What is Legalese?
Legalese refers to the formal and often specialized language that is used in legal documents, statutes, and proceedings. The term is commonly used to describe the dense, jargon-filled written communication that can often alienate non-legal professionals and laymen trying to decipher legal documents. The characteristics of legalese are well-known: complex sentence structures, an overabundance of Latin terminology, and an array of specialized jargon and phrases that cater primarily to those within the legal field.
The use of legalese has increased over the centuries. In the past, the legal system has emphasized the importance of precision and specificity above all else. It was believed that overly simplified legal writing could lead to interpretations open to various degrees of judicial latitude, creating the potential for financial loss to clients . Such legalese could make it difficult for clients to understand the contents of their own lawsuits, contracts, or agreements. It is felt that such legal language has deliberately excluded the layman from understanding the full scope of legal proceedings and documents. While this may have suited the interests of practicing lawyers at the time, it not only excluded clients from the discussion of their legal affairs, but also from other members of the public. Over time, legalese became shorthand for a language that virtually no one could understand. Years ago, law students were told to expunge themselves of their humanistic tendencies and replace them with clinical, nearly robotic speech patterns. Only then, they were told, would they be good attorneys. Legalese has been the byproduct of such advice, which sought to preserve the ostensible integrity of the law by writing it in words that made sense only to a small group of people from an elite profession.
The Emergence of Legalese Generators
Over the years, legal consumers have increased their use of legalese generators. These tools, which can be embedded in your website through an API, allow documents to be generated based on user inputs. Much like Clio Grow’s intake tool, generators can be customized based on the type of documents you want to create as well as the input questions needed to create those documents. Technology used to create those documents also differs from generator to generator. Microsoft Word, for example, has some functionality within it to handle basic automation, such as document templates. Other applications may use another word processing application’s API to create documents.
The effectiveness of legalese generators is not only within ease of use for the client, but also in the backend, where the lawyer creates their templates automated through the software. The goal of a legalese generator is to help the law office scale its practice by saving time and money that would otherwise be spent on this repetitive task. Another benefit is that a generator can give law firms some up-to-date data about their most requested documents, thus allowing them to adjust their practice accordingly.
Ever since online law practice management existed, so did the question of how these tools change the lawyer’s workflow. Some of the exporting features have automatically exported documents in legalese format rather than in a more user-friendly PDF, which is more conducive to court filing. There are some really cool drag and drop editors out there that will create documents based on how long or short you want your document to be.
Legalese generators have certainly evolved over the years. Now we have legalese generators with chatbots that allow people to create a legal document via voice input and fires back that document to the user. We have templates that allow you to generate a purchase agreement and then export it as an HTML email to send to a potential client all in one interface. We have AI systems that allow you to ask the bot a legal question (similar to asking Siri for general advice) that responds with a specific list of documents related to that question.
Advantages of Legalese Generators
As the use of legalese generators becomes more common, both legal professionals and laypeople could benefit from the use of these tools. For legal professionals, these generative tools can save time and money while producing high-quality documents and avoiding errors. For those unfamiliar with legal concepts, the AI can increase the accessibility and understanding of the legal system. Overall, these generators represent a natural evolution in the field of law as it strives to adapt to the needs in society.
Legalese generators can alleviate one of the most frustrating aspects of legal writing: the time it takes to produce and revise documents. Many legal professionals find themselves bogged down by the repetitive nature of drafting and revising standard legal documents, taking away from the time they could spend on more pressing matters. When utilizing legalese generators, legal professionals can free up time spent on mundane drafting tasks, allowing them to focus on more intellectually stimulating aspects of their work.
Accuracy is also an important quality of legalese generators. These programs are able to avoid many of the types of errors that crop up during manual drafting, such as improper citations or non-compliance with jurisdictional rules. In some cases, the program is able to detect ambiguities or potential contingencies within the document and remedy them before the document moves on to the hand of a legal professional for review. This can save the legal professional time spent remedying errors.
Finally, access to legal information and services would increase as these programs become more prevalent. Many people are intimidated by the legal process but feel the need to address legal issues. Using a legalese generator gives them the ability to address legal issues without the fear that they will misinterpret or poorly communicate their legal needs. In a field that has a reputation for being inaccessible toward the average person, legalese generators increase the accessibility of the law.
Drawbacks and Considerations
Lacking certain intellectual components that are innate to human reasoning, even the most sophisticated AI struggles to understand and interpret context, applies grammatical norms more rote than discerning, and operates based only on the data it has been exposed to. The failure of AI to provide the expected results has led one law firm to the conclusion that reliance on AI for legal work is "optimistic at best" and "hampers creativity." Recognizing that the law is "about emotion and creativity," this law firm cites numerous circumstances in which an AI writing tool applied incorrect grammar and phrases.
In another example highlighting the limitations of AI, writers tasked with prompting Microsoft’s AI software with a variety of inputs were provided with unwanted and confusing results. When one writer concluded his question by asking "You are ready for the next one?" the AI could not decipher whether it was being asked to write about "next" (the future), or "nexts" (as in subsequent persons sentenced for crimes), and gave options for essays on both. When "write me your opinion" was replaced with "write for me your opinion," the AI began rarely adding the "for" to its answers.
For the time being, AI generalizes from broad data without nuance or flexibility, requiring pre-set parameters to guide its writing. Because it lacks the interpretive knowledge gained through the "school of hard knocks," the legal industry is likely to experience parodies of human-made contracts until AI writing tools have more experience. As one lawyer writes, "AI lawyers may not yet be able to hear a client’s voice quiver as they recount how their partner has abused them," and despite their progress, they will still be incapable of "timing their jokes so they don’t land when the judge gives them a death glare."
It is these subtleties and nuances that contribute to the quality of legal writing that even the most devoted legalese generator cannot mimic.
Real-World Applications in Law
Legalese generators are increasingly applied in real-world legal environments to tackle a wide range of tasks: drafting documents, streamlining contract review, and answering legal queries, among other things. Their prevalence is largely driven by the ability to extract key information from large volumes of text and present it in a human-readable format.
For example, many law firms and in-house counsel have adopted legalese generators to help with document drafting. This task often proves labor-intensive in the traditional sense, as lawyers sift through complex language and industrial-size legal texts in hopes of locating particular information. Some legalese generators now leverage machine learning technology for this purpose, allowing them to recommend and devise text based on a user’s previous writing style and preferences. At the same time, legal professionals have found success using these tools to streamline the contract review process and minimize missed errors that could cost billions in an instant.
Case studies underscore the effectiveness of legalese generators in this space. For instance, a large law firm specializing in litigation was able to cut down the time spent on due diligence for a complex case thanks to a document analysis tool . By assisting with the review of hundreds of thousands of pages of data, it saved the firm and the client countless hours and memorialized its findings in a clear, concise manner.
Other firms and companies in the business of managing intellectual property have similarly found success with legalese generators focused on searching and identifying relevant case law. Here, one tool built on natural language technology helped locate a trove of prior art relevant to a client’s GitHub repository.
Beyond document drafting and contract review, legalese generators can apply to other tasks, such as asset discovery. These tasks have a history of being handled manually, which can lead to confusion and costly oversights for law firms and corporate legal departments alike. Even document categorization typically involves human labor that slows down the prompt delivery of a legal service. Legalese generators allow organizations to develop more efficient workflows, save time and money, and provide cost-effective services to clients.
Despite their proven effectiveness, it is important to note that the use of legalese generators does not remove the need for human input. Instead, legal professionals continue to play a critical role in the writing and revision process.
The Future of AI and Legal Writing
Although the current offerings provide a great deal of value, they also have limitations. As with many other areas where AI is applied, the technology in legal writing is developing most quickly in the area where it is most needed. That need centers predominantly around the generation of contracts, whether for vendors, customers, or other business-to-business arrangements. These tend to include many repetition and redundant qualities that machine learning has begun to identify and leverage.
The endless potential for layer upon layer of enabling technology to be developed around established AI-based tools means that much provably more utility is tentatively on the way. All of this will be taking place in a legal arena that is likely to experience increasing pressure to make better use of its resources. Many jurisdictions and organizations are experimenting with the expansion of access to courts, and the opportunities for legal automation are proliferating in each case.
Legalese generators that can vastly speed the process of generating documents can allow not only for faster iteration, but also for the simplification of the draft review process. Combined with a set of tools also designed for the modern legal office, that will introduce the possibility of re-imagining the traditional processes of developing legal documents.
Selecting the Optimal Legalese Generator
When venturing into the world of legalese generators, the options may seem endless. However, narrowing down your choices can be a simple task when you know what to look for. Ideally, you want to select a generator that has functionality, ease of use, reliability and great reviews.
Functionality
What exactly do you intend to do with the legalese generator? If you are replacing an assembly line of paralegals generating the same documents again and again, the answer is generally the same. The generator must have the functionality to create unique documents based on parameters you set, or else the decision to use a generator over a paralegal is meaningless.
Ease of Use
If you or your firm are not computer savvy, you should choose a generator that is simple, easy to learn and would not require a large amount of onboarding time. A great tool can be a great tool only if the clients and users understand how to use it.
Reliability
One of the most important things to consider when purchasing a generator is its ability to add seamless functionality to your practice. You won’t need to stress about its reliability if you know that you can count on it each and every time.
User Reviews
Legalese generators are not confidential tools. This means that a simple search on Google will help you determine how well they work and what users think of them. You may even find great reviews from other lawyers within your network.
Final Thoughts on Legalese Generators
As we venture further into the depths of the digital era, the astute use of technology and artificial intelligence reveals itself as more advantageous to legal writing than the mere replacement of words with synonymous jargon. Legalese generators utilize extensive databases, machine learning, analytical methodologies, natural processing language, and other advanced mechanisms to unravel complex legal writing, allowing lawyers to communicate in straightforward, easily digestible terms. The most impactful of these tools can create drafts based on prompts from any area of the law, breaking down and reshaping convoluted legal writing into clear, concise, and optimized communication that not only promotes transparency but also enhances comprehension . This not only creates more approachable legal documents, but also mitigates the risk of unclear or ambiguous communication that could lead to misunderstandings and costly errors. In the midst of such rapid advancements in artificial intelligence, legal writers who avoid such generators, or other programs designed to streamline the drafting or creation of documents, do so at their own risk. We have seen efforts from law schools, law firms, and bar associations to de-emphasize legalese, opting instead for "plain English" for some time now. Despite those successes, the need for clear legal writing is greater than ever and all lawyers must now take the necessary steps to ensure they are utilizing the technological tools available to them.