Manual legal document drafting is time-intensive and prone to errors. Even a small mistake can lead to contradictory clauses, incorrect formats, and compliance issues.
To help minimize these issues, legal firms use legal document drafting software that streamlines the whole process, from creating documents to saving them in a secure place. However, many firms and lawyers cannot afford expensive solutions, but they can use some free or open-source solutions available in the market that support basic drafting workflows.
In this article, we discuss seven free legal document drafting software in detail. We’ll go over their main features, pros and cons, and limitations.
Top Seven Free Legal Document Drafting Software
Software | Key Features | Free Plan Limitation |
docassemble | Signatures, Multilingual support, OCR, Background tasks | No dedicated phone support |
Law ChatGPT | Clause negotiation, Patent finder, Legal citation helper, Research laws | Limited word limit for prompts |
OpenLaw | Flow, Signature algorithm, Token forge | Manual compliance check required |
Accord Project | Online editor, Cicero templates | Requires basic coding knowledge |
Logic Balls | Chat-based interface, Chat assistance | Limited monthly word usage |
Draftiro | Smart clause library, Audit trails, AI analytics, Version control | Free 14-day trial only |
Paxton | Regulations knowledge base, AI file analysis, Compliance adherence | Free 7-day trial only |
1. docassemble
docassemble is an open-source project supported by a global legal tech community, which is widely used in public legal aid groups, nonprofits, and academic legal clinics. It is designed to conduct interviews over a website (law firms can use it to interview their clients) to assist with creating client intake forms. This information is then used to create documents in multiple formats, including PDF, RTF, and DOCX. Users can create documents that are jurisdiction-specific, making it ideal for multi-state or local legal applications.
The software also offers screen sharing and live chat, which helps interviewers guide their clients during the interview, to ensure they share and discuss crucial details regarding a case.
Limitations With Free Plan: Lacks a dedicated phone support.
Key Features
Pros And Cons
Pros | Cons |
Lets interviewers manage other tasks while conducting interviews Supports document creation in multiple formats, including RTX, PDF, and DOCX Helps users guide clients using the live chat feature | The software interface may seem dated and requires updates Extensive capabilities may initially overwhelm users |
2. Law ChatGPT
Law ChatGPT is an AI-powered tool that helps lawyers and law firms create legal documents with ease. It can help create a number of documents, including but not limited to agreements, letters, legal research, and clauses.
It can also be used to explain legal terms, clauses, and even summarize text to help lawyers save time while ensuring they have all the context for a particular case.
Limitations With Free Plan: It doesn’t have a huge word limit that you can use to give prompts, when compared to the paid plans.
Key Features
Pros And Cons
Pros | Cons |
Quickly creates and summarizes drafts and contracts Offers an intuitive, chat-based interface Comes with a number of customizable legal templates | Its built-in AI can sometimes hallucinate Lacks jurisdiction-specific accuracy |
3. OpenLaw
OpenLaw is a digital system that was developed with the support of ConsenSys (a blockchain venture production studio) that helps users create and secure legal agreements automatically, using blockchain-backed systems. The system offers a number of features that help users fill out the form. For example, it adds a small question to help them understand what information they need to enter, prefills a blank that users can edit later, and fills in the dates.
Limitations With Free Plan: Users have to manually check if the final document is compliant with regulations.
Key Features
Pros And Cons
Pros | Cons |
Lets lawyers have documents signed by their clients securely and reliably Helps automate the process of document creation Records and manages contract details on the blockchain | Managing complex capabilities may require a stronger skillset Performance can be slow under load/peak hours |
4. Accord Project
Accord Project is an open-source system that helps users create smart legal contracts that are machine-readable (meaning both humans and computers can understand them). It provides ready-made templates that users can fill out and customize through defined variables and logic. Moreover, it can also automate parts of a contract, like payments or deadlines, making it easier to create conditional agreements, automated fee schedules, and structured compliance steps.
Limitations With Free Plan: Users need to have basic coding knowledge in order to fully capitalize on the smart contracts it offers.
Key Features
Pros And Cons
Pros | Cons |
Helps create case-specific templates Lets lawyers create and test agreement templates before implementation Allows firms to create machine-readable contracts that help drive efficiency | Frequent releases may complicate update management May lack consistent dedicated support |
5. Gavel Exec
Gavel Exec is a digital platform designed to operate natively within Microsoft Word and help lawyers draft and redline legal documents faster with the help of AI. The system learns from prior deals to redline entire agreements, ensuring all the changes made in a draft are clearly visible, auditable, and aligned with your firm’s standards.
Law firms can upload a term sheet or Letter Of Intent (LOI) to help the platform understand what’s required in the final drafts. The AI then identifies any inconsistencies, missing clauses, or drafting errors.
Limitations With Free Plan: The free plan only has 25 free queries that users can use.
Key Features
Pros And Cons
Pros | Cons |
Helps lawyers draft and redline legal documents directly in Microsoft Word with AI assistance Detects missing clauses, inconsistencies, and drafting errors using uploaded term sheets or LOIs Ensures every revision aligns with firm-specific standards for accuracy and compliance | Support documentation may not cover all scenarios Limited reporting options might restrict decision-making flexibility |
6. Draftiro
Draftiro is an AI-powered draft creation software that is designed to ensure consistency across drafts by learning about an agency’s writing style and preferred language. It creates drafts by looking at the context of cases, prior filings, and available documentation.
It also lets different team members collaborate on drafts and learns from these edits to make future ones more accurate. This reduces drafting time while ensuring every document adheres to firmwide standards.
Limitations With Free Plan: It offers a free 14-day trial. After that, continued access requires a paid subscription.
Key Features
Pros And Cons
Pros | Cons |
Identifies the clauses that require manual editing the most Keeps an audit trail of all the changes made in a document Ensures consistency in legal documents by adopting the brand voice | Might require initial training for better software adoption Some users have requested improvements in the interface |
7. Paxton
Paxton is an AI-powered legal drafting and research assistant tool that provides clause suggestions and content recommendations for legal documentation. Users can also upload legal documents for summarization and search case law with citations.
Additionally, it offers a simple, conversational interface to interact with the built-in AI. This enables lawyers to prompt the tool to generate case-specific drafts with ease and speed.
Limitations With Free Plan: It offers a 7-day free trial. After that, users have to switch to a paid account.
Key Features
Pros And Cons
Pros | Cons |
Analyzed files to provide legal insights Provides lawyers with a detailed knowledge base for state and federal laws Provides a simple, chat-based interface to interact with the software | Support documentation may not cover all scenarios Some users have requested improvements in the interface |
The above-mentioned software are not full-fledged solutions, but they do have something to offer. Some of them rely on code, some on chat-based interfaces, while some emphasize automating client interviews to gather case details.
Choosing the right one depends on how good you understand each solution and how well you can tie them to the exact problems you want to solve.
We highly recommend you read more resources on each solution to better understand how these will fit your workflows.