Clio Draft: Form Templates

In Clio Draft, court form templates are templates of individual court forms with pre-filled information that are not tied to a particular client. Creating form templates makes drafting court forms easier and more efficient by allowing you to pre-populate information that is applicable across multiple matters and case types. By pre-filling the form templates with data, you can save time when drafting client documents by not having to fill out all the information on the court form. 

Create form templates

You can create court form templates by choosing a court form in your Clio Draft Library. Once you select a form, you can add data into its fillable fields and insert additional text boxes using the form templates creator. 

Since form templates are not tied to specific clients, pre-filling fields and pre-checking boxes with information applicable across matters and case types makes the drafting process easier and more efficient. For example, you may need to check the same checkboxes in a single court form for all cases in a certain practice area. Once you create a form template of that court form and check all those boxes, when you draft that form for a client, those boxes will already be checked, saving you time and clicks.  

1. Go to Library and select the Court forms subtab.
2. Select a category that you are subscribed to in order to view all the court forms associated with that category. 
3. Find the form that you need. You can use the search bar to search by form number or form title. 
4. Optional: To preview the form, click the Actions dropdown and then select Preview.
5. Click the Actions dropdown and then select Create form template.
6. Check any boxes or enter information in fields that are consistent across multiple client matters or for specific practice areas.
   
   Note: You may come across purple and blue colored fields. Purple fields are connected to linked fields that will automatically insert information entered on  the “populate page.” Blue fields are not linked to values on the populate page. 
   
   If you fill in a purple field, the data in that field will always populate when you draft a document from this form template and will not be overwritten by text entered on the populate page. For example, if you enter your name and save this form template, and then enter a different attorney’s name in the same field on the populate page when drafting a document from the template, your name will appear in the field instead. Learn more about drafting documents from templates here.
7. Optional: In the menu bar on the right, click Add custom field to insert a text box. Text boxes are helpful when court forms do not have enough space for additional details. You can resize the text box and adjust the font as needed.
8. Click Save Template when you are done pre-filling fields.
9. Enter a descriptive name for the court form template. Be specific in your naming conventions in order to make it easier to find this form in the form template list.
10. Click Save to finish. The form template will be saved to your Library.
11. Optional: Click the More Actions dropdown to duplicate, rename, or delete the saved form template.

Edit form templates

After creating a form template, you can make modifications to the template fields at any time. 

1. Go to Library and select the Form templates subtab.
2. Find the form template that you want to edit. You can use the search bar to search by form template name.
3. Click the Actions dropdown and then select Edit form template.
4. Make your changes and then click Save Template.

Duplicate form templates

If you need to duplicate a form template, you can do so from the Library. Duplicating form templates is useful if you use the same form template across multiple matters but find yourself making slight adjustments.

1. Go to Library and select the Form templates subtab.
2. Find the form template that you want to duplicate. You can use the search bar to search by form template name.
3. Click the Actions dropdown and then select Duplicate.
4. Enter a name for the duplicate template and then click Duplicate.

Rename form templates

You can rename a form template when editing it or later in your form templates library.

1. Go to Library and select the Form templates subtab.
2. Find the form template that you want to rename. You can use the search bar to search by form template name.
3. Click the Actions dropdown and then select Rename.
4. Enter a new name for the form template and then click Rename.

Delete form templates

If you no longer need a form template, you delete it from Clio Draft. Once deleted, the template cannot be recovered. 

1. Go to Library and select the Form templates subtab.
2. Find the form template that you want to delete. You can use the search bar to search by form template name.
3. Click the Actions dropdown and then select Delete.
4. Click Delete Template to confirm.