Web-Enabled Document Automation for Law Firms and Their Clients

"Web services" refers to the web infrastructure upon which legal digital applications, from Rapidocs® to web-enabled expert systems are delivered to consumers.

Epoq has developed a web infrastructure that facilitates ecommerce in the legal industry and the delivery of smart legal form services over the Internet.

The My Legal Affairs™ Home Page: Each client of DirectLaw web site legal solutions web site is able to access their own individual and secure "My Legal Affairs" home page. This client space organizes the various applications that the customer purchases. It enables them to store completed information and completed legal forms on our secure server. The page also has a section for personalized legal links, a calendar for reminding of important legal dates, and a web-enabled case manager. These concepts are described in more detail below. For corporate intranets and large law firms, we can install our entire technology on your own servers as part of an enterprise-wide solution.

Epoq Document Exchange™: Epoq Document Exchange™ is a web service that supports the saving of completed documents by customers on our secure server or the client's secure server. Documents may be accessed by the customer or client whenever he/she wants, using his/her own user name and password. Epoq Document Exchange™ incorporates a complete work flow system that is designed to manage the process of review of a completed document by a third party, such as the client's attorney. In a law firm configuration, for example, the client assembles a document using the Rapidocs® questionnaire, but does not see the document being assembled. The assembled document is then saved to the web server. The attorney reviews the document, revises as necessary within Rapidocs®, and saves back to the server. Once saved to the server, a link to the now revised document appears in the client's home page ready for downloading and execution. The same configuration can be used between the General Counsel's Office of a large corporation and middle manager who are charged with creating the "first draft" of a routinely generated document, such as an employment agreement or appointment letters. Rapidocs® also keeps track of versions and marks different versions with different colors for easy comparison.

FAQs Legal Advice Engine: Epoq has created a Frequently Ask Questions (FAQ's) data base engine that enable the customer to search for frequently asked legal questions. The administration of this engine is completely web-enabled. Authors can create questions and answered from any location. Work flow is built-in for approval of questions and answers before they are published. When the customer can't find an answer to a question, he/she can fill out a form that transfers their question to a support team. The support team can either answer the question directly if only "legal information" is requested, or transfer the question to a lawyer for a "legal advice" answer. The Engine is fully ecommerce enabled, so that customers can be charged by credit for answers to either "legal information" or "legal advice" questions.