Frequently Asked Questions about Document Automation

Q. What is Rapidocs®?

A.  Rapidocs® is a web-enabled document automation solution developed and published by The Epoq Group, based in London, U.K. It is a leading document automation solution that has been used to generate thousands of legal documents a month in both the United States and the United Kingdom from both law firm and institutional web sites. First introduced in 2000 as a Windows desktop application, Rapidocs® today is a fully functional, web-enabled system that presents questionnaires for completion through the web browser (i.e., Internet Explorer, etc.). Assembled documents are exported in either rich text format (.rtf) for us with Microsoft Word (or similar word processing program) or portable data format (.pdf) for use with Adobe.  Additional details can be found at our Rapidocs® web site. 

Q. What if I have my own documents to sell/use that are not in Rapidocs?

A.  As of May 2010, you may now sell your own, non-Rapiodcs documents via the platform.   Please visit this page for information on how you can sell your own documents:  http://www.directlaw.com/sellmyowndocs.asp. 

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If you have documents or legal forms that you would like automated and published on your own web site so you can take advantage Rapidocs benefits & time saving features, you can author the documents yourself using our easy-to-use authoring system (Rapidocs® Solo), or we can create automated documents for you using your content.  When we automate your documents for you, we charge either an hourly development fee or a fixed price, depending on the complexity of the legal document(s) or legal form(s).

Q. What if I want to make changes to your Rapidocs document templates?

A.  If your requested change is a material improvement to one of our templates, we will make the revision at no charge to you.  However, if the revision is not substantive and is simply a matter of preferred alternative language, we cannot make the change.  It would be impossible to maintain separate sets of customized document templates for each of our law firm clients.  Additionally, given our current pricing structure, this would not be economically feasible.

Q. Are HotDocs documents compatible with Rapidocs® and/or easily converted to Rapidocs®?

A.  At the present time, a HotDocs template is not easily converted into a Rapidocs® template. 

Q. Can HotDocs documents be used on the DirectLaw™ platform?

A.   After June 15, 2010, the sale of HotDocs-developed forms and documents will be enabled via the DirectLaw platform!  This functionality will be added in response to many requests from law firms that have already invested in the development of HotDocs templates that work on the desktop, but are not web-enabled.

Serving HotDocs Questionnaires through the DirectLaw platform enables clients to generate a document from a HotDocs Questionnaire that appears within the web browser (online).  The assembled document is then ready for further review, analysis, and revision by the attorney via the DirectLaw Attorney Dashboard.  Presently, clients must use the MS Explorer web browser to assemble a HotDocs template.  However, the next scheduled release of HotDocs will enable templates to be assembled online using either the Safari or Firefox web browsers.

Please visit this page for information on how you can sell your own documents:  http://www.directlaw.com/hotdocs.asp.

Q. Can I use DirectLaw™ in a Macintosh-based environment?

A.  Document templates developed in Rapidocs® will run in FireFox® and MS Web Explorer® web browsers running in a Macintosh-based environment, but they will not run within the Safari web browser at this time.  Rapidocs® Solo, the authoring system, is a Windows application that only operates in a Windows-based environment at this time.