Ask DP
A library shaped around your problem, not the document.
Most official information is written to cover every case there could ever be. A statute runs a hundred pages so it can hold up in every situation at once. Your situation is usually only a few lines of it. Ask DP exists to find that slice, show exactly where it came from, and say so plainly when it doesn’t have it yet.
What it actually is
Think of Ask DP as a librarian, not a search engine and not a chatbot. It doesn’t write answers, it finds them. Every entry in the library was researched and checked against a real source before it went in, a statute, an official regulator, a body like the IRS, GOV.UK, or the CRA, and that source sits right under the answer so it can be checked again. Nothing here is composed on the fly, which is the entire point: an answer that’s only ever retrieved, never generated, can’t quietly be wrong in a fluent-sounding way.
Why it isn’t organised like a law library
A person asking “is there a limit on my security deposit” doesn’t think in statute names or filing categories, they think in the actual words of the problem. So Ask DP runs as one flat library, not a set of legal sections to browse through first. The same search answers “how long does an unpaid debt stay on my credit report” and “I don’t know where my money is going,” because both are real things people ask, even though only one of them has a statute behind it. Where there isn’t a law to cite, the honest version is a real redirect instead: to the Draftpace guide or product that actually addresses it, never a fact invented to fill the gap.
How it grows
This library is not finished, and it doesn’t pretend to be. It grows one properly researched entry at a time, across the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada for now, and it says so when a topic is still thin or a question falls outside what’s been checked yet. That’s a real limit, not a placeholder for guessing: a library that fakes completeness on day one can’t be trusted on day two either.
How it fits the rest of Draftpace
Every Draftpace Companion holds the state of one part of somebody’s life, so they don’t have to keep it in their head. Ask DP does the same job for information instead of ongoing state: it holds the researched, sourced version of an answer so nobody has to read the hundred pages themselves to find their few lines of it. Where a Companion already exists for the problem behind a question, Ask DP points to it, clearly separated from the answer itself, never blended into it.
Questions about Ask DP itself
What are you?
I'm Ask DP, Draftpace's own question library. Think of it as a librarian, not a chatbot: nothing here generates an answer or guesses. Ask something, and it looks for a matching entry that was already researched and sourced ahead of time, then shows you exactly that, with where it came from. If nothing in the library covers what you asked, it says so plainly instead of making something up.
Are you an AI, like ChatGPT?
Not the kind that writes answers on the fly, and that's deliberate: nothing here is composed, so nothing here can be wrong in a fluent-sounding way. What's actually running is a matching system. It reads what you typed, finds the closest hand-written entry in the library, and shows it to you word for word, unedited. The only part doing any real work is how it matches your question, not how it writes the answer, because it never writes one.
Can you give me legal or financial advice?
No, and nothing here should be treated that way. Every answer is general information sourced from a real statute, government body, or official guidance, current as of the date shown under it. Your specific situation can turn on a detail a general answer can't see, so for anything with real money or legal weight riding on it, use this to get oriented, then check with a licensed professional for your exact case.
How do you know this is accurate?
Every entry is checked against a real source before it goes in: legislation, an official regulator, or a body like the IRS, GOV.UK, or the CRA, linked right under the answer so you can check it yourself. Each entry also carries a "Verified" date, the day that checking actually happened. Nothing here is written from memory and left unchecked, and where two sources disagreed during research, the primary one won and the other was set aside rather than quietly blended in.
Do you save or remember what I ask?
What you type stays on your screen. No account is needed to use this, nothing you type is sent to a server or logged anywhere, and Draftpace doesn't run analytics tracking on this page. Close the tab and it's gone, same as if you'd never asked.
What happens if you don't know the answer?
You get told, honestly. If nothing in the library matches what you asked, that shows up plainly instead of a guess dressed up to sound confident. That's a real limit, not a bug: the library only covers what's been properly researched so far, a working set of topics across the US, UK and Canada that grows over time rather than pretending to be finished on day one.
Which countries do you cover?
The United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, for now. Where a country's own regions genuinely change the answer, like Scotland's different homeschooling consent rule or Quebec's much heavier one, that's built into the answer itself rather than flattened into one national line. More countries are a matter of when the research gets done properly, not a promise with a date attached to it.
Is this free? Do I need an account?
Free, and no account needed. Ask a question, browse a category, that's the whole interaction. Some answers point to a Draftpace product that goes further on that specific problem, and that's always marked as a separate, optional step, never folded into the answer itself.
How often is this updated?
Every entry shows exactly when it was last verified, so you're never guessing how fresh it is. Laws and thresholds do change, and where something is genuinely mid-change, a passed law not yet in force, a number about to move, that's called out in its own notice rather than buried in the answer text. This isn't a live feed updating itself: it's reviewed and rechecked by hand, which is slower but means every date shown is real.
Can you help with things outside these categories?
Not yet, and that's worth saying plainly rather than stretching to cover it. The library is organised into nine areas, and right now some have real depth while others are still just a plan with nothing written. Ask something outside all of them, or inside one that's still empty, and you'll get the honest "nothing here yet" answer rather than a stretch. Draftpace's guides library and its Companion products cover more ground where this doesn't reach.