Why Use a Drafting Service

Be honest with yourself for a second. How much do you actually enjoy drafting legal documents? The motion record at midnight. The factum that's due Monday and you haven't started on Saturday. The affidavit that needs reworking because opposing counsel amended their pleadings on a Friday afternoon. If you nodded at any of that — you're not alone, and this article is for you.

I've spent more than 35 years in Ontario courtrooms — criminal, quasi-criminal, regulatory, the lot — and the most consistent complaint I hear from lawyers and paralegals isn't the clients, the judges, or the fee structure. It's the paper. So I built WeDraftIt: a platform that lets Ontario lawyers and paralegals outsource legal drafting to vetted, experienced drafters who actually know the courts. Here's why I think it's one of the highest-leverage decisions you'll make in your practice this year.

Is it ethical to outsource legal drafting in Ontario?

Let's address the elephant in the room before we get to the good stuff. Some lawyers wonder whether using a drafter counts as ghostwriting, or whether it might run afoul of the Law Society of Ontario's rules. It doesn't.

The Rules of Professional Conduct expressly contemplate the delegation of legal work to non-licensee staff, provided the supervising lawyer or paralegal remains responsible for the work product. That's exactly how WeDraftIt operates:

 
• You retain the file. Your name goes on the cover page.

 
• Every document we deliver arrives as an editable Microsoft Word file. You review it, edit it, sign off, and file it.

 
• Your professional judgment governs the final product. We're a drafting tool — not a substitute for your licence.

If your firm has ever handed work to an associate, an articling student, or a contract paralegal, you've already done exactly what we're proposing. We just do it faster, more affordably, and without adding an extra person to your payroll.

Nine reasons to outsource your legal drafting

1. You get your time back

There are 168 hours in a week. As a litigator, you spend a meaningful chunk of those hours producing documents that don't strictly require a licence — they require knowledge of the rules, the courts, and how to write persuasively. That's what a drafter brings. Hand off the motion record and the factum, and reclaim eight to fifteen hours a week to do the things only you can do: meet clients, argue cases, build relationships, sleep. Time is the one resource that's never coming back.

2. The work comes back ready to file

Outsourcing only works if the output is good. We don't believe in "first drafts that need three rounds of edits." Every document we produce is reviewed by a senior drafter before delivery, formatted to the applicable Rules of Civil Procedure or Criminal Code requirements, and built to be filed with minimal touch-up. You'll edit a sentence here, add a strategic footnote there. You won't be rewriting the whole thing on Sunday night.

3. Drafted by a 35-year courtroom veteran

A drafter who's never argued a case will produce paper that reads like it was written by someone who's never argued a case. I've spent over three decades in Ontario courtrooms, and I hold both an LL.B. (University of London) and an LL.M. (Osgoode Hall Law School). Every page that flows through our platform benefits from that perspective. We know what wins arguments because we've watched arguments win and lose in real time — on the record, in front of real judges.

4. Drafting that actually persuades

Persuasive writing is a craft. It isn't just "getting the facts on the page" — it's structuring those facts so the judge sees what you want them to see, in the order you want them to see it, with your strongest argument leading instead of buried in paragraph 47. Ontario factum drafting in particular lives or dies on structure. Every factum we produce leads with the strongest argument, sequences authorities for cumulative force, and gets to the relief on page two — not page eleven.

5. A fresh set of eyes on the file

You've been on the file for six months. You know it cold. That's exactly the problem — at some point you stop seeing the gaps. A drafter coming to your file fresh will spot weaknesses that opposing counsel will eventually find. Missing exhibits. A timeline that doesn't quite add up. An argument you assumed without proving. Catching that before you file is worth the cost of the engagement, every single time.

6. Flat fees — no billable hours running wild

Hourly billing is wonderful when you're the one billing. Less wonderful when you're the one paying. Every job on WeDraftIt is quoted at a flat fee before any work begins. You see the price, you approve it, work starts. No surprises. No "we ran into more complexity than expected." No $4,000 bill for what was supposed to be a $1,500 motion record. If we underestimate, that's our problem — not yours. The number you see is the number you pay.

7. Confidentiality is built in, not bolted on

Every file you upload is encrypted in transit and at rest. Access is restricted to the drafter assigned to your matter — not a pool of contractors, not a search index, not a customer-service tier. Solicitor-client privilege is preserved end-to-end. The same standards your firm applies to client files apply to ours, because the people drafting on WeDraftIt are licensees too — bound by the same rules of conduct you are.

8. No employment overhead

Hiring an in-house drafter or a junior associate means salary, benefits, training, supervision, vacation coverage, software licences, and a desk. WeDraftIt is none of that. You pay per job, when you have a job. No payroll overhead. No slow weeks where you're paying for downtime. No awkward conversations when there isn't enough work to keep someone busy. Think of it as cloud-based drafting capacity — except the cloud actually knows the Rules.

9. It scales with your caseload

Trial week is hell. The two weeks before trial week are worse. Drafting capacity in a small firm is fixed — until it isn't. WeDraftIt lets you flex up when you have three motions returnable in six days, then quietly disappear when things calm down. You'll never again turn down a file because you don't have bandwidth to draft it. Capacity is no longer a ceiling on your practice.

What we draft

Motion records. Notices of motion. Affidavits. Responding records. Facta — for motions, applications, and appeals. Books of authorities. Appeal books and compendiums. Leave-to-appeal materials. Application records for judicial review. Facta for the Court of Appeal, the Divisional Court, and the Superior Court. If it's an Ontario civil, criminal, or quasi-criminal proceeding and it needs writing — we draft it.

Try it on your next file

Here's my pitch: pick the next document on your desk that you don't want to write. Submit it through wedraftit.ca. You'll get a flat-fee quote within the day. Approve it, and we'll deliver the document — in editable Word, ready to file — by your deadline. If it's not what you wanted, you've lost nothing but the few minutes it took to brief us.

If you're a sole practitioner or a small-firm partner spending your nights on motion records, this is the offload you've been waiting for. The paper is where cases are won or lost. Let us handle the paper. You handle the case.