Up and running in ten minutes.

Install

macOS: download the app (link in your invitation email, or on the homepage after entering your licence email), open the disk image and drag LitArbi into Applications. Beta builds are signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so macOS opens them without any workaround. Updates arrive in the app.

Windows: once your licence email is recognised, click Download for Windows and run the installer — one file for x64 and ARM64 PCs, installed for your Windows user only, no administrator rights. The installer is not yet code-signed, so Windows SmartScreen may show Windows protected your PC — click More info, then Run anyway. LitArbi needs Microsoft's free .NET 8 Desktop Runtime; if it is missing, Windows offers it the first time LitArbi starts (on ARM64 PCs the installer can install it for you).

Activate

Enter the email you applied with and your licence key (LITARBI-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX). The key is always available on the key page with that email address.

Create your matter

The intake wizard sets the jurisdiction (international arbitration, German or Swiss litigation…), your party side, the numbering style (C-1 / K 1 / Beilage 1) and the citation templates. Change anything later under Matter › Case Settings; the app-wide defaults live in Settings › Citation.

Import your documents

• Drag files or folders onto the document list, click Import, or drop them on the Dock icon.
• Review names and dates; if files already carry numbers (Anlage K 1 …, Exhibit C-101 …), LitArbi detects them. Long PDFs offer Split… right there — and any imported PDF can be cut into exhibits later with Exhibit › Document › Split PDF into Exhibits…
• Set exhibit types in the inspector: awards and decisions get their case name, case number and decision type there (paste a Jus Mundi reference with Paste Reference), and the citation forms follow.
• The sidebar's Smart Lists show what still needs OCR or a translation; run both from the Document tab.
• Everything stays local on your computer. Nothing is uploaded.

Install the Word add-in (Mac)

1. Quit Word completely (⌘Q).
2. In LitArbi: Settings › Word Add-in › Install / Update Word Add-in.
3. macOS asks you to confirm Word’s Startup folder once — click Select.
4. Reopen Word: a LitArbi tab appears in the ribbon.

Cite

1. Open your submission in Word and place the cursor. Click Insert Citation in Word’s LitArbi tab (or Submission › Insert Citation…, ⇧⌘C, in LitArbi): the pane docks beside the Word window. Drag its top edge once to align it under your ribbon.
2. Search, click the exhibits, type the paragraphs or pages, Insert. Several exhibits become one footnote. From LitArbi’s own window, Cite inserts the selected exhibit directly; authorities and submissions ask for their pinpoint first.
3. The first citation of an exhibit in a brief is the full form, later ones the short form; awards keep their italic case name (Tecmed v. Mexico, ¶ 122). An exhibit earns its number on first citation.
4. Reordered the document? Submission › Update Exhibits from Brief renumbers by order of appearance and refreshes the List of Exhibits. Edit & Manage Citations… changes or removes citations without touching Word by hand.
5. Citations are clickable — each one opens its exhibit. When you produce a Bundle, they re-point to the bundled PDFs as relative links, so save the submission next to the bundle folder and the links travel with it.
6. German litigation: Submission › Insert Evidence Offer (Beweis) inserts the two-line Beweisantritt.

When something breaks

It’s a beta — something may still break. Help › Report a Bug sends us your report with an optional diagnostic log. Ideas go to Help › Request a Feature, or email feedback@litarbi.app. What changed in each build is on the changelog.