What is Document Generation Software?

Ralph Thompson is a bankruptcy attorney, entrepreneur, and the author of the blog, Organizing Your Work. Ralph integrates HotDocs into his practice and wrote a little about what HotDocs is and why he uses it in a recent post:

Document Automated Assembly with HotDocs

Only a few software programs are more essential to my practice than HotDocs. Clients pay me for my time and anything that allows me to get more done in less time boosts my buttom line.

HotDocs is an automated document assembly program. Once you’ve drafted a document, you convert it to a HotDocs document. The next time you need the same or a substantially similar document, you only need to answer relevant questions about the client and their matter and with a push of a button the document is prepared for you.

Let’s say you want to prepare a simple document advising the court of a change of address. Without a document assembly program, you either type a whole new document or you pull out an old one in Word. Using a pre-existing document requires going through the document and changing the client’s name, address, case number, etc. The opportunity for error increases with the number of items that need to be changed.

HotDocs remembers the information you enter about a client or matter. If you’ve entered a client’s address and case number, the next time you need that information in a document it will be correctly entered for you. There is no need to key in the same information again.

HotDocs allows me to concentrate on the key points in a document and makes my work more satisfying, freeing me from tedious document preparation.

HotDocs has a user and a developer version. If you work alone you’ll need the developer version (which, of course, makes you a user). The user version is for larger offices or organizations where one person is designated the developer of HotDocs documents or forms and everyone else is a user of those documents.