DocketDrafter DocsWhat you can do
Draft from your firm's own prior filings, revise in plain language, manage citations and exhibits, and keep every version.
DocketDrafter holds your firm's documents: your prior filings, the formats you use for each kind of document, and the wording your firm has settled on. When you ask for something new, it drafts from that material rather than from a blank page, and delivers a .docx for you to open and review.
Every example below is something you can say to the assistant as written. Swap in your own case names and details.
Say “Using DocketDrafter” at the start of a new conversation
Opening a new conversation with “Using DocketDrafter” tells the assistant to use DocketDrafter rather than answer on its own.
Something wrong or missing? Tell the assistant
Say “Send feedback to DocketDrafter” and describe the problem. It reaches our team directly, with enough detail to fix it, and we follow up.
Get oriented
See what you have
Ask what is in your workspace. This is the quickest way to learn what your firm has set up and what it can draft.
What's in my DocketDrafter workspace? What document types do I have for New York state court?
What can DocketDrafter do? Give me a few things to try with the Harmon appeal.
Draft and revise
Draft a new document
Ask for the document you need and point at the case material it should draw on. DocketDrafter works from your firm's example of that document type and takes the substance from your nearest comparable filing. The caption, counsel blocks, and formatting come from your firm's setup, so you never start from a blank shell.
Using DocketDrafter, draft a confidential mediation statement for the John Smith matter. The facts are in the folder.
Start an appellee's brief in Parker v. Coastal Freight. Read the case details from my Dropbox and use my brief in the Harmon appeal as the model for structure and tone.
You get back a .docx in your firm's format.
Revise in plain language
Change anything by describing it. Only the part you named changes, and the formatting stays consistent.
Change the signature block to attorney Jane R. Smith, and update the firm address to 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271.
Tighten Issue 2 and move the standard of review ahead of the argument.
Working in Word
Send your Word edits back
Edit a document in Word the way you normally would, then hand it back. DocketDrafter compares it against the exact copy it gave you and absorbs your changes, so your edits become part of the document rather than being lost the next time it is revised. Tracked changes and comments you leave in Word come through too.
Here's the edited version. Read my changes and apply them.
I left comments in the draft. Address each one.
See what changed, and go back
After an edit, DocketDrafter delivers a redline: a Word track-changes copy showing exactly what it changed, which you accept or reject as you would any colleague's. Ask for the clean copy when you are finalizing.
Every version is kept, with who made it and when, so you can look back and restore. There is one current copy, so nobody has to wonder which file is the latest.
Show me what changed in this document since yesterday. Let's also put back the earlier version of the conclusion before the edits.
Who changed the brief this week, and what did they do?
Citations
Table of authorities, always current
Cite cases, statutes, and rules as you normally would. DocketDrafter keeps track of every authority, formats it in your court's citation style, and builds the table of authorities with the right page numbers each time the document is produced. Add a case, cut one, or move a section, and the table follows. There is no final pass to rebuild it.
Remove the citations to Doe v. Roe and update the table of authorities.
Add the Smith case I just pulled from Westlaw after the first sentence of Part II.
Clickable citations
If you want the authorities in your brief to link to their sources, say so. Links can appear in the body, in the table of authorities, or both. Your firm keeps a library of each authority's link, so a case you have linked once stays linked in every later document. If a link has not been confirmed yet, the assistant tells you before handing over the document.
Add clickable links to the table of authorities. Tell me which cases are missing one.
Cite checking
Ask for a cite check and the assistant reads each authority and checks it against how your document uses it: does the case say what the brief says it says, do the quotations match, and is the pinpoint right. Results are kept in a spreadsheet with one row per authority, its status, and notes on anything that needs your attention.
The worksheet tracks two things separately: whether each authority is used correctly, and whether it is still good law. The assistant handles the first well. Checking subsequent treatment needs a citator such as Westlaw or Lexis, so you can record those checks yourself and the worksheet keeps them alongside.
The worksheet is saved with the document, so you can pick up where you left off, share it with a colleague, or check only the authorities added since the last review.
Run a cite check on the brief and send me the worksheet.
I reviewed Doe v. Roe myself and it's used correctly. Mark it as checked.
What's left to check? Only review the authorities added since Monday.
You decide what the assistant reads: your own Westlaw resources, a connected research service like CourtListener, or the public opinions it can find. A cite check is a review aid, not a certification; the attorney of record remains responsible for every citation.
Exhibits and appendices
Attach and renumber exhibits
Hand over the exhibits or appendix documents and say where they go. Each one gets a cover sheet in your firm's format, and every reference in the document points to it by number. Reorder, add, or remove one, and every reference and the index renumber themselves.
Here are the appendix documents. Attach them in this order: the judgment, the summary judgment order, then the sanctions order.
Swap Appendix 8 and Appendix 9.
Make this PDF Appendix 4 and renumber the rest.
One PDF for filing
When you are ready to file, ask for the PDF. The brief comes with its exhibits attached behind their cover sheets, as one file. Some filings join several separate documents, such as a court form followed by its proof of service, and DocketDrafter can deliver those as one continuous PDF too. The PDF is bookmarked, with the brief's headings and a bookmark for each exhibit or appendix item, so a clerk can find every item.
Give me the final brief as one PDF with the appendix attached.
Court forms
Many courts publish their own fillable forms. Once a form is set up for your firm, ask the assistant to fill it from the case, and you get the court's own form back with the answers in place: a fillable copy to review, and a flattened copy to file. If you use a form that is not set up yet, contact us and we will add it.
Fill out the CM-110 for the Smith case.
Your firm's knowledge
Bring in a document or template
Hand over one of your firm's Word filings or templates, and DocketDrafter turns it into a document type you can draft from. It keeps your formatting and structure, and any blanks with instructions in your template stay in place for the next draft. The source does not have to be clean; a real filing is the best starting point.
Here's my motion for summary judgment. Import the document to DocketDrafter so I can draft new ones from it.
Set a rule for everything going forward
Some corrections should apply to every document, not just the one in front of you. Say so, and it becomes part of how your firm's documents are written from then on. A rule can apply everywhere, or only to a particular court or kind of document, and the assistant reads it only when it applies.
From now on, italicize introductory signals everywhere they appear.
In court of appeals briefs, always include a statement regarding oral argument.
Bring in a Claude Project
If you have been teaching Claude about your practice in a Claude Project, DocketDrafter can take it over: the instructions, knowledge files, and memory are each filed where they will be used, and anything DocketDrafter already handles on its own is left out. You get a report of what moved and what did not, so nothing is lost by accident. After that, the knowledge is available in every conversation, and to everyone at your firm, without opening the project.
Import my Appellate Briefs project into DocketDrafter.
Store your other documents in your workspace
Add a .pdf to a case so it is on record and available later such as an opposing brief or an exhibit. Ask for one back and you get the original file, unchanged.
Here's the opposing party's brief. Upload the file and add it to the John Smith case sources.
Working with your team
Message your colleagues
Everyone at your firm works in the same workspace, so a colleague sees your latest changes the moment you make them. There are no copies to email back and forth.
Leave a colleague a note, such as a request to review a section or a heads-up that you have finished your edits. The next time they use the assistant, it tells them a note is waiting and reads it when they ask, with the context they need to pick up where you left off. Notes stay in your firm's workspace; nothing is sent anywhere else.
Let Bob know I updated the caption on the Smith answer, and ask him to check it before Friday.
Did Sarah finish her edits to Issue 2? Show me what she changed.
Hear from DocketDrafter
When DocketDrafter makes a choice while setting up or updating your workspace, such as a unified caption layout, it leaves you a note so you can keep it or change it. It also leaves notes about new features. The next time you use the assistant, it tells you a note is waiting, and reads it to you only when you ask. If you want something changed, it can make the change on the spot.
Can you read the announcement from DocketDrafter about the new Texas forms?
Change the caption font back to what we used before.