Document Drafter
The Document Drafter is an AI assistant that writes and edits legal documents with you. You describe what you need, and it drafts it — searching your matter's files and CourtAid's corpus of legislation and case law as it goes — in a two-panel workspace where the document sits on the left and the assistant on the right.
How it works
When you start a draft, the assistant:
Thinks first — it streams a short plan of what it's going to write before it starts.
Searches (when useful) — it can look through the documents in your matter and search CourtAid's legal corpus, returning clickable citations for anything it relies on.
Writes the document — the finished draft lands in the editor, formatted with proper clause headings and numbering.
Asks before guessing — if your brief is ambiguous (for example, which state's law governs), it asks a clarifying question rather than inventing details.
You then review, edit, and export the result.
Creating a new draft
From the Drafts section (sidebar → your matter → Drafts, or the standalone Document Drafter page), click New document. A short three-step wizard opens.
Step 1 — Details
Give the draft a Name and write a Description — this is your brief. Be specific about what you want and any key terms, for example:
"Draft a mutual NDA using the attached invoice for the party details, 2-year term, NSW law."
Step 2 — Documents
Optionally link a Matter, then choose what the draft starts from:
None — start from a blank document
Upload — add a file from your device
From this matter / My documents — pin up to three existing documents
Pinned and uploaded files are used as reference material — the assistant reads them for details like parties, dates, and amounts (or reproduces one as the basis of your draft). Supported file types are .pdf, .doc, .docx, and .txt.
Step 3 — Questions
CourtAid reads your brief and prepares two to four clarifying questions (for example: governing jurisdiction, the parties, the term, or mutual vs. one-way). Answer them by typing — but they're optional. Anything you leave blank is filled with a clear placeholder rather than a guessed detail, so you can always Skip & create draft.
When you continue, the draft is created and the assistant immediately starts writing.
The drafting workspace
The workspace has two panels (they stack vertically on small screens):
Left — your document. A full rich-text editor, like a page in a word processor, with a formatting toolbar (headings, bold/italic, lists, tables, colours, and more). A status bar at the bottom shows your word count and a live Saving… / Saved indicator.
Right — the Drafting assistant. A chat panel where you talk to the assistant, attach more reference files, and watch its progress (Thinking, search results, and a "…characters so far" counter while it writes).
The header across the top holds the editable title, Import and Export buttons, and a toggle to hide the assistant for a full-width editor.
Editing your draft
You can edit in three ways:
Type directly. The document is fully editable, and changes autosave automatically — there's no Save button.
Ask the assistant. Type an instruction in the panel (for example, "revise clause 3 to add a carve-out"). The assistant proposes the change as a coloured diff inside the document — additions in green, removals struck through in red — with Accept and Reject controls next to it. Nothing is applied until you accept.
Inline edit a selection. Highlight some text and press ⌘K (or use the Edit button in the pop-up menu) to change just that passage — "make it stricter", "simplify", "add a carve-out". The result comes back as the same accept/reject diff.
The one exception is the very first draft, which is applied for you automatically — you never have to accept a document you haven't seen yet.
Sources the assistant can use
Your reference documents — files pinned or uploaded to the draft (up to three at a time), read for context or reproduced as the draft.
Your matter — if the draft is linked to a matter, the assistant can search that matter's documents while drafting.
CourtAid's legal corpus — it can search legislation and case law and include clickable citations, shown as source cards in the panel. It is instructed never to invent citations.
Clarifying questions and the assistant's search filters target the governing jurisdiction so the draft is written for the right law.
Exporting and importing
Export (header → Export) to Word (.docx), PDF, or Markdown (.md).
Import a
.pdf,.doc,.docx, or.txtfile to replace the document body — useful for starting from an existing draft. Word files keep their headings, bold, lists, and tables; PDFs come in as plain text.Your work autosaves continuously (and to the linked matter, if there is one).
Queries & billing
Drafting uses your query allowance, but efficiently — one query buys a block of assistant turns, not a single message:
Your first draft costs 1 query, and that same query also covers the next few follow-up messages. The panel shows a live hint, such as "Next message uses 1 query — it covers 5 follow-ups" or "N more messages included in this query."
Clarifying questions are free, and so are runs that fail or are cancelled — you're never charged for a draft you didn't get.
Reading, editing, importing, and exporting are always free — you can always get your document out, even at a zero balance.
If you're part of an organisation, drafting draws on your team's shared query pool. See Plans, trials & query limits.
Best practice
The Drafter gives you a fast, well-structured first draft. Before you rely on it or send it out:
Read the whole document against your instructions and reference files
Check every citation against its source
Confirm the governing law, parties, dates, and figures are correct
Fill in any placeholders the assistant left where details were missing
CourtAid provides research and drafting assistance, not legal advice. Every draft is a starting point for a qualified lawyer to review — always check it before relying on it or sending it to a client or court.
Related
Projects — link a draft to a matter so the assistant can use its documents
Sources & citations — how CourtAid cites the law it relies on
Chat PDF — talk to a single document
Plans, trials & query limits — how queries are counted
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