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Automate your criminal law practice with Gavel. Streamline intake, reduce drafting time, and improve accuracy—so you can focus on strategy and client outcomes.
Easy intake and document automation to auto-populate your templates.
In some ways, criminal law is the face of the legal industry. When the general public thinks about legal practice, criminal law is usually the first thing that comes to mind. As a criminal lawyer, you have the crucially important duty of ensuring justice for both victims and perpetrators of crime.
You could be dealing with anything from violent crimes to white-collar crimes like fraud, drug offenses, sex crimes, property crimes, juvenile crime, cybercrime, DUI cases, and traffic violations. You’re not just navigating complex legal issues—you’re guiding clients through some of their lives' most stressful and consequential moments.
This is all the stuff of TV legal dramas, but what gets shown less is the huge amounts of paperwork and processes you’ll have to handle in a criminal law case. However, those documents and forms make implementing the automation of time-consuming routine tasks in criminal law such a good idea. Gavel’s document automation offers a way to streamline repetitive tasks and optimize the legal services you offer to clients.
Criminal cases are built on documents like plea agreements, legal briefs, subpoenas, and discovery requests. Gavel simplifies the sometimes challenging task of client intake through questionnaires, also called workflows, which gather the information you need to start working on a case. Each workflow can be customized to your needs and automatically generates the required documents. Gavel can populate the template you create with the information provided in the intake questionnaire, generating multiple documents from one workflow to reduce human error and improve the client experience.
Let's take a closer look at how Gavel’s automation software can free up your billable hours so you can focus on client communications and improve case outcomes.
Working at a criminal law firm means navigating complex laws and regulations that are often changing. You may have to manage high-stakes cases involving imprisonment, fines, and media coverage. The pressure is high, and cases can be emotionally charged for everyone involved. Plus, the consequences of a criminal law case can radically alter somebody's life, meaning there is no room for error. Most importantly, you must communicate clearly with clients who may be overwhelmed by the legal process or dishonest with you.
With all that to manage, you don't need a bunch of administrative tasks like document generation taking up your time. And that's exactly why Gavel's automation tools can transform your criminal law practice.
Automation can improve both efficiency and accuracy. Automating client intake and document generation does more than reduce the time you spend on data entry. Smart intake forms allow you to collect client information once and then populate it across multiple documents. Law firm automation like this reduces human error and ensures all your documents are correctly filled out. This is especially important when a single mistake could delay a case. Gavel’s legal workflow automation eliminates manual processes so that your legal team spends less time on paperwork and more time on client communications, follow-up, and looking into relevant case law.
Gavel can improve client satisfaction and understanding. Our custom workflows incorporate info bubbles, default answers, and even videos so you can explain exactly how to complete the necessary information to clients. Gavel can also create informational documents that you can give clients to help them understand the legal process. Understanding the process helps clients feel involved and better take ownership of their cases. It also helps them understand what you do for them, increasing client satisfaction.
Gavel can reduce the time you spend drafting documents by as much as 90%. Use existing forms to create a custom workflow, or start from scratch. The workflows use conditional logic to ask only relevant questions to improve accuracy and client understanding. For example, you can have your intake form ask your client if there were any witnesses to an incident, and if so, the workflow will then ask them for names and contact information. Once the workflow is complete, you can generate legal work products in just a few clicks. The MS Word add-in lets you add questions and label them with variables, right in Word. The variable identifies the question with a unique name, so you can use it to route data into your document. Then you can upload all the documents you want to populate in Word or PDF format. Plus, Gavel’s Blueprint artificial intelligence can scan your existing forms for fillable fields and use those forms to create a workflow that will give you the documents you need.
Produce all the documents you need and make sure nothing gets missed. You can use your workflow to determine the documents you will need and automatically generate them. Attorney-client Privilege Agreements, pleadings, court motions, discovery requests, plea bargain agreements, appeals, and expungements can all be generated in just a few clicks. Gavel’s logic lets you create conditional document sets so that only the documents you need will be generated, depending on the answers given in the intake questionnaire. For example, an assault case will automatically generate requests for police and medical reports and discovery requests. In contrast, a fraud case will generate requests for bank statements, agreements, and affidavits.
Gavel helps you:
Gavel has many features that make it perfect for your criminal law practice:
Focus on strategy and advocacy for your clients by streamlining paperwork. Gavel can help you cut your drafting time by up to 90%, freeing you up to guide your clients through the legal process, research precedents, interview witnesses, and do everything else a criminal law case demands.
For example, imagine you are representing a client charged with DUI. The case will require extensive documentation, including court filings, discovery requests, and plea negotiations. You can create a workflow in Gavel to streamline these tasks and improve efficiency.
Gavel could create documents like a Motion to Suppress Evidence based on predefined templates you already have, cutting your drafting time from hours to minutes. With the time you save on repetitive work, you can focus more on legal strategy to help defend your client. Streamlining filing and discovery requests can lead to quicker negotiations with prosecutors and faster case resolution, making your client happier. And the error reduction that comes from legal automation means you can ensure accuracy simultaneously.
Gavel’s automation tools can streamline just about any stage of a criminal case. The frictionless client onboarding process, info bubble functions, intuitive intake forms, and centralized document management system are major advancements with wide-ranging uses in many legal practice areas.
I already use a firm template to draft my engagement letters, discovery requests, contracts, and agreements. Why should I automate my documents instead of using CTRL+F and replacing terms in an existing template?
It's easy for human error to creep in when copying and pasting from an existing template. An automated workflow on Gavel ensures that tasks are completed efficiently and that no steps are skipped. Plus, you can generate multiple documents from a single workflow.
I want to automate my workflows, but I don’t have time. Can I hire someone to build it for me?
Yes! Gavel software is easy to use, but if you want to save time, you can contact Gavel document automators (“Gavel Experts”) who can help build your software. Gavel Experts have been vetted for their expertise, critical thinking, quality, and efficiency, and start as low as $35/hour.
Do I need any technical background to build on Gavel?
Nope! Gavel is designed for use by professionals in the legal field (not the tech field), so no automation programming experience is required.
Does Gavel offer help throughout the building process?
Yes. Gavel’s award-winning customer team provides unlimited and speedy support for all customers, regardless of their subscription plan. Contact Gavel via phone, live screenshare, email at [email protected], or even via the Slack community for immediate support.
In criminal law, your actions can majorly affect people's lives, meaning there is no room for error. Gavel improves accuracy and helps you get cases resolved faster so that you can focus on serving your clients during the most difficult time of their lives.
Start a free trial today and see how Gavel can help you better serve your criminal law clients.
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