What is Legal Drafting Software and Why Do You Need It?
What is Legal Drafting Software and Why Do You Need It?
Drafting legal documents is an inescapable part of litigation. However, as important as this process is, it’s undoubtedly an obstacle.
However, despite its importance, this process is undoubtedly an obstacle.
What if you could draft documents with the same⎯if not higher⎯level of accuracy, quality, and consistency as manual drafting?
Let’s talk about legal drafting software, what it is, and how it can benefit both you and your clients.
What is Legal Drafting Software?
Legal drafting software is a tool that helps lawyers and legal professionals create various legal documents at least ten times faster than the manual process.
By using advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, these tools automate many parts of the drafting process.
With legal document generation software, you can easily create a wide range of documents, including but not limited to:
- Discovery responses
- Estate planning documents
- Contracts
- Pleadings
- Real estate documents
- Intellectual property documents
- Power of attorney forms
- Litigation briefs
- Corporate legal documents
- Immigration forms
Most of these tools come with smart features like template libraries, clause banks, and automated formatting.
While specific functionalities or niches can vary among these tools, the goal remains the same: to help legal professionals draft their documents in just a few clicks.
The Benefits of Automated Legal Document Drafting
From the definition alone, it’s easy to see how drafting software can be incredibly beneficial for a law firm. Still, we should take a look at the specific advantages to see if it’s a worthy investment for you.
1. Automation Software Saves You Loads of Time
Imagine slashing hours off your workload and achieving better productivity by simply automating the drafting process, which is exactly what legal drafting software offers.
Instead of creating documents from scratch and spending hours on each one, you can start with automated templates designed for various legal documents.
These templates come preloaded with standard clauses and language to simplify the creation process. The software can also automatically pull relevant information from your databases or previous documents, which reduces the need for repetitive data entry.
Aside from speeding up routine drafting and template building, automation also increases your efficiency by allowing you to manage more cases in less time.
It’s a huge burden off lawyers and paralegals, and let’s not forget a non-direct but equally as beneficial effect: better time management for attorneys.
Your Documents Are More Accurate and Consistent
Accuracy and consistency are non-negotiables for any legal document, especially one related to litigation.
Consistency and accuracy in litigation documents keep everything clear and professional, which helps you avoid misunderstandings, lower risk, and make sure your arguments come across as strong and credible.
So, legal drafting software helps you tick off these boxes by using standardized language and terminology across all your documents. Automated formatting takes care of applying the correct styles for a polished, professional look every time.
Many legal drafting tools also offer document versions, which help you manage changes made to each file over time.
What’s more is that advanced generative AI capabilities can detect and suggest corrections for grammatical errors, legal discrepancies, and inconsistencies within the document—all costly errors that can disrupt your legal workflows.
This means you can produce error-free documents that uphold your professional standards every single time.
3. You’ll Save Time and Money While Improving Your Legal Services
The financial benefits of legal drafting software are hard to overlook. By automating the drafting process, you can handle a greater volume of cases without adding to your workload—which, at the very least—can increase law firm profitability.
More importantly, better efficiency translates to lower operational costs, as there’s less need for manual labor and fewer staffing requirements.
Additionally, with fewer errors and inconsistencies, you’ll spend less time on revisions and corrections and save valuable time and resources. In a nutshell, legal drafting software lets you do more with less, making it a cost-effective solution for any legal practice.
How Does Briefpoint Work?
Sometimes, we’re so used to doing a task that we don’t notice how time-consuming it is. Take drafting discovery documents as an example.
If you’ve been doing it manually for years, you’ve likely made your schedule accommodate the process instead of the other way around.
But what if you can start creating these simple yet tedious documents in minutes? What if you can use that precious time for more important aspects of litigation?
The Briefpoint Process
These are the solutions that Briefpoint.ai wants you to achieve. Here’s how it works:
- Upload your opposing counsel’s discovery request: Briefpoint’s machine-learning AI system will start extracting as much information as possible, such as routine stuff like court name, case number, parties involved, and so on.
- Add objections and responses: At this point, Briefpoint will have already created a caption and filled out the necessary information in your draft. Briefpoint automatically adds objections to each request or interrogatory you can select from.
- Download to Microsoft Word: You can download and edit your draft on MS Word at any point of the process. What you get is a mostly completed, properly formatted document in mere minutes!
Taking too much time collecting client responses? Briefpoint Bridge is a built-in feature that lets you select all the interrogatories that need your client’s input, translate the questions into plain English, and send an email link where your client can input their answers.
After your client finishes the form, Bridge will let you input and edit those responses into your document.
Want to know exactly how this works? Sign up for a demo today.
Here’s How Briefpoint Can Save You Thousands
Discovery responses cost firms $23,240, per year, per attorney. $23,240 estimate assumes an associate attorney salary of $150,000 (including benefits – or $83 an hour), 20 cases per year/per associate, 4 discovery sets per case, 30 questions per set, 3.5 hours spent responding to each set, and 1800 hours of billable hours per year.
Under these assumptions, you save $20,477 using Briefpoint, per year, per attorney.
Test Briefpoint yourself by scheduling a demo here.
FAQs About Legal Document Automation
What types of documents can legal drafting software create?
Legal drafting software can handle all sorts of documents, from contracts and pleadings to briefs and memos. The exact types you can create depend on the features of the software you pick.
Is legal drafting software suitable for all types of legal professionals?
Yes. Legal drafting software is pretty versatile and works for solo practitioners, law firms, corporate legal departments, and even legal help organizations. It’s especially handy for anyone who drafts a lot of documents, especially if it’s a cloud-based platform that lets multiple people work on a single task at once.
How does legal drafting software ensure document accuracy?
Most legal drafting software comes with features like template libraries, clause banks, and automated formatting to help avoid errors. The more advanced tools use AI to analyze your documents and suggest improvements, making sure everything is consistent and accurate.
What are other examples of legal drafting tools?
Other options are Clio Draft, LawYaw, and Contract Express, but if you need a specialized tool that will speed up the discovery process, Briefpoint is your best bet.
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