 Many legal aid experts point to Document Assembly as one of the best investments an organization can make. The ability to guide users through reform to ensure it is completed accurately can save time, improve outcomes for some litigants, and empower people with the tools they need to provide or receive timely legal assistance. If you're familiar with TurboTax, Legal Document Assembly works about the same way. Document Assembly is a guided questionnaire that inputs your answers into a finished document that can be printed and signed or submitted electronically. Document Assembly can be a valuable tool for a wide range of users, including legal aid attorneys, paralegals, volunteers, navigators, and social service agencies that otherwise do not offer legal help. However, the people who may benefit the most from a Document Assembly system are self-help users and prosa litigants. Prosa litigants can use Document Assembly systems to better represent themselves and get the information they need. A Document Assembly system can include chat help, links to unbundled legal advice providers, info buttons that explain concepts or provide additional background, and rules programmed into the interface that ensure that individuals representing themselves submit complete, legible, and accurate paperwork. Document Assembly is also a lower-cost option for individuals who don't technically qualify for legal aid but who cannot afford to hire an attorney. It can help fill gaps where individuals need help and have few options. For attorneys, there are also many benefits. An attorney's time is extraordinarily valuable. That's why private law firms charge hundreds of dollars per hour. To provide access to justice to as many clients as possible, legal aid organizations have to maximize the use of each attorney's time. Document Assembly allows attorneys to focus more on complex legal issues and leave routine or uncomplicated tasks to paralegals, volunteers, or clients. It helps every legal aid attorney practice at the top of her license to do the work that only an attorney can do. Creating a digital version of a document also makes it easy to store those documents and reuse the information for future forms or documents. Some systems employ smart form tagging to automatically populate information when a new document is being drafted. Local courts are often their own fiefdoms with their own rules and documentation standards. The creation of a document assembly system can be a step toward standardizing the forms throughout your state, which can save time and eliminate confusion for attorneys and clients. The basic idea of document assembly and the technology behind it are both fairly simple. There are four parts to any document assembly system. The user interface, the file that stores the answers users enter into the interface, the templates you create, and the technology you use to transfer or marry information from your interface to your template. All of these work together to create a finished, individualized document. The templates define the text and format of the document you're planning to create. When you build a template, you're creating the finished document minus the answers, so you need a way to label each of the blank answer fields so that you know where to put the answers in your answer file. Most systems call these variables. Each variable field needs to be given a specific variable name that will correspond to a particular answer field in your interface questionnaire. Your templates can be in a number of different document formats, including PDF, word processing formats, like Microsoft Word, and other proprietary software formats. The user interface is what makes your document assembly system useful to the people who are not attorneys or legal experts. In essence, it's an interview-style questionnaire that's broken up into small chunks that make it easy to know exactly what information is needed. For complex forms that calculate data based on specific inputs or that need to add additional information or questions based on specific answers, the interface can really simplify the completion process for the user. The answers a user puts into the interface go into an answer file that contains information on how to map the data to your document template. Each answer is matched up with a variable that maps to your user interface and document template. For example, you can name a space in your template age and then program your interface to input the answer to how old are you in the age field in your answer file. Think of it as copy and paste. The program copies the information into your answer file and then pastes it into the document. Depending on the capabilities of your software, there are many ways you can map your variables to increase the complexity of your document. For example, a data point in one part of a document can be used to calculate answers later by performing a mathematical operation on two variables and mapping them to the document with a new variable. You can also craft questions that branch to other questions depending on the answer given. Once the answer file is complete, you need to merge it with your document template. This is the assembly in document assembly. Answer files vary depending on the interface you choose, but any assembly software should be able to read and translate the various formats and plug the data into your document. However, programming support is usually needed when the interface and assembly software are different. Systems that include the interface and assembly software together typically require very little technical support. At the end of the process, you have a finished document that you can print. File formats vary, but most systems allow you to save your document as a PDF. Whether the litigant is a client or a self-service user, you may want to save a copy of the document in your client management system. If your user interface requires a login, the user may also be able to save a copy to her account. Some systems enable you to file your document electronically. This requires coordination with courts or local municipalities. Now that you know how the process works, what are the tools available to legal aid organizations? If your document assembly needs are fairly simple, or you have a very limited budget, you can use nearly any kind of online form, questionnaire, or survey as your user interface. This approach is inexpensive and easy for the user, but functionality is limited. Software options such as type form, woofoo, or Google Forms won't handle complex branching or calculations, and they won't actually create the document. They provide an interface and an answer file, but then you'll need another tool to actually create the document. One way to assemble a simple document from your questionnaire is to use the mail merge function in your word processing system. Simply create a template in a Word or Google document and merge your answer file into it. This approach won't do anything complex, but it can meet simple needs. A sophisticated user may be able to automate the process to merge the data with the document and spit out a file in only one or two steps. You can also create a document assembly interface in your content management system. The functionality is very similar to the simple tools mentioned above, but offers the added advantage of more seamless integration with your website and greater customization. Many legal aid organizations use Drupal to manage their websites. An experienced Drupal programmer can create a series of guided forms that can then transfer data to assembly software that can complete the creation of the document. Your case management system may also offer document assembly software. Systems such as ProLaw, LegalServer, Kempz, LegalFiles, Pyka, and PracticeManager have built-in document assembly capability or can be customized to include it. Some case management systems provide the interface in addition to the assembly capability, but most require you to create a questionnaire that is then downloaded automatically or manually to your case management system. Many organizations use the Center for Access to Justice and Technologies A2J Author software as their user interface, in part because it was one of the first options available to legal aid organizations, but also because it is designed specifically with legal aid needs in mind. A2J Author is a cloud-based, single-page web application that can run on any browser and is designed to recognize and reformat for mobile devices. However, hot docs must be used as the assembly software. The Legal Services Corporation is a major funder of the project and has made A2J Author free to legal aid and pro bono organizations. Hot docs requires a license, which legal aid organizations can acquire at a discount. It also requires software programmers who are experienced in working with both A2J Author and hot docs. The technology needed to pull data from forms and create documents isn't fundamentally that complicated and can potentially be found in other types of systems. For instance, the Tyler Technologies Odyssey system, used by courts to manage information and streamline processes, also offers document assembly features. And some firms, using the Salesforce platform, have adapted it for document assembly. However, this option requires the help of an experienced programmer. There's a number of tools that are designed specifically to gather data and then assemble documents based on rules. These systems often support complex rules and branching, much more so than a word processing system. You're likely to pair a more user friendly interface with these assembly programs, but if legal professionals are the primary users, one of these might be your best option. Many of these vendors offer software donations, including hot docs, which provides its software at a 70% discount to nonprofit organizations, bringing the cost down to as little as $100 for a user license. There are a number of factors to keep in mind before you invest in your system, including deciding who will use the tool and how they will use it, prioritizing which forms or what areas of law you most want to cover, and how you'll get buy-in from the courts and legal communities that will be receiving your documents. Will your document assembly system primarily be used by volunteers and paralegals at your office, or will prosay litigants be your primary users? Deciding who will be using this software, and for what purposes, is necessary to tailor the software to their specific needs. If your users are primarily internal, and have some education and background in law, a fairly basic system that can complete a document quickly is all you need. The main benefit for this group is the ability to pre-populate information for repeat clients, and to be able to enter data quickly. However, most legal aid organizations are seeking to extend their services to individuals who would not otherwise be eligible for legal help. This means a lot of time and attention needs to go into how the questions are asked, and the overall experience of using the system. You also likely need to build in additional tools and resources, such as live chat assistance, definitions, and a directory of links and other resources that will allow users to explore additional information. You'll also need to spend a lot of time thinking through the logic behind how the questions guide users to make sure they're able to fill out the forms efficiently and accurately. Some documents are more difficult than others to include in a document assembly system. In general, forms that are primarily made up of yes-no questions or multiple-choice selections are usually the simplest to translate for document assembly. Landlord tenant issues, for example, might be a good place to start when creating a document assembly system. More complex issues, such as questions raised in family law, can also be applied to document assembly, but self-service users face more risk of completing the form inaccurately. You'll also want to decide whether it's important to your organization that an attorney checks the documents before they are submitted and build that step into the process. The courts and the broader legal community are important partners in the creation of any document assembly system. You'll want to get approval from local judges on any document templates you create to ensure that the documents will be accepted when they are submitted. You should also check with your local bar association to find out whether your documents have the potential to intrude on the interests of peer attorneys in the state. Once you've decided to invest in a document assembly system, there are a number of factors you'll need to consider as you configure it to your needs. The first, most important planning step you need to take is to identify or hire someone to manage the project from start to finish. Your project manager should be responsible for tracking timelines and responsibilities, managing scope and budget, acting as a central path of communication, managing and sharing working files, and stakeholder reviews. Organizations that have implemented large technology projects all stressed that project management is one of the most important considerations in the planning process. Setting up a document assembly system can be incredibly time consuming. The legal and technical factors to consider mean that an attorney and technical staff will need to work together to create and review each document and all of its variables. This is not a task an attorney should take on while still carrying a full case load. As a result, the technology combined with the attorney time needed to set up the system is likely to cost your organization between $30,000 and $40,000. As you plan the creation of your system, you want to build in time for stakeholder reviews. A committee that represents the legal community, courts, and client groups can help you ensure that each questionnaire and document template will serve the needs of everyone who uses the documents your system will create. Once your document assembly system is up and running, there are still a few issues to consider to make sure it continues to offer your organization and its users long term value. It's useful to collect metrics that can show you how well the system is meeting expectations. Offering a survey just before the user prints the document is one good way to get feedback. Web analytics tools that show session duration and how many users abandon the interface and at what stage can also be useful in discovering the roadblocks that users face. You'll also want to plan for ongoing maintenance of the system as legal rules and basic information change. Devoting staff time and a budget for maintenance will help you prevent your system from slipping into disrepair and ultimately becoming obsolete and forgotten. This video series was made possible by a grant from the Legal Services Corporation. Now that you have the basics, you're ready to pursue your own document assembly system. If you'd like to learn more about how specific organizations have created their systems, check out the examples from Arkansas and Illinois. Thanks for watching and good luck.