Creating legal documents is time-consuming and frustrating. Itâs also an inescapable part of the everyday law office experience. However, new technology is changing that paradigm. Legal document automation is not just possible today but is increasingly common. Not sure whether automating legal documents is a smart move? Curious about the technology behind the trend? In this post, weâll discuss what legal document automation is and the pros and cons you need to know about it.Â
Before we talk about the pros and cons of automating legal documents, letâs define it. In a nutshell, itâs just creating standardized versions of frequently used legal documents and then implementing a system that automatically generates customized versions of those documents when necessary.
The standard process of legal document generation is pretty old-school and time-consuming. You begin with a similar document to the one you need. Then, using find/replace, you customize it to the current situation by swapping out names, dates, addresses, and other variables.Â
While this sounds simple enough, chances are good that youâre familiar with the problems inherent in the process. It takes a long time to do this manually. It also leaves a great deal of room for errors. Those range from typos to forgetting to change names, dates, places, and events from previous versions of the document.
Automating legal documents offers some pretty substantial benefits. For instance, it takes just a few seconds to create a single, standard contract, like an NDA. It takes mere minutes to create a set of mortgage documents, rather than having the process take up to 10 hours.Â
Itâs not just the time-savings, either. Thereâs also the fact that automating legal documents helps reduce some of those errors that manual processes introduce. And because you start with a template rather than from an existing document with information that needs to be changed, thereâs no chance that artifacts from the original document will remain to cause problems down the road.
Speaking of potential errors, few processes are as prone to this as having to enter information into different apps more than once. Each time, thereâs the chance for typos or other errors. With document automation, the data for each document is pulled from your CRM, so the information only needs to be entered into the system one time to be used on any document in the future. As long as that initial entry is error-free, each subsequent use will be, too.
Yet another benefit of automating legal documents is that it streamlines the training process for new associates. With the conventional method, administrative staff control business processes and retain proprietary knowledge.Â
When they leave, they take that with them. If they leave without training a replacement, youâll face some significant challenges trying to train a new associate. With legal document automation, thereâs no need for some of this training, because most of your forms and documents are stored as templates that can be customized quickly and easily.
Automating legal documents doesnât just benefit your associates. It lets attorneys focus on high-value work while ensuring that important tasks that require little creativity are handled correctly.Â
How much time do you spend on administrative tasks? Imagine if all the documents required for those tasks could be created in seconds or minutes rather than hours. How much more productive would you be? How much more high-value work could you complete?
Perhaps the single most important benefit of automating legal documents is the boost in efficiency it brings to law firms. Document automation can dramatically boost office productivity levels and ensure that everyone from associates to attorneys can make the best use of the single most valuable resource they possess â their time.
While thereâs a lot to love about automating legal documents, itâs not without its cons. The list is pretty short, but itâs important to understand them.
Automating legal documents offers some pretty substantial benefits, particularly in terms of saved time and improved accuracy. With the right software in place, your team can focus on more important work.Â
However, donât forget that youâll still need people to handle lead intake, appointment setting, billing, and all the rest. You also need to ensure that every client entry in your CRM is completely accurate. When you choose Smith.ai as your legal answering service, you can rest easy knowing that our virtual receptionists can handle all those tasks and more.Â
To learn more, schedule a consultation or reach out to hello@smith.ai.
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