Fifth in a series of 5 TypeLaw blogs on the future of digital legal briefs based on ABA research
In the digital evolution of the legal field, many types of software have come to market with the promise of improving work product or providing efficiency for attorneys. Not all legal software takes into account all court jurisdictions and their specific requirements, creating more work for attorneys working cases in multiple locations. Some software may not be compatible with all formats of reading briefs (electronic or paper), and may require additional work to format for readers, taking up valuable time from attorneys and support staff. TypeLaw solves this problem by automatically formatting to the specific jurisdiction, and providing an optimal experience that is device agnostic. This is also helpful to judges since they will not have to worry about the about ensuring a brief is able to be read on their device, since the brief will be automatically formatted to their jurisdiction.
Minute details, such as line spacing, margins, alignment, and headings, are time consuming to format and not all legal software programs will format them correctly based on the court jurisdiction. More manual work with other software means less time crafting your argument and more time spent on formatting and organizing administrative information in a brief. For solo practitioners, the time saved on avoiding administrative work with briefs is a direct savings to their clients and their practice.
Internal and external hyperlinks may not automatically be added with all current software, making it a manual task for a brief writer. Not all software automates hyperlinks, either internal or external, to various parts of the brief and/or appendix. This creates another layer of administrative work for an attorney, and detracts from valuable time spent on crafting the argument of a brief. TypeLaw solves this issue by automatically inserting hyperlinks in digital briefs with correct formatting.
Attorneys have many competing factors in their work, and often rely on legal software to automate manual processes and save time on administrative tasks. Using the right legal software is the key to truly being able to pivot time to the core work of creating strong arguments and winning cases.