New 'Access to Justice' Benchmark: Leading AI Models Miss Critical Legal Details

Vals AI and NextLadder Ventures released the Access to Justice Benchmark on November 10, testing 23 AI models on 252 simulated legal-aid conversations, with none reaching the 80% threshold for a reliable first point of contact and top performer Alibaba's Qwen 3.8 Max scoring 76.4%. Models met 78–87% of criteria for general legal explanations but only 30–50% for identifying specific local resources, with 21 of 23 falling back on national directories in at least 70% of final answers. Free-tier models averaged 69.7% versus 70.4% for premium ones, and housing questions scored highest at 75.4% while public benefits ranked lowest at 57.3%.