Sedes

Your AI cites rulings that do not exist.

Sedes gives ChatGPT and Claude the complete Dutch and European primary sources. Every statute, every ruling and every quotation is held against the source, with the official citation alongside.

See the plansSee how it works

A language model does not look things up. It writes what sounds likely.

Ask ChatGPT for case law and you get a convincing answer: a court, a date, an ECLI in the right format. But the model never read that ruling. It predicts characters that look like an ECLI. Sometimes the ruling exists, sometimes it is about something else, sometimes it does not exist at all.

The same goes for statutes. The model knows a version from its training data, not the text in force today, and not the text in force on the date of your facts. A quotation in inverted commas is often a paraphrase.

Whoever puts that in a court document answers for it. In the American case Mata v. Avianca (2023), lawyers filed a brief citing six rulings that ChatGPT had invented. The court fined them 5,000 dollars.

The same answer, checked by Sedes.

Below is an answer the way an AI writes it without sources. On the right is what Sedes returns for each reference: what is correct, what does not exist and what is not in the source word for word.

Draft answer by an AI (example)

  1. Under art. 6:162 BW (Correct), a person who commits a tort against another that can be attributed to them is liable.

    Correct

    Dutch Civil Code (BW) Book 6, art. 162, para. 1. In force today. Source: wetten.overheid.nl (BWBR0005289).

  2. Whether creating a danger is unlawful follows from the Supreme Court’s Kelderluik judgment (Correct).

    Correct

    HR 5 November 1965, ECLI:NL:HR:1965:AB7079. Called that in 64 of the 67 documents that use the name.

  3. The Supreme Court recently confirmed that line in ECLI:NL:HR:2022:8812 (Does not exist).

    Does not exist

    Sedes: not found. This ECLI belongs to no published ruling. Take it out of the document.

  4. The statute provides that “every infringement of a right is a tort” (Not verbatim).

    Not verbatim

    This is what art. 6:162 para. 2 BW says (Dutch original):

    Als onrechtmatige daad worden aangemerkt een inbreuk op een recht en een doen of nalaten in strijd met een wettelijke plicht of met hetgeen volgens ongeschreven recht in het maatschappelijk verkeer betaamt, een en ander behoudens de aanwezigheid van een rechtvaardigingsgrond.

  5. On attribution, the case law also refers to art. 162 BW (Ambiguous).

    Which Book?

    An article 162 exists in more than one Book of the Civil Code. Sedes does not choose; it returns the candidates with the reason.

Your AI asks the source, not its memory.

  1. You ask your questionin ChatGPT or Claude, the way you always do.
  2. The AI asks Sedessearches the sources, retrieves the article or ruling and has every reference and quotation checked.
  3. You get the sourceverbatim, with the official citation. What does not exist comes back as not found.
SEDES ARCHIVE

art. 6:162 BW: Civil Code Book 6, art. 162 · BWBR0005289

  1. Statutes and regulations46,998
  2. Rulings973,870
  3. Publications and parliamentary papers479,964
  4. Local regulations284,904
  5. EU law100,278
  6. Disciplinary law48,471
Each drawer is a complete copy of one official source, updated every day. Sedes answers from the drawer and never from memory: if there is no card, it reports that the reference was not found.

What your AI can do with Sedes.

All fourteen functions

  1. Check a referenceresolve_citation

    Every reference in a text, matched to the exact document: article, ECLI, parliamentary paper, case name. Ambiguous gives candidates, never a guess.

    Example: “HR 13 maart 1981” → Haviltex

  2. Check a quotationverify_quote

    Is this sentence in the source word for word? Exact, nearly, partly or not, with its place in the document.

    Example: partly → shows the real text

  3. Statute on a dateget_legislation

    The text of an article as it stood on the date you name, with its period of validity and a link to wetten.overheid.nl.

    Example: art. 7:611 BW on 1-1-2015

  4. Search everythingsearch

    Legislation, case law, parliamentary papers, the Staatsblad, EU law and disciplinary law in one query, with Dutch language analysis.

    Example: p95 75 ms

  5. Who cites whatget_citations

    Which rulings cite an article or judgment, and what a ruling cites itself.

    Example: art. 6:162 BW: 13,599 documents

  6. Procedural historyget_case_chain

    First instance, appeal, cassation and referral of a case, in order.

    Example: district court → court of appeal → HR

  7. Legislative historyget_legislative_history

    The parliamentary papers and passages behind an article: what the legislator intended.

    Example: explanatory memorandum

  8. European contextget_eu_context

    The directive behind a Dutch article, its implementation and the judgments of the Court of Justice.

    Example: directive → Dutch statute

Every primary source. Updated every night.

rulings and Advocate General opinions
973,870
Rechtspraak.nl, daily
official publications and parliamentary papers
479,964
Staatsblad, Staatscourant, Kamerstukken, daily
local regulations
284,904
CVDR (municipalities, provinces, water boards), weekly
EU documents
100,278
EUR-Lex: legislation and Court of Justice, daily
disciplinary rulings
48,471
Tuchtrecht.nl, weekly
statutes and regulations, with every version
46,998
Basiswettenbestand (wetten.overheid.nl), daily

Counts updated on 22 October 2026 at 12:00, straight from the Sedes database.

Why you can rely on it.

  • The source is the truth

    Statutes and rulings are stored verbatim and returned verbatim. Sedes never puts a summary where you expect source text.

  • No guessing

    If a reference is ambiguous, you get the candidates with the reason. If it does not exist, Sedes says so.

  • Your questions stay yours

    The content of queries is not logged. Sedes calls no AI itself and sends your questions nowhere.

  • In the Netherlands

    Sedes runs on its own server in the Netherlands, operated by binadit B.V. in Rotterdam.

exact references right on our test set
20 / 20
search, 95 percent of queries faster
75 ms
case names recognised, from the sources themselves
7,298
documents, updated every night
1.9 mln

Less than one billable hour per lawyer per month.

Compare the plans

Connecting takes five minutes.

  1. You get your own key.
  2. You add Sedes as a connector in ChatGPT or Claude.
  3. You ask: “What does art. 6:162 BW say?”
Read the guide