If you’re not using Bard (or ChatGPT) to draft petitions and free up your time, you have no idea what you’re missing out on.
Litigators should learn this.
Interns should learn this.
Anyone interested in litigation must learn this. You will save a ton of time.
No, Bard will not do 100% of the job, but it will save 90% of your time.
No, if you have no idea about how to draft a writ petition, Bard will not magically create a passable one for you. You will probably have to edit it a bit.
But still you will be glad because it will take a lot less time!
Honestly, litigation lawyering will never be the same again.
And lawyers who don’t learn to use AI will be left behind.
(btw, if you want to learn how to use AI in your day to day work as a lawyer, make sure you attend our live bootcamp this weekend – we will not only show you how to use AI to do legal work, but also how to get more clients with help of AI, here is the details: ___)
Let me show you how to draft a writ petition using Bard. Let’s take a situation (imaginary) where you intend to file a writ petition through an NGO in respect of the pollution in North India.
Here are the steps.
Step 1
I simply ask Bard to do the following:
I intend to file a writ petition before the Supreme Court of India under Article 32 of the Constitution of India.
Writ petitions are filed when fundamental rights are violated.
Please tell me what further information you need before drafting this petition.
I don’t have to find a checklist to supply information.
Bard asks me for information about my personal details, the facts of the case, details of the respondents, reliefs sought and supporting documents.
Step 2:
Based on the questions asked, I provide the details.
Most of the questions pertain to the facts, available evidence and supporting documents and the reliefs sought.
I also need to provide information about which fundamental rights are violated.
You can see the entire conversation in the chat transcript (at the end).
Step 3:
Then I ask Bard to prepare a list of dates and events. It is important here to explain the format in plain English accurately.
I get a very abridged description of the events in the list of dates. It is not ideal from the court’s perspective.
This is where knowing the legal rules and practice guidelines is very important when you deploy AI to prepare legal drafts.
So I ask Bard to provide a more elaborate list of dates.
Here’s my prompt:
Bard now provides a very nicely populated list of dates which I can use – here is a quick glimpse:
My next prompt to Bard is to draft the entire writ petition, and I provide the format:
It is very important to review the output carefully here.
If there are mistakes, I can of course correct it manually in my final draft.
However, it is more efficient to directly instruct Bard to make the necessary modifications to save exponential amounts of time.
There is just one catch – I have to be nice about how I prompt Bard.
If I merely ask Bard to make specific changes to its output without asking it to retain what it got right, it may delete some of the things that it already got right earlier!
For example, like the list of dates, the first draft of the grounds is very sketchy. So I need it to redraft the grounds more comprehensively.
Here’s what my prompt looks like:
Now, I begin to get workable snippets of the entire writ petition.
For example, here is a snippet of selected grounds (you can see the full list in the chat transcript):
I need to prompt Bard to “continue”, literally!
Here is a snippet of the prayer:
Bard is on a streak of getting things right!
I get all the components of a usable draft, subject to final review by me.
Now, I need to extract this into one document.
I have a variety of mechanisms to copy, share or export the output, but I cannot extract all the output together at one go.
I have to individually compile the different pieces of output in the petition.
I must also add a few components manually which are necessary as per the format of a writ petition, which I did not instruct Bard to create.
It’s basically a “fill-in-the-blanks” exercise, but I am not showing it here as my intention is to share more high value tasks that AI can do for you.
I now compile the draft and start reviewing. I’ll also manually format it as per the Supreme Court’s guidelines.
When I review it, I must add my insights as a legal practitioner, because AI may not give me a perfectly nuanced draft.
The editing at this stage will distinguish a legal pro who gets notice issued in respect of his Writ Petition on the first day in 10 seconds, from a beginner whose matter probably gets dismissed.
You can find the entire downloadable writ petition here.
Do you want to see the prompts? Here is the entire chat transcript with Bard:
https://g.co/bard/share/63fd74a02b4f
Did you like this strategy?
By the way, this is just a trick right now.
You need to practise and get feedback yourself In order for you to be able to do this in your career, and then you can unlock massive gains.
You can reduce the time spent in drafting truckloads and boatloads of legal documents, and also produce high-quality legal work.
But you need to know the legal rules, the prompt combinations and techniques, and how to use different AI tools. Every AI tool responds differently to the same prompts.
At this time, I want you to think of one question – what’s next for your legal practice?
I really hope that you get a breather from being overworked and constantly engaged on client deliverables.
Btw, if you want to learn more such techniques, join us in the free, live bootcamp this weekend.
We will also show you how to use AI to grow your brand and client generation efforts massively.