The Faster Way to Proofread Legal Documents

Proofreading legal documents is a tedious and time-consuming process. You need to catch typos and grammatical errors, while also checking citations, formatting, and cross-references.

But here’s the thing: Most people think trying to check for everything at once makes you faster. But in fact, it gets overwhelming really fast, leads to burnout, and you end up with a document ridden with careless mistakes.

And you know how it goes, even one tiny mistake could put the credibility of your entire document that you spent hours creating at stake, and even ruin your firm’s reputation and cause you to lose a case or client.

A better approach is to proofread in focused passes, change how you view the document, and use software to quickly catch formatting and style inconsistencies that are easy to miss.

Here’s how to proofread legal documents faster without sacrificing accuracy.

TL; DR

American Legal Style for PerfectIt is designed specifically for lawyers to save time editing and proofreading legal documents. It:

• finds inconsistencies in capitalization of defined terms;

• enforces hyphenation and italicization based on Black’s Law Dictionary;

• checks for common Bluebook formatting errors; and

• searches for common errors arising from autocorrect, spellcheck or dictation tools.

PerfectIt runs directly from MS Word (PC only). It’s free to try and only costs $70 per year if you decide to purchase. Simply download below.

To enable its legal-specific checking, choose American Legal Style from the list of available styles.

1. Read the Document Once for Context

This is especially helpful if you didn’t write the document yourself. This lets you get familiar with things like:

• Who and what the document is for

• How the document is structures

• Important names and terms

• Any legal or style conventions it follows

Remember, the goal is to read the document for context, so don’t try to proofread and correct the document at this stage.

2. Proofread in a Different Environment

Once you understand the document, change how you’re looking at it before you start proofreading.

If you’ve been working in Word, open the document as a PDF. You could also print it, change the font or zoom level, or review it on a different monitor. For longer filings, a vertical monitor can make page breaks, spacing, and layout issues easier to spot.

The idea is to make the document look less familiar. When you've been staring at the same document for hours, your brain can start reading what it expects to see rather than what's actually on the page. 

Changing the visual environment gives your brain a fresh version of the document to review, and it makes all those small errors stand out.

3. Check the Details That Must Be Right

Before you start checking spelling and punctuation, verify the details you can't afford to get wrong.

Check names, dates, case numbers, monetary amounts, court names, jurisdictions, and other key information against the source documents. Pay particular attention to proper names, especially when working with unfamiliar precedents. If you're not sure about a name or case detail, check the original source rather than relying on memory, dictated text, or an earlier draft.

Defined terms also need to be consistent. For instance, if a contract defines a party as “the Company,”, make sure that term is used the same way throughout the document.

4. Proofread in Stages

Don't try to check spelling, grammar, clarity, formatting, and legal references at the same time.

Instead, each proofreading pass should have a specific purpose. 

For instance, Patrick Hagen, business litigator and business writing enthusiast, usually does three passed on a document:

• Pass 1: check for typos

• Pass 2: line-by-line clarity

• Pass 3: paragraph logic

5. Read the Document Aloud

Reading aloud once catches so many errors than reading silently a hundred times ever could. 

Of course, do it in the comfort of your office or private space, so no one looks at you funny. But if you’re not in the mood for it or you’re handling a very long document, you can turn to Microsoft Word’s Read Aloud feature to get you through.

It’s the only way to catch those not-so-obvious missing words, repeated words, awkward sentences, and words that look correct but don't make sense in context. 

6. Read Backward for a Final Typo Check

When you understand what the document is about, you start reading what you expect to see instead of what is actually on the page.

Reading your document backward breaks that pattern. Start with the last sentence and work toward the beginning, focusing only on the words themselves. Look for typos, missing or repeated words, and punctuation errors.

7. Use PerfectIt To Catch Style and Formatting Inconsistencies

When you’re done with your manual proofreading passes, you can use PerfectIt as a final pass to catch consistency issues that are easy to miss in long documents.

For legal documents, open your document in Microsoft Word, launch PerfectIt, and select American Legal Style from the list of built-in styles. PerfectIt reads the entire document and flags potential issues for you to review. You can then decide whether to ignore each suggestion or accept the recommended fix.

Try PerfectIt’s 14-day free trial to make your legal proofreading faster and and improve the quality of your legal document before you send or file them.

Frequently Asked Questions About Proofreading Legal Documents

What is the best way to proofread a legal document?

Read the document once for context, then proofread it in separate passes for errors, clarity, and consistency. Finish with a consistency check using a tool like PerfectIt to catch issues you may have missed.

What are the common mistakes to look for when proofreading?

Look for spelling and grammar errors, missing or repeated words, inconsistent capitalization and terminology, incorrect defined terms, formatting issues, citation and numbering errors, and incorrect names or dates.

What are five good proofreading techniques?

Read the document for context first, proofread in separate passes, change how you view the document, read it aloud, and use a consistency checker like PerfectIt for a final pass.

Which tool is best for proofreading?

No single tool replaces manual, human proofreading. For consistency checks, PerfectIt runs offline inside Microsoft Word, reads the entire document, and flags inconsistencies for you to review and fix. Its built-in American Legal Style also makes it useful for legal documents.

Can AI be used for proofreading?

Yes, AI can help identify writing errors, but it shouldn't completely replace human review of legal documents. Unlike AI tools, PerfectIt is a house style and consistency checker that works offline inside Microsoft Word. It flags potential inconsistencies and lets you decide which fixes to accept.