The Contract Express Difference
“Unlike all other document automation products, understands lawyers’ “square bracket” legal markup notation. There’s no programming notation, no XML markup, no hidden codes or fields, no questionnaire scripting, no use of proprietary editors, and no need to reapply styles to generated documents. This capability is unique to Contract Express contract automation software and protected by thirteen granted US patents with more pending. It’s the Contract Express difference.” quoted from www.contractexpress.com.
This statement is true to an extent. Square brackets do denote optional text. A subscript following a bracket store the rule. And curly braces denote variables. The line below is a sample of ContractExpress Markup.
The {EmployeeName} agrees that [StateExecution Is “New York” New York law][StateExecution Is “California”California law and rules] will govern the interpretation of {EmployeeGender.HisHer} employment agreement.
From this markup, Contract Express automatically creates a data dictionary. It is in this dictionary that you then start defining properties of the questions that are used to drive the document assembly system. This is done by assigning prompts to the variables and lookup options. And it is done by assigning the variables to Pages and groups on each page. Much of this can be easily understood by an attorney or a paralegal.
The Role of Consultants
However, a Contract Express consultant, particularly one with legal training as attorneys or paralegals can add substantial value to the automation process. A consultant can define a comprehensive dictionary to a full library of templates. A Contract Express consultant can make the prompts dynamic and easier to understand using computed variables and active text in prompts. A consultant can test and debug your documents to remove scripting errors and other road blocks to a successful implementations. At Basha Systems we have worked with Contract Express and its predecessor, Deal Builder for a number of years. We also have the legal expertise to make the automation process a fun and productive experience.
