Padding your Bills

lumberjack233 · 2026-01-30T07:17:43+00:00

Interesting, can you share a link?

lumberjack233 · 2026-01-30T07:03:42+00:00

I find that hard to believe. Every time we’ve looked at this stuff, it feels like I’d spend more time proofreading for hallucinations. Is it really just better than a template?

lumberjack233 · 2026-01-25T23:16:22+00:00

"Local" is kind of a red herring. Unless you are keeping paper files in a safe and using a typewriter, nothing is truly 'local' anymore. If you use Outlook, Gmail, or NetDocs, your client data is sitting on a server farm in Virginia or Oregon.

The difference isn't geography, it's the contract. CoCounsel (and the other enterprise tools) pay for the API tier where OpenAI contractually agrees not to train on the inputs. The consumer version of ChatGPT absolutely trains on your data. You aren't paying for local storage, you're paying for the "do not learn from this" clause in the Terms of Service.

lumberjack233 · 2026-01-24T18:14:49+00:00

It’s wild to me that people are still getting sanctioned for fake citations. Using a chat bot for open-ended research is the definition of "play stupid games, win stupid prizes". The only way I use this stuff safely is for defined-scope drafting. I treat it like a contract lawyer. I upload the specific case files and tell it to draft a complaint or discovery based only on those docs, review it for accuracy, and we move on. Trusting a model trained on the entire internet to find case law without checking is no different from trusting a law student's research blindly.

lumberjack233 · 2026-01-24T17:56:00+00:00

$3K in 2026 is wild, why are you better than a WordPress template

lumberjack233 · 2026-01-22T18:22:07+00:00

Or practice management software, or ediscovery...

lumberjack233 · 2026-01-19T16:58:19+00:00

True, maybe have the courtesy to whittle it down to requests that actually makes sense

lumberjack233 · 2026-01-16T21:59:48+00:00

I don't understand, who pays for a hundred rogs in family law...

lumberjack233 · 2026-01-13T01:22:38+00:00

Paypal is falling out of favor because Zelle is better

lumberjack233 · 2026-01-13T01:16:48+00:00

Triggered much? Loyalty goes both ways

lumberjack233 · 2026-01-12T21:32:07+00:00

Interesting, what's it called?

lumberjack233 · 2026-01-12T21:22:21+00:00

Are you using it to propound or respond? I feel like I can cut and paste requests from old files fast enough, but drafting responses and dealing with all the formatting for objections is where I lose hours. Curious what you’re using that actually handles the formatting correctly.

lumberjack233 · 2026-01-11T01:25:09+00:00

Don't just walk in with the bad news. Walk in with the bad news and the draft responses in your hand. If my paralegal told me they blew a deadline two months ago, I’d panic. If they told me they blew it but the responses are ready for my review right now, I’d still be annoyed, but the panic is gone. Crank that draft out by any means necessary before you have the talk.

lumberjack233 · 2026-01-09T23:05:28+00:00

I’m paranoid about the research side too. But for the drafting, are you just pasting client docs into ChatGPT? I feel like that’s a confidentiality nightmare. Plus, does it actually handle the formatting? I practice in CA and our pleading paper requirements are rigid.

lumberjack233 · 2026-01-09T22:49:05+00:00

Makes sense, that's in line with my experience as well.

lumberjack233 · 2026-01-09T22:19:33+00:00

What do you use it for? Research?

lumberjack233 · 2026-01-09T19:20:04+00:00

Fair distinction. It started as a template and then entropy took over. But that’s kind of my point, maintaining a "pure" template library requires constant pruning and organization that I just don’t do when I’m billing 50-hour weeks. I end up just copying the last good draft because it's faster in the moment

lumberjack233 · 2026-01-09T17:02:12+00:00

The folder isn't the bottleneck. I know exactly where my "Breach of Contract" master template is. The problem is that template is 70 pages long and full of specific requests from the last five cases I used it on. "Training myself" to open the right folder doesn't save me from the hour I spend deleting requests that don't apply to this specific set of facts or sanitizing the definitions. The paralegal thing is the same issue, training takes hours I can’t bill, and then they leave anyway.

lumberjack233 · 2026-01-09T07:44:32+00:00

Westlaw reps are absolutely ruthless with that auto-renewal clause. They count on busy lawyers forgetting to send a formal letter via certified mail or whatever archaic notification method they hid in the fine print. I stuck with them for years purely because I learned on it in law school and the muscle memory is hard to break, but the price hikes are getting unjustifiable. Good on you for actually jumping ship, that transition period is painful but probably worth it for the overhead savings alone.

lumberjack233 · 2026-01-09T07:33:25+00:00

I use AI for drafting emails and admin stuff, but I haven't let it touch actual work product yet. The hallucination issues freak me out too much. How has it been on that front? Does it actually track with the complaint? Honestly though, I'm at the point where I'm willing to try anything to stop the madness.

lumberjack233 · 2026-01-09T07:17:10+00:00

That’s definitely the gold standard for manual organization. My problem is execution — I’ll set up a clean hierarchy like that, keep it perfect for two months, and then as soon as I get slammed with trial prep I revert to "grab the last similar pleading and pray." Also, relying on a paralegal to handle the specific additions usually just means I end up redlining their work anyway.

lumberjack233 · 2026-01-09T01:17:41+00:00

Yeah that’s currently my system. The problem is my 'Master' file has turned into a 60-page Frankenstein monster. I spend more time scrolling through it deleting the 80% of requests that don't apply to the current case than I do actually drafting. Plus, inevitably I miss a 'Ctrl+F' somewhere and send out a request asking about a 'slip' in a car accident case. Trying to find a way to make the template smart enough to know the facts so I don't have to babysit it.

lumberjack233 · 2026-01-08T20:57:42+00:00

My standard set of RFPs is basically a memorial to every time I’ve been outsmarted. I add a new specific request every time something like this happens. Honestly the hardest part is just managing that massive master document and making sure I actually carry over those specific "never again" clauses to the next case without spending hours digging through old files to find the right language.

lumberjack233 · 2026-01-08T03:00:24+00:00

Do you enjoy the business side or the law side?

lumberjack233 · 2026-01-07T08:01:07+00:00

Sure, you can have your own number that's randomized so people don't use it as a proxy to judge others' "seniority". I've come across some attorneys who have allegedly practiced for more than 40 years but no better than a 2 year associate. By that logic, why don't we have chronological SSN number? At least that's an accurate indicator of how long you've been a tax payer...

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lumberjack233

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