Even though lawyers are constantly writing and spending a lot of their time buried in documents, some of them never actually improve.
One of the reasons why this is happening is the fact that legal writing takes too much time, leaving lawyers spending hours just trying to do a decent enough job.
Employment, labor, and other legal professionals should always strive to do better, especially in the current landscape of the legal world where nothing short of fast and focused client experience will slide.
Fortunately, there are tools that can help you save time and enhance the quality of your work:
- Loio
- Grammarly
- PerfectIt
- BriefCatch
- DraftLens
1. Loio
For many law firms and in-house law departments alike, legal software for lawyers is the go-to tool to automate basic routine tasks and ultimately boost the efficiency of their teams. Tools that streamline contract writing are definitely a must for those teams who want to boost their efficiency and bring more value to clients.
Contract review software like Loio uses machine learning algorithms to analyze the document and automatically highlight all the key details found in your contract โ like key terms, names, money, places, and dates โ and group them into categories presented as a list.
The tool can also help you find missing references, as well as correct inaccuracies in numbering, and fix broken formatting.
Because itโs a simple-to-use Microsoft Word add-in, you can save time and ensure your documents are perfect and tidy without even leaving your word processor.
2. Grammarly
Whether you are writing appellate briefs or motions, your grammar should always be on point. So, using a grammar checker such as Grammarly is a great way to make sure your legal documents are free of any linguistic errors.
Whatโs even better is that you can write a mistake-free document without even buying a premium subscription to this online tool, as the free version is perfectly capable of fixing spelling and grammar mistakes.
The premium, on the other hand, offers plenty of additional goodies if you want to take your writing to the next level.
Grammarlyโs full version gives you access to clarity and style improvements that can help you make further enhancements to your document. For instance, you can get suggestions on how to improve your readability by shortening hard-to-read sentences or make your writing more assertive by pointing out the sentences written in passive voice.
3. PerfecIt
If you happen to need more than just a basic proofreading tool for your documents and want to use a writing assistant geared specifically towards legal writing, you need to check out PerfectIt ไธ more specifically, the American Legal Style sheet.
Apart from doing an astounding job with proofreading, this useful MS Word extension is the best way to look over italicization, hyphenation, and spelling in legal-specific terms.
Itโs not surprising why, as this particular stylesheet is based on the old familiar Blackโs Law Dictionary ไธ the golden standard for the language of the law.
4. BriefCatch
Yet another add-in in this list and a great alternative to the premium features of Grammarly is BriefCatch.
Developed specifically for lawyers, this nifty MS Word extension can offer you well-needed feedback when writing legal documents such as suggestions on stylistic or grammatical changes.
Whatโs even better is that BriefCatch will clarify every suggestion, giving you an insight into areas in which you can improve.
Lastly, this product will also score your document, in addition to giving you a quick summary of the problem areas in your writing while assessing your strengths and weaknesses. Itโs especially useful for lawyers or paralegals who want to receive feedback but donโt want to bother colleagues with things such as legal briefs.
5. DraftLens
If youโre handling a large volume of contracts and youโre finding yourself writing from scratch every time, then it might be a good idea to consider using DraftLens.
This web-based app makes contract drafting a lot easier as it lets you turn any contract into a dynamic automated template, meaning you always have a solid starting point when writing a new legal document.
Additionally, it can also help you simplify different steps of the process by allowing you to find precedents, insert new information, and even edit clauses. Ultimately, you will have a significantly easier time drafting complex contracts.
There is always room for improvement
Law professionals, including employment, labor, and other lawyers, have no room for error in modern times. The market is highly competitive, the prices of legal services are dropping every year, and you need to do more in less time.
Improving and thriving can be challenging, but not impossible if you take advantage of technology. You can save loads of time and become even more productive while easily churning out higher-quality work. Using some or a combination of these tools (e.g. DraftLens coupled with Loio.com) can help you improve in an area where a lot of elements have to perfectly align for a clear and understandable document. Ultimately, your life will be easier, and your clients are going to appreciate it.
