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    Top 5 Reasons to Automate Legal Document Creation

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      We have many acronyms in the software business, but my favorite relates to a process, not a techno-flavor of the month. It’s the DRY principal, and it stands for Don’t Repeat Yourself.

      Legal form creation is one area that’s completely ripe for the DRY principal, and until now, there hasn’t been a good option for firms on a limited tech budget, Macintosh using attorneys, or those favoring cloud software. Today however, Rocket Matter, the sponsor of this blog, rolled out Document Assembly as part of their 2.0 release.

      Consequently, document assembly technology, typically affordable only to firms with large budgets and/or Windows-based systems, is now available to the rest of the world. The long, cruel nightmare is over.

      Embracing automatic document generation has many advantages, but here are the top five:

      1. Document Assembly Saves You Time

      Time savings is the big winner with document assembly. It’s much quicker to click a button and produce a document than it is to find a similar document, open it in Word®, save a copy to the right location, and copy the information you need into that document.

      Document Assembly programs allow you to link to a CRM or database program and spit out copies of your legal documents, instantly merging them with the information you store in your database. So if, say, you’re already storing the docket number, address, and beneficiary information of your client, you can instantly create a new form with all of that data inserted in the right place.

      2. Document Assembly Reduces Mistakes

      One of the biggest problems in software, as well as in legal services, is the consequence of error. So we go to great lengths not to screw up. That’s the main reason why you wanna embrace the DRY principal.

      When you have multiple copies and versions of something, you create a situation in which you can easily propagate errors. Making matters worse, you might find an error and fix it in one location but not another.

      In addition, when you’re not automating document creation but copying fields from a database to a document manually, you run the risk of introducing human error and screwing up your new doc. When this manual step is removed in favor of a computer-driven merge process, risk for error is eliminated in the data transfer stage.

      3. Document Assembly Makes Life Simple

      If you’re not using document assembly, most likely you’re digging through similar or sample files to locate something you can use for your new doc. That takes energy and can be a royal pain. Not to mention if you believe the recent science behind decision fatigue, you’re really whittling away your will power by constantly searching for sample documents and data to stuff into them.

      Instead of constantly locating documents, generating new legal forms based on your defined templates eliminates the painful process of finding these samples and the information needed for them. It’s a one step process, not a multi-step process, and gives your neurons and synapses a rest.

      4. Document Assembly Makes Training New Associates and Hires Easy

      Anytime you standardize a repeatable process, you make it easier to bring on new hires. The worst position you want to find yourself in is with administrative staff holding proprietary knowledge over a business process.

      Everything, from client intake to invoice creation, should be scriptable. And the creation of legal documents is a major part of that. When you embrace document generation with a tool like Rocket Matter, it’s clear how to create the subpoena, pleading, or notice of hearing. You can teach a new hire how to make one in an afternoon.

      5. Document Assembly Fits Into a Larger Philosophy of Efficient Workflow

      Stepping back to a 50,000 foot view for a second, if you’re an attorney committed to a paperless office, mobile computing, and other top-echelons of efficiency and business techniques, document assembly is part of that fabric and philosophy.

      For those that have squeezed the last ounce of productivity from their law firms, but have NOT yet embraced document assembly, a big, brave frontier awaits exploration. It’s an area ripe for opportunities to save time and ultimately increase profits.

      Check out Rocket Matter’s new Document Assembly functionality and envision what it can do for YOUR firm:

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