'Document assembly' - an opportunity for the smaller law firm

?Introduction

Automating manual tasks associated with legal processes allows solicitors to focus on the higher value-added elements of their client matters. While the terms ‘AI’ and ‘legal services’ are now heard together more frequently it is also the case that many of the new technologies are not directly relevant to the work of the small to medium-sized practice. One technology that is particularly relevant, however, is ‘document assembly’.

In this context well-known legal futurist Richard Susskind predicted as far back as 2009 that document assembly would prove to be one of the 10 most highly disruptive technologies going forward.

Document assembly explained

Document assembly is simply the automation of the drafting of legal documents. While each case or matter is, of course, different the process involved in drafting a substantial number of legal documents is the same and can be automated. Typically, in broad terms, a solicitor asks a client questions and uses the information provided by the client to draft a legal document suitable to the matter. This Q&A type process is capable of automation and doing so significantly reduces the time it takes to draft the same document.

These systems, which can be either in-house or delivered as a cloud-based service, are disruptive for lawyers who charge for their time, because they enable documents to be generated in minutes whereas, in the past, the same document might have taken many hours to craft and also require a higher degree of knowledge and experience of the particular law area to complete competently.

Virtually any legal document is capable of automation from standardised pdfs to prescribed court forms to contracts and agreements. Once automated the drafting process can then generate literally unlimited versions of the one document. The same drafting process can also deal with either a simple or complex instance of the client’s matter, e.g. a comprehensive automated will drafting process will be capable of generating a very simple will, for example where a spouse leaves their entire estate to their spouse, to a much more complex situation involving multiple executors and substitutes, monetary and specific gifts, overseas property, guardians for children, pets, burial wishes etc. etc. (see, for example, Comprehensive will for a married/separated person or civil partner*). Where the drafting process does not cater for a particular client issue typically the document can also be edited further in Word where necessary.

* This is just one of over 190 smart documents in our Solicitor Subscription Plan (see: LawOnline for solicitors) costing only €49/month (ex. VAT) for unlimited use by your firm.

Case management systems are now used more widely and a question often asked is how to integrate a DA service with these. Typically DA platforms enable export of document content in either Word or pdf format and it should be relatively simple to insert the DA-drafted document into these workflow management systems.

Productivity gains and cost savings

The possible time savings using DA vary by document but a survey across c. 100 law firms by the UK’s Consumer Knowledge Centre found that savings of around 65% to 75% were typical versus the traditional method of editing and cutting and pasting ‘dumb’ Word templates. The survey assessed the average time it took law firms to take client instructions and create a first draft of three legal documents compared to drafting the same documents using DA technology:

·????????a comprehensive will for a married person

·????????a detailed employment agreement, and

·????????a lasting power of attorney (property and affairs)

The results were as follows:

·????????Will: 80 minutes versus 25 minutes using DA

·????????Employment agreement: 101 minutes versus 25 minutes using DA

·????????Lasting power of attorney: 78 minutes versus 28 minutes using DA

The proof-reading overhead is also substantially reduced using DA. Word templates are easy to manipulate which also makes them easy to compromise, e.g. a sentence can be deleted inadvertently or content can be retained which should have been deleted. It is therefore always advisable to check an edited Word document in its entirety. On the other hand, DA document content cannot be compromised in this manner and therefore the only information which needs to be checked are the replies provided to the questions asked by the drafting process. Also, a good DA system will enable version tracking and comparison.

Expert system

Furthermore, the solicitor doing the drafting does not need to have an expert knowledge of the specific law area involved – this knowledge is built into the drafting process which prompts the solicitor to ask the client the relevant questions. There is also less likelihood of an error – while a human professional may well overlook a key question which should be asked of the client the automated process will not. In addition, a good document assembly process will have built-in validation to stop predicable and preventable errors being made.

A DA capability is also akin to having an additional legal expert in your firm enabling the practice to quickly begin offering services in new legal areas beyond its normal areas of expertise. In this respect it also enables significant delegation of document drafting tasks to less experienced staff who, using this technology, can draft highly competent first – if not final – drafts of automated documents.

In hindsight, Susskind was certainly right but only partially.

Challenges in adopting this technology

Digital disruption and transformation has come a long way for an industry notoriously slow to embrace technology. Overcoming widespread security hang-ups and navigating tricky legacy system transitions, today’s law firms know they need to innovate to stay competitive and relevant in the sector. The larger law firms globally have proactively adopted DA technology as well as much else to reduce costs and enhance productivity. However, even in the absence of a specific survey on the subject it is safe to declare that the vast majority of small and medium-sized solicitors’ practices are still using precedent banks comprising flat-file dumb Word templates.

Also, the early proponents of this technology foresaw a time when solicitors, themselves, would automate their own documents using the technology tools available. The latter was never a real prospect, however. The ideal documents to automate are the more complex ones. To ensure that every likely scenario is covered by the drafting process requires a substantial commitment in time and effort to design, not to mention significant coding skills and experience required to actually implement. There is also the overhead of ensuring that the process is continually updated to comply with the latest legislation.

It is still the case that only the largest law firms with the deepest pockets could possibly take on the task of automating their precedents banks from scratch. Indeed it is highly likely that, even in these cases, many have hired large outside consulting firms to at least perform the initial automation if not its ongoing upkeep.

There are a myriad of document assembly software providers out there with HotDocs and TheFormTool being just two examples. Functionality varies considerably across these products and a proper comparison is beyond the scope of this article. In every case, however, these are just the tools – or programming languages - to enable the automation of a document. As mentioned above, the task of actually applying these tools to the automation of any particular document, manifested in a specific programmed process, is a substantial challenge.

Cloud-based services

However, the above is no longer a barrier to the adoption of this technology by smaller firms. Depending on what jurisdiction one practises in there are now some providers of cloud-based DA services, including for the Ireland jurisdiction (LawOnline), but more typically found in common law jurisdictions such as the US and the UK (where these would be customised to the individual jurisdictions of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, respectively, whose legislation differs to a greater or less extent). RocketLawyer is an example of a provider operating in the UK, US, France, Spain and The Netherlands which offers its plans to both the business and personal sectors. Practical Law is another US provider which enables speedier document preparation in a number of jurisdictions globally.

Oliver is the founder of LawOnline (see: https://www.lawonline.ie/) which provides DA services to solicitors practising in the Ireland jurisdiction. Email [email protected].