As digital transformation reached the legal field, many types of brief formatting software came to market with the promise of improving work product or providing attorneys greater efficiency, but there are many reasons why those offerings fall short.
Why locally compliant is key
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, consuming valuable time from attorneys and support staff.
TypeLaw solves these problems 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 ensuring a brief is able to be read on their device, since the brief will be automatically formatted to their jurisdiction.
Getting the small details right
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.
Courts prefer hyperlinks
Internal and external hyperlinks may not automatically be added with all current software, making it a manual task for a brief writer. And 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.
The promise of effective legaltech
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, especially for brief formatting and hyperlinking, is the key to being able to truly pivot time to the core work of creating strong arguments and winning cases.