Legal Document Automation: Efficiently Manage and Create Documents for Your Law Firm

The Modern Law Firm series delves into how AI can streamline your law firm — whether it’s by saving you time and money, eliminating mistakes and redundancies or making your workflow more efficient. 

If you've ever had to create a new contract from scratch every time you have a new client, then you know it can be tedious. And who can blame you if that makes you feel disengaged?

Manually creating documents is not the most efficient use of your time after all. Luckily for you, there is a solution: legal document automation. Learn more about what it means to automate legal documents and what you should look for in a document management system.

What Is Legal Document Automation?

Legal document automation is the process of using templates and other workflows to create legal documents, such as contracts. A document automation platform eliminates the need to create client documents from scratch, which can save you valuable time.

Types of Legal Document Automation

There are two main types of legal document automation software: standalone and integrated software.

Standalone software: Standalone programs do not connect to your database or other software, which can mean you have to take extra steps to ensure your information is up to date everywhere. This can help you better manage your documents, especially if you're using manual systems, but they might add work in the end.

Integrated software: This software can integrate with your other workflows, making it easy to manage everything in one place. This kind of software for law firms can help make it easy to manage documents.

Are Legal Document Automation and AI Document Automation the Same Thing?

Legal document automation and artificial intelligence (AI) document automation are not the same thing. While both legal tools can help you create and organize complex documents, they do no work in the same way. Automation uses templates and workflows to achieve the desired results. AI, on the other hand, uses machine learning and natural language processing to create documents.

Here are a few differences:

Automation	AI
Legal document automation has a more limited use, like creating documents from a template	AI can handle a wider range of tasks, like pulling information from different sources and checking documents for accuracy
Automation is static and unchanging	AI becomes smarter as it learns new information
Automation solutions are more likely to be general or a "one-size-fits-all" solution that might not work for your firm	AI is more customizable to fit the needs of your firm

Law Firm Document Automation Benefits

Legal practice management software that focuses on document automation can be a game changer. It can help you:

Reduce Human Error

With document automation tools, you don't have to start documents from scratch. This can help you avoid adding in information manually, which can lead to mistakes, such as duplicate information or misspelled names. 

Manage a Larger Number of Files

It can be difficult to keep track of a lot of files. Legal document management software can not only help with document generation, it can also store them for you in an easy-to-access database.

Give You More Time to Focus on Your Tasks

Legal services require a lot of problem-solving. If you're completing manual tasks that are time consuming, it leaves you with less time to focus on more complicated issues.

Benefits of Mixing AI and Automation for Document Management

AI and automation are powerful on their own, but they're even better together. For example, automatic document generation enables you to spend less time creating documents manually, a process that can easily introduce mistakes. Paired with AI, you can also create a safety net for yourself. AI has the ability to check your work and flag errors you might have mixed.

Also, automation works faster than you can, but with AI it can progress even quicker. AI can analyze large sets of data to find the information you need or to summarize documents.

How to Choose a Legal Document Automation Software For Your Firm

There are many options for document management. Here are a few things to consider:

• Safety: Ensure your clients' information is safe to maintain their trust. 
• Existing workflows: What will be the effects of adding new software? If it means you need to log in to more programs or there's a steep learning curve, you might want to try a solution that better fits into your existing workflow.
• Speed: Look for a system that lets you quickly generate and retrieve documents.
• Remote access: You and your clients aren't always in front of your desk. Being able to log in remotely can help you make progress.
• Electronic signature: Having to find another system to sign documents can complicate your workflows.
• Unlimited storage: Legal firms manage many documents. Paying for more storage can become expensive.
• Cost: Finding something within your budget should be a top consideration.