LegalPad has a ton of different features designed to make legal writing simpler and more effective. To learn about everything LegalPad can do, and to understand how you can make it do all those things, read on!

Where do I start?

To start using LegalPad, click on the pencil icon in the top right corner of your screen. (If you don’t see the icon, try widening your browser window until it appears.) A menu will drop down, and from there you can choose if you want to start a new draft, open an existing draft, or upload a brief.

Note: From this menu, you can also delete existing drafts by moving your mouse over the title and clicking the small x. A window will pop up to confirm that you wish to delete your draft.

Once you start a new draft, you’ll be taken to this screen:

A title is required for posting on Casetext (although a subtitle is optional), but you can add the title at the end of your writing process if you prefer.

Tip: You may want to at least enter a working title right away because otherwise your drafts will be saved as “Untitled,” which might get confusing if you’re working on multiple pieces at once.

To add text, you can either paste in text you’ve written elsewhere, or just click where it says “Write your post here” and start typing!

How do I save my draft?

After you start a new draft, it will be automatically saved for you, and you can access it by clicking on the pencil button from anywhere on the site. You don’t ever have to save manually to make sure your drafts are stored.

However, you may get this notification when you try to exit a draft:

If that happens, it just means you’re in-between automatic saves. Wait a couple seconds and try again, and you should be able to exit the draft without the warning reappearing.

What if I want to write about a case I bookmarked?

One of the features that makes LegalPad an exceptional tool for writing about the law is its integration with bookmarks on Casetext, which allows you to refer to cases and statutes without interrupting your writing process, and makes it easy to cite directly from the law you are discussing.

To access your bookmarked cases without leaving your draft, click the three vertical dots at the top right of your screen:

Click on a case name to open that case in the panel (we call this the Pocketcase). Once you’ve opened a case, you can search within it by clicking on the magnifying glass icon in the top left corner of the bookmark panel.

To insert a citation to a case, mouse over the title, and you’ll see a small arrow appear to the left of the case. Click on the arrow to input the citation, which will also be a link to the case’s page on Casetext.

To insert a quote, select the part of the case you want to quote by highlighting it with your cursor, and a quotation mark icon will appear. Clicking on this icon will insert the quote into your draft. Quotes will automatically be formatted as inline quotes or block quotes depending on the length (Bluebook compliant!), and a citation will be added automatically.

Click on the three vertical dots again to close the bookmark panel. It will save your place for you so that when you re-open the panel, you’ll be able to see where you left off.

How do I make sure my commentary is linked to the law?

If you use the above method to insert a quote from a case, your commentary will automatically be linked to the case you’re discussing.

You can also make sure your post is linked to the law just by including a link to the case’s page on Casetext, or even just the case’s citation. Our data science technology will automatically ensure your commentary appears in the list of Insights on the case’s page on Casetext.

Another way to link your case to the law is available after you’ve published your piece. If you scroll to the bottom of any published article, you’ll see this box:

Just type in the name or citation of the case, statute, or regulation the article discusses, and the article will be linked to that document.

How do I make my post look good?

To format text in your draft, select the text you want to format and this menu bar will come up:

• Click on the B icon to bold and/or the I icon to italicize the selected text.
• The link icon (the one between I and H1) will insert a hyperlink within the selected text. A really easy and useful way to take advantage of the hyperlink feature is to link to the case or statute you’re writing about within Casetext, which will actually ensure that your post appears as commentary on that case or statute’s page. Tip: To link to a specific page of a case or statute, add #pXX (but replace XX with the page number) to the end of the hyperlink.
• The H1, H2, and H3 buttons will format the selected text as a header. H1 is a main header, H2 is a subheader, and H3 is a subsubheader.
• You can also format your text as a numbered list or bulleted list.
• The quote button will format your text as a block quote by indenting it and changing the font color.

To undo any of these formatting selections, just select the text again and click on the button for the formatting you want undone (e.g. click on the B button again to unbold, or the H1 button to change text from a header to normal text).

How can I share this super helpful PDF/Word Document/graph/chart/picture with my readers inside an article?

As you type, a paperclip icon will continually appear alongside the line you’re currently working in. Click on this icon to add a picture or a document to embed within your piece. Clicking on the icon will bring up this menu, which allows you to import documents and images from a variety of sources:

Embedding a picture looks like this:

And embedding a document looks like this:

Note: An embedded document will show one page of the document at a time, but readers can scroll through it without leaving your piece.

Done! Now what?

Once you’re done writing your piece, click the “publish” button, which is at the top right of your screen. You will be directed to a screen where you can choose between 1 and 4 communities to post to - pick the one(s) most relevant to your piece.

Your post will appear in those community feeds, and may even make it into digest emails to the thousands of users following those topics.

Your post will also be accessible to readers via search (both on Casetext and through other search engines, like Google), and visible on your profile. If you’ve linked to cases and statutes on Casetext, your post will also appear on the pages of those cases and statutes as commentary.

You’ll also be given the opportunity to share your piece on social media. This is an easy way to make sure your insights are seen by colleagues, friends, and others who share your interests, and to connect your contribution to your broader online presence. You can also skip this step if you prefer.

If at any time you want to edit or delete your post, click on the post from anywhere on the site (the easiest is to go to the list on your profile, or find it in a community feeds or through search). You’ll see “edit” and “delete” buttons at the top of the post, which are visible only to you. To edit, click the edit button, make changes, and click “update” in the top right of your screen. To delete, click the delete button, and you will be asked to type “delete” to confirm that you want to permanently remove your post.

How is my post doing?

Now that your piece is published, make sure it reaches a wide audience by forwarding it to friends and colleagues via email, posting it on social media, and suggesting that peers upvote it if they like it (which they undoubtedly will) to bump it up in the community feeds.

You can continue to engage with the legal community by connecting with other users who upvote or comment on your piece, and you can also gauge your piece’s distribution by watching the view count.

We’re committed to making Casetext the best place to write about the law, and will continue to improve LegalPad over the coming months. If you have feedback or ideas that you’d like to share, reach out at contact@casetext.com. To start a new draft, click here!