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From Word
Processing to Document Processing on the Internet: New Challenges for Law Firms and
Opportunities for Delivering Legal Services in New Ways.
by
Richard S. Granat. J.D.
President, Rapidocs, USA, Inc.
and Director, Center for Law Practice Technology,
Inc.
Introduction
Costs of Developing Document Assembly Systems
Other Constraints to Using Document Assembly Systems
Guidelines for Implementing Specific Projects
Conclusion
Introduction
The most tangible output of a law office is the production of documents.
Every law office
has to figure out how to generate repetitive documents that may vary only slightly from
client to client. The dominant method of producing documents with slight variations in
most law firms is still to "cut and paste" documents together using the
capabilities of the word processor. The lawyer or paralegal copies the original documents
and then manually inserts the changes. In today's
competitive environment this is still a time-consuming practice. The more time a process
takes, the higher the fee that must be charged the client. Client resistance to high fees
requires an increase in speed and systems that enable easy and confident
delegation to lower aid staff such as paralegals. It is becoming increasingly difficult to
justify billing for creating repetitive documents from scratch, when clients know they can
purchase legal document assembly programs for many routine documents of the Internet or at
a local computer store for under $50.00. The solution to this problem is document assembly
software, which automates the document assembly process.
Many lawyers when they hear about "document assembly" have the reaction,
"Why bother? Can't I do the same thing with my word processor?" or "It takes
too much time to create a document assembly program - don't I have to be a programmer?
Document assembly packages have been commercially available for law firms for at least a
decade. What's new is leading packages like Rapidocs are becoming much easier to
use. It is true that WordPerfect and Word have powerful macro capabilities that contain
document assembly capabilities; however, it is much easier to use a document assembly
package like Rapidocs to
create a document than it is to use the macro language of a word processing program.
A program like Rapidocs automates the authoring process enabling
lawyers without programming skills to create document assembly systems in much less time
than in took using document assembly programs that first came on the market.
A modern
document assembly system is similar in concept to a "spreadsheet." except that
it is a "spreadsheet" for words.
A modern document assembly program will contain such features as
substantive reference, guidance on using software, ability to review and revise answers,
and selection of different question types. By converting word processing files into
intelligent templates, the user merely has to answer questions on an input screen in order
to create a custom document. Appropriate optional paragraphs are selected and variables
such as names, dates, pronouns, and verbs are inserted correctly throughout the document.
A modern document assembly package will enable the designer the add comments and
interactions in the Help section of the template dialog boxes to help the paralegal or
secretary complete the document correctly. It has now become clear that the benefits of
automating a document intensive practice are too important to be ignored.
These benefits include:
-
Speed follows from avoidance of the traditional
method of preparing documents: marking up a form document or previous deal and then
cycling it to and from word processing until all the changes and corrections are made.
Drafting time is substantially reduced.
-
Quality of work product improves with the use of
document assembly systems because the system will check all relevant
considerations; it
will use the right language; it can check for inconsistent or erroneous
answers; it selects
consistently the most desirable text; and it allows more time for review, negotiation, and
improvement. Quality also improves because systems help train attorneys and paralegals.
-
Leverage means that users with relatively less
experience can nevertheless prepare solid documents. This enables lawyers to spend more
time consulting with clients and less time in the document production process. There is a
reduction of secretarial time spend on routine tasks through reduced document production
time.
In conducting a survey on the benefits of using document assembly
systems, law
firms provided the following comments:
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"Using a document assembly system resulted in
immediate
economic value: There was a reduction
in write-offs. The program enabled us to quote a fixed fee without
fear that the value of the time required will greatly exceed the quoted
rate."
-
We were able to conduct targeted marketing campaigns. We have
sought to promote our ability to do particular transactions in volume
settings at a fixed and reasonable price. The best example is our
current program offering estate planning services to the employees
of our corporate clients."
-
" The automated document-assembly routines cut turnaround time on
sales agreements from four days to one day. The net effect has been
an increase in real estate department billings from approximately
$15,000 per year to almost a seven-figure income. We clearly could
not have handled this increase in volume without the document
assembly system."
-
A Salt Lake City law firm that has developed a loan documentation
system for banks, reports time savings of 25%, much improved
quality, improved client retention, and increased market share
through new client acquisition.
-
An Atlanta law firm reports that, "One advantage we did not
anticipate is that little training is required for first-time attorney
users. ...[The system] serves as a training tool for paralegals and new
associates because it organizes documents by substantive area and
choice of planning approaches within a particular substantive area."
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Costs of Developing Document Assembly Systems
The major impediment to the wider use of document assembly systems has been lawyer
reluctance to commit the time required to create the system. Experience to date has indicated that construction of very complex knowledge bases on a
"do-it-yourself" basis is not a feasible alternative for most solo practitioners.
However, automating a single document, or purchasing a completed system off-the-shelf from
a vendor makes it easier to integrate this technology into one's practice without having
to become a computer programmer. Rapidocs, a new document assembly system that we are
just introducing to the US market, makes it much easier to create systems that will
automate most routine documents used in a solo practitioner's general practice.
After two instructional sessions, lasting a total of four hours, students have
been able to create document assembly systems for relatively complex documents
such as marital
separation agreements and commercial loan agreements.
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Other Constraints to Using Document Assembly Systems
Apart from the cost of development, which is becoming less of an obstacle, the major
impediments to the use of document assembly systems are cultural. These include:
Computer phobia - the natural fear that attorneys have
of anything
technical—is an additional impediment to effective use of document assembly systems.
Many attorneys are afraid to be caught typing at a keyboard, because they think that it
is professionally demeaning, although in recent years this has become less of a
problem. Also, lawyers are afraid that over-reliance on a system could create malpractice
problems.
These obstacles can be easily overcome by focusing on the benefits and doing what is
necessary to make them work within a law practice. The law firm must audit the use of a
system after it is developed and put into practice. The need for post-implementation
auditing is particularly great if the system provides flexibility for users to change it,
for example, modifying questions or, in the case of document generators, by changing the
language available for the software to output in response to certain answers.
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Guidelines for Implementing Specific Projects.
Successful implementation will require that law firms plan and select specific projects
carefully. Document assembly systems are not magic. They are tools and means for serving
clients, not ends in themselves. Most organizations do not, for example, publish their own
textbooks or loose-leaf services. Generally, they also should not try to develop complex
document assembly systems. A professional publishing industry has now emerging to fill the
demand for document assembly systems with products directed at both law firms and business
and industry .
On the other hand, lawyers need to be aware of specific applications that are available on
the market which can be incorporated into practice areas with minimal up-front development
expense.
Successful, smaller scale document assembly projects should be within the reach of most,
provided lawyers recognize that the introduction of a new technology into the law firm can
cause problems in a variety of areas: paralegals will have to be retrained; new billing
strategies adopted; new client relationships defined; and new quality control procedures
installed.
The first issue that needs to be addressed is the selection of an area of practice for
automation. The practice area should be a high volume area involving repetitive, document
intensive transactions. The practice area to be automated should be carefully analyzed by
identifying every document that is necessary for a particular transaction.
Second, once an area of practice has been identified for automation, the appropriate
software tool should be selected. Some document assembly tools will work better than
others and may be more appropriate for certain types of work. Factors should as vendor
stability, vendor support, vendor experience with the particular practice area, are
variables that will affect this decision.
Third, the approach to development should be modular - the first application should be
viewed as an experiment which will be designed to encourage more applications. One should
identify a set of documents with significant boilerplate and length, but not so complex
that development will require an unreasonable period of time. The objective of the
planning process is to create a basic application that produces a competent first draft that is used many times. The success of the first application will be the
basis for gathering data for additional applications.
Fourth, once the application is operational an evaluation process should be put in place
to evaluate how well the system is working in terms of productivity gains. Costs should be
compared between the "new way" and the "old way." This is important in
larger firms where an advocate of document assembly is trying to build a consensus for
adopting this technology throughout the firm.
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Conclusion
The development of very complex document assembly systems
has been a slow and time consuming process. New document assembly tools such as
Rapidocs will make it easier than ever before to launch document assembly projects within
law firms and corporate legal departments. Distributing interactive document
templates over the Internet is a promising new development that can engage clients in the
creation of their own legal documents which can then be routed to counsel for
final review. Web-enabled document assembly holds promise for increasing levels of law firm
productivity while increasing the quality of client service.
© Richard S. Granat, 2002, All Rights Reserved
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