Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a browser-based document assembly system (see article below), a deposition preparation app for iPad, an iOS app for practice management and marketing, a legal research app for Android smartphones and tablets, and a WordPress hosting service. Don't miss the next issue.
Automate Contract Creation Without an Engineering Degree
Do you think it was just happenstance that Professor Kingsfield in the classic law school film The Paper Chase taught Contracts? Everyone understands the concept of a contract because everyone enters into contracts. This fact likely explains why Kingsfield taught Contracts rather than Civil Procedure. Of course, while everyone understands contracts, drafting them is a different story. A new document assembly product promises to make the process much easier, resulting not only in the ability to draft contracts faster but also create better contracts that reduce the risk of litigation. After all, you don't want one of your contracts discussed in a Contracts class a decade from now.
ContractExpress DealBuilder 4 … in One Sentence
Released this month, Business Integrity's ContractExpress DealBuilder 4 is a browser-based document assembly solution for creating contracts and legal documents.
The Killer Feature
ContractExpress DealBuilder 4 includes ContractExpress Author, a Microsoft Word-based template authoring environment that eliminates the need to learn a programming language or hire template programmers to create templates.
Instead, the "subject matter expert" (that's you the lawyer) can create document templates using Microsoft Word. You simply place square brackets around items that will change from contract to contract — ContractExpress will determine the dependencies for you. Once installed, ContractExpress Author appears on the Ribbon in Word 2007 and 2010.
Templates consist of standard Word documents, which means you can format them and create styles as you normally would, including auto-numbering of clauses. Output formats for the generated documents include DOCX, DOC, PDF, XPS, and RTF.
"ContractExpress DealBuilder revolutionized the feasibility of document assembly by eliminating the need for template programmers," Business integrity President Tim Allen told us. "Now at version 4, it remains in a league of its own."
Other Notable Features
ContractExpress DealBuilder 4 boasts a number of new features.
For example, DocumentView displays your document in real-time as you complete the template questionnaire. The ability to visually associate changes made in the questionnaire with their effects in the document aims to make the drafting of documents a more fluid and efficient process. DocumentView also simplifies training for new users and allows for greater document ownership. "With DocumentView, document assembly is no longer a mysterious black box," noted Andrew Wishart, Business Integrity's CTO.
ContractExpress Drafter enables you to reconcile manual edits made to documents with any new information added to the document as a result of re-launching the questionnaire, thus eliminating conflicting language. Other features include iPad compatibility for drafting documents on the go and in your lap, and an intelligent document assembly engine that can react to user input by dynamically changing the questionnaire based on prior input.
You can host ContractExpress DealBuilder on your intranet, extranet, or SharePoint environment. Business Integrity also offer ContractExpress as a Web-based service (SaaS).
What Else Should You Know?
ContractExpress DealBuilder is designed for use not only by private practitioners and in-house counsel, but also legal publishers that provide forms. Learn more about ContractExpress DealBuilder 4
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So many products, so little time. In each issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The "In One Sentence" section describes each product in one sentence, and the "Killer Feature" section describes each product's most compelling feature. The TechnoLawyer NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.
