THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL 60 | JANUARY 2025 Law Practice Tips Thoughts on Legal Document Automation By Jim Calloway MORE TECHNOLOGY-BASED changes are ahead in legal service delivery, and I believe we are reaching the point where many Oklahoma lawyers will be exploring automated document preparation. Automated document assembly is not new to the Oklahoma legal community. In the 1990s, Oklahoma City lawyer Doug Loudenback created a collection of WordPerfect macros he called the “Grande Macros.” These macros interacted with each other in such a way that they functioned like a current automated document assembly tool. Lawyers entered the data about a case that was needed to prepare family law documents, and it assembled them. The petition was not only prepared but also the summons, a temporary order and the initial discovery requests. It was a huge time saver, and the macros gave the user the option to save the data so that it could be used again for future pleadings as the case proceeded. Of course, WordPerfect did not win the office suite battle, and Doug Loudenback stopped updating the software when he retired. A few Windows and WordPerfect updates later and the macros were no longer functional. Now, we see automation tools becoming easier to use. I appreciate that some Oklahoma law firms have embraced automated document assembly tools. At ABA TECHSHOW 2024, one of the presentations was titled (in part) “Why Document Automation Technology Has Become Mandatory.” People, especially lawyers, dislike being told they must do something. However, AI tools are making legal document automation easier and faster by simplifying template creation. Barron K. Henley of Affinity Consulting noted in his paper accompanying the above-mentioned ABA TECHSHOW program: On the most basic level, document automation is the use of software to (very) quickly generate customized Microsoft Word documents. In other words, document automation adds significant functionality to your existing word processor. It allows you to capture the consistencies in your documents such as which sections, paragraphs, sentences, and words go where under any set of facts. It also allows you to capture the irregularities in your documents. Irregularities include custom provisions and intelligent language building that can accurately consider thousands of inputs to produce the correct phraseology every time. Instead of cut and paste, you can pick desired options or alternatives from a list or interview. Instead of manually replacing [testator name] with your client’s name 25 times, you simply respond to on-screen questions and let the computer do the clerical work. Users must only answer questions in an interview/questionnaire to produce letter-perfect, completely customized documents. Neither word processing nor computer skills are required to use such a system once it is built. Even technophobe, two-finger typists can produce perfectly formatted, complex documents without assistance. The benefits of proper document assembly technology implementation were also noted in the same paper: Properly deployed, DA technology can exponentially decrease drafting time and increase accuracy. For example, it would be normal for a DA system to compress what normally takes 6 hours of drafting time into 15 or 20 minutes. DA systems can be used as teaching tools, shared with others, and textually updated as necessary. If your practice involves generating complex documents (or a set of documents is the ultimate
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