Checked Law

Prove your document was checked by a human!

This is created by Morten Engervik, a practicing lawyer from Norway. I'm so proud to share this with the world! With this Word plugin you can work systematically through a document to make sure that all the information is accurate and verified by a human. Record proofs on all dates, facts, case law reference, paragraphs, citations etc., one by one, and hand over a file that shows exactly what was checked, by whom, and when.

Install for free See how it works
Morten Engervik, the maker of Checked Law

Built by Morten Engervik. Questions or ideas? I read every email: morten.engervik@marstrand.no

Why

Whether you work alone or in a team, every fact, date, name, and citation in a document has to be accurate before it goes to a client — or before anyone gives advice based on it. AI makes drafting faster, but checking is still human work, and "I read it through" leaves no trace.

Checked Law records that work. Each risky item gets an explicit approve-or-reject verdict with a name, a timestamp, and an optional note on where the information comes from. That makes reviewing a colleague's draft faster and safer: the reviewer sees at a glance what a human has already checked, what the verdict was based on, and what still needs attention — instead of re-checking everything from scratch.

How it works

  1. Mark. Select text in the document and mark it as a check item — date, citation, fact, name, or other. The mark moves with the text as the document is edited.
  2. Check. Approve or reject each item, optionally with a note. Every action is recorded with name and timestamp.
  3. Review. A senior opens the same document, sees per-item status and the "to check" queue, and jumps straight to each marked passage.
  4. Stay honest. If marked text is edited after a verdict, the verdict is automatically invalidated. An approval never silently survives an edit.
  5. Send clean. One click opens a clean copy — no marks, no audit data — ready to save and send, while your original keeps its full audit trail.

Your documents stay yours

The audit trail is stored inside the .docx file itself, invisible to normal Word users. Document content never leaves your machine — there is no account, no sign-up, and nothing to configure.

Install

Checked Law is free for now — no account, no payment details. Installation takes about two minutes: download the add-in manifest, then add it to Word.

Step 1 — download the manifest

Download manifest.xml

Step 2 — add it to Word

Word on the web — easiest
  1. Open any document in Word on the web.
  2. On the Home tab, choose Add-ins → More Add-ins.
  3. Select My Add-ins → Upload My Add-in.
  4. Choose the downloaded manifest.xml and click Upload.
  5. Checked Law opens in the task pane.
Word on Windows (desktop)
  1. Put manifest.xml in a new folder, e.g. C:\checked-law.
  2. Right-click the folder → Properties → Sharing → Share… → share with yourself. Note the network path (e.g. \\YOUR-PC\checked-law).
  3. In Word: File → Options → Trust Center → Trust Center Settings → Trusted Add-in Catalogs.
  4. Paste the network path as the catalog URL, click Add catalog, tick Show in Menu, and click OK.
  5. Restart Word, then go to Home → Add-ins → More Add-ins → Shared Folder and pick Checked Law.

Desktop installation on Windows is clunky — Microsoft requires the steps above for add-ins outside their store. If this is a blocker, use Word on the web, or ask your IT admin to deploy it firm-wide (one upload, no per-user steps).

Word on Mac
  1. In Finder, press Cmd+Shift+G and go to ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Documents/.
  2. Create a folder named wef if it doesn't exist, and copy manifest.xml into it.
  3. Restart Word, then choose Insert → My Add-ins (dropdown arrow) → Checked Law.
Deploy to your whole firm (IT admin)

One upload in the Microsoft 365 admin center deploys Checked Law to every lawyer — no per-user installation. See the IT deployment guide or write to morten.engervik@marstrand.no.

Questions or feedback

Checked Law is free to use — no account needed. I'm building this for lawyers who use AI and want to stand behind the result. If that's you, I would genuinely like to hear what works and what doesn't: morten.engervik@marstrand.no.