examples
Supreme Court	U.S., S.Ct., L.Ed., L.Ed.2d
Federal	F., F.2d, F.3d, F.4th, F.Supp.
State	Cal., N.Y., Tex., Ill., Pa.
Regional	A., N.E., N.W., P., S.E., S.W., So.

Batch Verification

result = guard.verify_batch([
    "Brown v. Board, 347 U.S. 483 (1954)",
    "Fake v. Case, 999 X.Y.Z. 123",
])

print(result.total)    # 2
print(result.valid)    # 1
print(result.invalid)  # 1

Statute Citations

result = guard.check_statute_citation("42 U.S.C. § 1983")
print(result.valid)  # True
print(result.parsed_components)
# {'title': 42, 'code': 'U.S.C.', 'section': '1983'}

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5. JurisdictionGuard 🌍

Purpose: Verify choice of law and forum selection clauses.

The Problem

LLMs miss jurisdiction conflicts:

• Governing law in one country, forum in another
• Missing CISG applicability warnings
• Cross-border legal system mismatches

The Solution

from qwed_legal import JurisdictionGuard

guard = JurisdictionGuard()

result = guard.verify_choice_of_law(
    parties_countries=["US", "UK"],
    governing_law="Delaware",
    forum="London"
)

print(result.verified)   # False - mismatch detected
print(result.conflicts)  # ["Governing law 'Delaware' (US state) but forum 'London' is non-US..."]

Features

Feature	Description
Choice of Law	Validates governing law makes sense for parties
Forum Selection	Checks forum vs governing law alignment
CISG Detection	Warns about international sale of goods conventions
Convention Check	Verifies Hague, NY Convention applicability

Convention Check

result = guard.check_convention_applicability(
    parties_countries=["US", "DE"],
    convention="CISG"
)
print(result.verified)  # True - both are CISG members

---

6. StatuteOfLimitationsGuard ⏰

Purpose: Verify claim limitation periods by jurisdiction.

The Problem

LLMs don't track jurisdiction-specific limitation periods:

• California breach of contract: 4 years
• New York breach of contract: 6 years
• Different periods for negligence, fraud, etc.

The Solution

from qwed_legal import StatuteOfLimitationsGuard

guard = StatuteOfLimitationsGuard()

result = guard.verify(
    claim_type="breach_of_contract",
    jurisdiction="California",
    incident_date="2020-01-15",
    filing_date="2026-06-01"
)

print(result.verified)          # False - 4 year limit exceeded!
print(result.expiration_date)   # 2024-01-15
print(result.days_remaining)    # -867 (negative = expired)

Supported Jurisdictions

Jurisdiction	Breach of Contract	Negligence	Fraud
California	4 years	2 years	3 years
New York	6 years	3 years	6 years
Texas	4 years	2 years	4 years
UK/England	6 years	6 years	6 years
Germany	3 years	3 years	10 years
India	3 years	3 years	3 years

Compare Jurisdictions

comparison = guard.compare_jurisdictions(
    "breach_of_contract",
    ["California", "New York", "Delaware"]
)
# {'California': 4.0, 'New York': 6.0, 'Delaware': 3.0}

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All-in-One: LegalGuard

For convenience, use the unified LegalGuard class:

from qwed_legal import LegalGuard

guard = LegalGuard()

# All 6 guards available
guard.verify_deadline(...)
guard.verify_liability_cap(...)
guard.check_clause_consistency(...)
guard.verify_citation(...)
guard.verify_jurisdiction(...)               # NEW in v0.2.0
guard.verify_statute_of_limitations(...)     # NEW in v0.2.0

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Next Steps

• Examples - Real-world scenarios
• Troubleshooting - Common issues