I Made a Contract Readable With Claude, Then Had a Human Check It
AI turned legalese into plain English so I'd understand what I was signing. It is not a lawyer, and I treated it that way.
I pasted a contractor agreement into Claude and asked for a plain-English version of each clause, what it actually means and what could bite me. The summary was clear enough to argue with.
It flagged two clauses I'd have skimmed past, one about automatic renewal, one about who owns the work product. Whether it was right, I confirmed with a real attorney, but it told me where to look.
The method that worked: 'explain like I'm not a lawyer, and mark anything unusual as unusual.' Models under-explain the dangerous parts if you don't ask, so the instruction matters more than the model.
I would not sign based on Claude's read. I would, and did, walk into the lawyer's call already knowing the three questions to ask. That's the right job for it, preparation, not permission.