Best 7 Legal Document Automation Softwares In 2024
Best 7 Legal Document Automation Softwares In 2024
Advances in software and artificial intelligence (AI) are enabling the legal profession to automate more rote tasks. Solutions reduce the burden on attorneys and paralegals, driving up margins, reducing burnout, and enabling more client focus.
Unfortunately, not all lawyers are technically minded, limiting their capacity to choose a suitable solution. Dozens of software developers promise remarkable benefits, but which can produce the goods?
In this article, we’ll explore the best 7 legal document automation softwares in today’s market, helping you find solutions to drive success in your practice.
1. Briefpoint
Source: Briefpoint
Briefpoint is among the most advanced document automation softwares on the market. Currently trusted by over 500 law firms. It eliminates routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can save time.
As a legal sector-specific tool, Briefpoint focuses on requests for admission, requests for production, and interrogatories. These documents are famously time-consuming, but the document automation tool automates the process using the power of machine learning.
For instance, Briefpoint’s AI begins scanning straight away when uploading a discovery request, gleaning as much information as possible (including the case number, parties involved, and so on). Then, you can add your objections and responses to responses, cutting down on manual typing needs. You can also open active docs in a Microsoft Word document to tidy them up, reformat, or finish them off.
Briefpoint lets you schedule a demo to test its software at your firm. The solution is appropriate for people of all technical abilities with almost no learning curve, saving an average of 87% of time spent on each document.
View Briefpoint’s pricing here.
2. Clio
Source: Clio.com
Clio is a market leader in law office management and offers various legal document automation features as part of a suite of services. The tool gives you control over your practice from a single dashboard, eliminating the need for complex integrations or straddling workflows.
Clio includes templates for legal documents, including letters, contracts, and pleadings. The drag-and-drop interface makes customizations and edits straightforward, avoiding the need for technical knowledge.
Furthermore, the software operates practice-wide via the cloud. Team members can access it anywhere, facilitating remote work and out-of-hours services.
That said, it is not perfect. While Clio offers some document automation, it is a tacked-on feature. Developers felt they had to include it after other vendors introduced more advanced solutions. Therefore, it doesn’t offer the customization features required for highly specialized needs.
Pricing can also be an issue. The subscription fee is per user, with some plans over $125 a month for every account you add. Furthermore, it makes you pay extra to access integrations, which is problematic if you invested heavily in your software stack already.
3. DocuSign
DocuSign Signature doesn’t quite fall into the category of legal document automation software, but law offices use it extensively, so it is worth mentioning here. Teams find it helpful to enable attorneys and clients to sign documents and track their progress over time. As such, it saves time compared to conventional paper-based signing workflows. Other benefits include its mobile-friendliness, integration across platforms and reasonably advanced security.
Other solutions offer far more time-saving features. It also focuses on electronic signatures. While you can make edits, doing so is cumbersome.
Finally, you will need to pay a subscription if using the solution for high volumes of documents (a guarantee in most legal practices). Therefore, it is not a free tool, despite seeming like one.
4. PandaDoc
Another piece of legal document automation software is PandaDoc. Like Clio, it is an all-in-one platform, letting you generate documents, collect e-signatures, and leverage analytics. Developers claim it can speed up paperwork by 40% (approximately two working days per week).
PandaDoc isn’t a legal-specific document automation platform but specializes in this area. Law firms can look forward to spending up to 80% less time creating documents, thanks to its template library and drag-and-drop editor. It also has tools for expediting contract creation, avoiding the need to cut and paste (or even write) by hand. Built-in commenting assists with edits and helps to speed up negotiations for teams involved in commercial law.
The reason some teams avoid PandaDoc is the software’s complexity. While it offers a feature-rich interface and client experience, it also demands a steep learning curve. To the developer’s credit, they provide instructions and training, but wading through this involves additional time investment.
Moreover, integrations with the software are challenging. Hiring an outside firm to complete them is often necessary.
5. HotDocs
HotDocs is also a strong contender for best legal document automation softwares. The tool claims that it enables law practices to process documents up to 90% faster than manual generation (including industry-standard cut-and-paste methods). Again, the goal is to help you focus on your clients instead of tedious document creation.
HotDocs is an established legal document automation software player with a proven track record and broad user base. Law offices use it for its hundreds of pre-built templates for various legal specialties and its flexibility. The tool can also integrate with other legal software and CRMs, reducing implementation complexity. You can even use it offline – great for professionals on the subway or far from WiFi.
Even so, HotDocs still has weaknesses. While it can generate legal documents, it often lacks visual appeal. Law practices sometimes feel disappointed that they don’t look professional enough. Furthermore, updating templates with scripts is time-consuming. The AI won’t do it for you, no matter how nicely you ask.
Finally, there’s a steeper learning curve than many of the more straightforward options on the market. Therefore, it is more geared towards law firms with significant technical expertise and large budgets.
6. Bryter
Bryter goes even further, claiming users can save 95% of their time on manual work with its document assembly software. The solution helps law practices automate routine document drafting, remove errors, reduce risks, and get data-driven insights. Systems prevent internal clients from generating inaccurate documents while eliminating mistakes with standardized templates.
Bryter’s main selling point is its no-code client portal approach. As such, it positions itself as the brand for the average law office. The intuitive decision-tree structure and user interface mean that most professionals with experience working on computers can use it.
Teamwork is also straightforward on the automation platform. Cloud-based collaboration features enable teams of any size to work together to process paperwork faster.
With that said Bryter’s document automation capabilities are somewhat limited. While the decision-tree functionality helps with legal decision-making, it focuses more on interactive approaches than traditional, bread-and-butter document generation. As such, some legal practices find it limiting.
It is also a newcomer to the market and doesn’t have the same pedigree as many more established platforms. As such, the community support base is smaller than the more prominent names.
7. Formstack
Formstack rounds out our list of the best legal document automation softwares. This established player offers solutions that eliminate paperwork, automate documents (including personalized contract agreements and NDAs), collect e-signatures, and improve collaboration. You also get security-related tools, such as controlling who can access paperwork via logic and routine tools. It also meets various legal standards, such as GDPR, PCI, and HIPAA, for any legal firms working with sensitive information.
Formstack regularly collects data on the time its tools save its team members. Most can cut 17 hours or more from their week using the solution.
That said, it remains a form-building tool, not exclusively for legal automation. Its document generation capabilities are also surprisingly basic for such a professional tool. Unlike Briefpoint, it doesn’t make extensive use of AI to highlight and track documents as negotiations unfold, making it less practical for legal firms wanting to eliminate the most time-consuming elements of their work.
Finally, integrating it with niche legal applications is challenging. It doesn’t work seamlessly with all platforms.
FAQs In Relation To Best Legal Document Automation Softwares
What is the best legal document automation software in 2024?
There are several contenders for the best document automation software in 2024, including Briefpoint.
How does legal document automation work?
Legal document automation works by handing over composition and writing tasks to templates and AI. Drag-and-drop interfaces enable rapid document construction without creating documents from scratch or cut-and-paste from existing libraries.
How Briefpoint Can Help You
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.
