Docketwise vs Drafty AI: how they compare in 2026

DocketWise IQ is a core feature layered on a practice system that works without it. The company was founded in 2016 around its forms library, which fills USCIS, EOIR, DOL and DOS forms from one multilingual questionnaire. Case management, deadline and priority date tracking, USCIS status updates, eSignature, invoicing and trust accounting sit around it. The Basic plan, at $80 per user per month on annual billing, carries no AI and still runs an immigration practice, while DocketWise IQ comes with Pro and Advanced. The AI adds two assistants. The Document Assistant reads scanned passports and green cards and maps names, dates and other details into forms and client profiles. The Writing Assistant edits client messages and translates them into Spanish or Arabic. 8am launched further IQ capabilities across its products in June 2026, and Docketwise lists AI for immigration firms among its five product areas, beside forms, case management, CRM and reporting.

The product is a chain of model driven steps that turns a client's evidence into a filing. Smart Upload reads uploaded documents and fills in case details, and the drafting interview asks only about facts the matter does not already hold. The Strategy Outline engine maps the evidence to each legal element of the claim, builds an evidence matrix showing which elements have little support, detects the forum and flags deadlines, bars and weak points, each with a citation. From there one Draft action routes the matter by case type. Generic matters go to the Drafting Studio interview, while RFE, NOID and NOIR responses, asylum, withholding and CAT briefs, I-601A waivers, expert letters, affidavits, exhibit lists and translations each run in a dedicated flow. The Document Improvement Studio rewrites an existing document paragraph by paragraph. Matters and clients are the only parts that work without the models, and the product is sold for what the models draft.

Docketwise says automatic form filling brings measurable accuracy and time savings, that the Document Assistant reduces manual entry and improves accuracy, and that the platform minimizes filing errors, which it calls the leading source of error in immigration practice. No figure, error rate, sample, test set or evaluation is published, and no failure mode is named. Extraction runs on the customer's own uploaded identity documents and fills named agency forms rather than generating free text. Nothing describes how a mapped value is traced back to the page it came from or whether the source is shown to the reviewer. The product cites no legal authority, so citator checks and linked primary sources do not apply. The 8am group publishes a Case Assistant that returns answers with citations traced to their source, but its own availability table places it in MyCase rather than DocketWise.

Drafts are built with live legal research tailored to the jurisdiction, and attorneys quoted on the site point to its circuit specific case law. Every section in review shows the generated text beside the citations and supporting sources tied to it, and the authorities a draft relied on are gathered into a table of authorities that carries into the exported Word file. After generation, citations the system failed to match to its sources are flagged in that table for a closer read. The matching tolerates a different pinpoint or format, so a flag means a citation missing from the sources or a match that failed to complete. Drafty presents this as an aid rather than a guarantee and tells attorneys to verify every authority and fact whether flagged or not. The research sources behind the drafts are not named, and no accuracy rate, test set or measured error figure is published.

Under 8am's January 2026 AI principles the AI does not hit send: it offers recommendations that the user reviews, edits and approves before anything happens. 8am's AI page adds that the firm decides when AI is used and who can use it, and that nothing runs in the background. The 8am Terms of Service say output may not replace professional judgment or human review. The workflow is attorney driven, from questionnaire to populated form to signed filing, with Reverse Autofill and shared questionnaire editing as review points. An extracted value carries no confidence indicator and no marker showing that the AI filled it. Nothing describes what happens when a scan is illegible or a field cannot be matched. On a government form signed under penalty of perjury, a wrong alien registration number looks the same as a right one.

Every matter moves through the same visible stages, Outline, Draft, Review and Drafts ready, and nothing becomes a Word document until an attorney finalizes it. Drafts come back in sections that each start as Pending. The attorney reads the text with its sources, edits it, rewrites it with AI help or marks it Reviewed, in any order, and the matter header counts the drafts still awaiting review. Unmatched citations stop in the table of authorities for a closer look rather than passing silently. Notice responses run a separate Verification step before export, with automated checks for issues that lack linked evidence and for unlinked exhibits. Exhibit lists are approved by the attorney before export, and the Document Improvement Studio applies no change the attorney has not accepted. Where an interview question is skipped, the draft carries a placeholder rather than an invented fact. The terms make the attorney responsible for reviewing and approving each document as their own before it goes to any agency or court.

Docketwise shows five customer firms by logo, among them Kurzban Kurzban Tetzeli and Pratt, Davis & Associates, Rushton Hoffmann & Associates and Fogle Law Firm. Three testimonials carry a named attorney, title and firm, from Saja Raoof of Saja Raoof, Inc. Law Corporation, Shahzad Khan of Shahzad R. Khan Legal and Anna Ernest of Ernest Law Group. Published success stories include Jane Lee's move from LawLogix after ten years, Immigrant Justice Corps on nonprofit use, and Ismail Mohammed, a sole practitioner who reports cutting case preparation time by 50%. Docketwise's headline claim is that firms spend 75% less time on admin, with no method or sample given. Law360 reported that the AILA Marketplace Study 2022 ranked Docketwise the most used immigration case management software.

Immigration attorneys Patrick Kolasinski, Joe Michelotti and Vilerka Bilbao and legal consultant Luis Bares are quoted by name, praising brief drafting, circuit specific law and the RFE drafting studio, without their firms or any figures. An unnamed user reports saving more than 60% of the time spent drafting cover letters. The headline claim is a 60% or greater cut in case preparation time, described as verified by customers, with no customer, sample or method behind it. A worked example on the home page assumes nine hours a week reclaimed at a $300 hourly rate. Coverage in ABA Journal, Bloomberg Law and AILA and membership of NVIDIA Inception are listed as press and programs. No dated deployment at a named firm with measured results is published.

Customer content and AI inputs and outputs may not be used to train or fine tune any model, 8am's or a third party's, under the 8am Terms of Service, which name 8am DocketWise. They limit the models behind DocketWise IQ to keeping that content for up to 30 days without training on it. 8am's AI page says the AI reaches only data a user already has rights to view, and that the safeguards keeping one customer's data from another extend to the AI. Data is encrypted at rest and in transit, administrators set role based access, and two factor authentication comes with every plan. The terms reserve aggregated human and automated review of inputs and outputs to monitor accuracy, so a person may read a prompt that no model trains on. Nothing addresses privilege or work product directly, and access separates by user and office rather than by matter.

The data processing agreement, part of the terms every user accepts, limits use of client data to providing the service and bars Drafty and its subprocessors from using it to train, fine tune or improve any AI model. Client and attorney details are masked before a prompt reaches an AI provider, so the provider receives personal details only where a draft needs them. Providers hold inputs for up to 30 days for abuse monitoring and then delete them, and everyone who handles client data is bound to confidentiality. A published guide covers United States v. Heppner, the 2026 ruling on AI and work product, but the agreement itself does not address privilege or work product. Firms add users through team management, and nothing describes walls between matters or users inside a firm. Session replay runs inside the platform and can capture case content shown on screen. Input fields are masked, and staff view a recording only with the customer's authorization to resolve a support request.

Both the 8am Terms of Service and the 8am IQ Usage Policy name DocketWise or DocketWise IQ. Both say the platform serves legal, accounting and other client based professionals in the United States and Canada. They say 8am gives no legal advice and does not practice law, and that customers must follow their own professional conduct rules. Unauthorized practice of law is prohibited, and output may not replace professional judgment or human review. Docketwise sells to attorneys and also to legal service providers and nonprofits, in the one field in the United States where accredited representatives who are not lawyers may lawfully practice before the agency. The terms do not say whether a DOJ accredited representative falls inside their audience, or what such a representative may do with the drafting tool.

Only attorneys licensed in the United States may use the product, and each must give a bar license number at sign up. The terms describe Drafty as an AI system designed to assist attorneys and disclaim the accuracy of AI generated content. Review, validation and compliance with professional conduct rules sit with the user, who must approve each document as their own before filing it with an agency or court. Scope is stated narrowly as immigration practice in the United States and nothing else. Blog guidance walks attorneys through Florida Bar Ethics Advisory Opinion 24-1, ABA guidance on AI and the Heppner ruling, and offers an AI use policy template and retainer language for firms. How the product supports an attorney's competence and supervision duties, as opposed to placing them on the attorney, is not set out in the terms.

8am's January 2026 statement of AI principles, written by its principal product manager for AI, covers 8am IQ, which includes DocketWise IQ. It commits to AI that assists rather than decides, to fair, transparent and explainable output, and to continuous evaluation. 8am says it uses proprietary evaluation metrics to monitor accuracy and detect errors, with prompts preconfigured for specific legal tasks. The metrics and their results are not published, and no owner is named for AI decisions or for what is tested before a release. The Document Assistant reads passports and green cards issued in many formats, scripts and transliterations, and nothing is published on how its accuracy varies across document types, issuing countries or scripts other than Latin.

No responsible AI policy, governance framework, accountable owner or testing program is published. A 2023 post describes a commitment to make AI practical and safe for immigration attorneys and to evaluate AI at every stage, without saying how. Drafty's ABA guidance summary lists fairness and avoiding bias as principles for lawyers using AI, and nothing describes how its own drafts are tested for uneven quality across case types, forums or client populations.

Administrators set role based permissions at user level, Advanced adds permission groups and multiple admin roles, and two factor authentication is available on every plan. Inside the vendor, access to customer data is limited to employees who need it, and staff must use single sign on or two factor authentication for systems holding sensitive data. Data is encrypted with AES 256 at rest and over HTTPS in transit, on AWS across several availability zones, with encrypted snapshot backups about every five minutes. Annual third party penetration tests with remediation bound by service levels, continuous vulnerability scanning and annual control self assessments are listed. A written incident protocol covers escalation, mitigation and post incident review, customers are told of critical system changes, and customer data is purged from production when a customer leaves. Docketwise also publishes a notice of a data incident. In October 2025 an unauthorized party used valid credentials to copy third party partner repositories, some used in a data migration pipeline that held law firm records. Personal information of clients of some customer firms, including Social Security and passport numbers, was taken. Notices went to affected individuals from 3 April 2026 with two years of identity monitoring, and the FBI was told. Docketwise says it has added security measures since and is reviewing its policies to prevent a repeat. No subprocessor list is published.

Retention and deletion are contractual. Case data stays while the account is open, and on closure or earlier request Drafty deletes or returns it at the customer's choice within a reasonable period, with backups removed on the regular cycle. AI providers keep inputs for up to 30 days, and analytics recordings follow the analytics provider's settings. A security schedule in the agreement covers encryption in transit and at rest, role based and least privilege access for staff, and multifactor authentication on administrative and production systems. It adds staff training, vulnerability scanning, backups with a documented recovery process and logging of production access. Breaches are reported without undue delay. Subprocessors fall into six named categories, all in the United States and all barred from training on customer data, with prior notice of any change and a right to object. The named list is sent on request by email, and breach notice carries no fixed deadline.

The 8am Terms of Service, updated August 2026 and naming 8am DocketWise, exclude indirect and consequential damages. They cap 8am's total liability at the net fees it earned from the customer in the three months before the event giving rise to the claim. For the AI, 8am gives no warranty on the accuracy, completeness or reliability of output, says it is not obliged to verify output, and disclaims liability for errors in output or for reliance on it. The customer indemnifies 8am against third party claims connected with its use of the services, and no indemnity or warranty runs the other way. Document Assistant output goes onto forms filed with federal agencies, so an incorrect alien registration number or date of entry on a submitted form is a loss these terms leave with the firm.

The terms, last updated 5 October 2026 under Delaware law, exclude indirect, incidental, special, consequential and punitive damages, including lost data and profits, and say nothing about a cap on direct damages. Drafty makes no warranty on the accuracy or completeness of AI generated content and accepts no liability for loss caused by its third party AI providers or for submission of documents the user did not revise. The service is provided as is, with merchantability, fitness and non infringement warranties disclaimed, and disputes go to mediation and then binding AAA commercial arbitration. Users indemnify Drafty for infringing or defamatory material, misrepresentation, breach and claims by third parties arising from their use. Drafty gives no indemnity in return, and no insurance or output warranty is offered. The data processing agreement's security commitments survive the disclaimers, and its liability falls under the same terms.

Docketwise connects to Clio, MyCase and PracticePanther for practice management, QuickBooks for accounting, Dropbox and OneDrive for storage, and Gmail, Outlook and Google Calendar for email and calendar. Payments run natively through 8am LawPay, Zapier opens a route to thousands of other applications, and the product is listed on the Google Workspace Marketplace. Clio and PracticePanther compete with 8am's own MyCase, and Docketwise presents those connections as serving firms that run both. An open API is published, and Gmail and Outlook appear as add ons in the plan comparison. No page sets out which objects sync, in which direction, what authentication is required or what a firm must configure.

Drafty stands alone. Client documents are uploaded or linked through each matter's documents panel, and finished drafts download as Word files named for the client and matter type, ready to edit and file. No connection is offered to a case management system such as Docketwise, Clio or MyCase, to a document store, or to USCIS or EOIR filing. Drafty's own comparison with Docketwise presents the two as separate products a firm runs side by side. Enterprise plans add single sign on.

Docketwise runs on Amazon Web Services, in data centers with security staff around the clock, biometric scanning and video surveillance. Infrastructure and data are spread across several AWS availability zones for failover and disaster recovery, with encrypted snapshot backups through AWS Elastic Beanstalk about every five minutes. No AWS region or country is named and no residency option is offered. Nothing separates where documents are stored from where the Document Assistant processes them, and no tenancy model or single tenant option is described, for a product that holds identity documents and immigration histories.

The service runs in the cloud on Amazon Web Services. Customer data is processed and stored in the United States under the data processing agreement, and every subprocessor, the AI providers included, is based there too. Transfers of data covered by the GDPR or UK GDPR rely on standard contractual clauses incorporated into the agreement. One deployment in the United States serves every plan. No other region, private deployment or residency choice is described, and the tenancy model is not stated. The security portal lists a recovery time objective of five hours.

Its parent's SOC 2 Type 2 attestation at the 8am LLC level covers Docketwise, and Docketwise's own pages say so, pointing to 8am's public trust center at trust.8am.com. Listed there are the 2025 SOC 2 Type 2 report, a 2026 bridge letter, and PCI DSS v4.0.1 attestations of compliance for the LawPay payment side. Docketwise's own security page describes AWS hosting with AES 256 encryption, continuous third party vulnerability scanning, and SSO or two factor authentication for staff with access to sensitive data. Annual third party penetration tests and annual control self assessments with documented corrective actions are listed beside them.

No independent security attestation is held today. The security portal, run on SafeBase, describes the company as aligning with and in pursuit of the CCPA, the GDPR and SOC 2, and lists SOC 2 under compliance without a report, auditor or date. It sets out controls for data security, access monitoring, backups, erasure, bot detection, credential management and the development lifecycle, shows a SecurityScorecard rating, and lets a reviewer request access to restricted documents. Customers hold audit rights under the processing terms, which Drafty may meet with certifications, reports or a security questionnaire.

OpenAI is named as the AI partner for 8am IQ in 8am's January 2026 statement of AI principles. It says OpenAI does not train on customer data under that agreement and may keep data for up to 30 days for abuse detection. The 8am Terms of Service hold the models behind 8am IQ to the same 30 day limit without naming the provider. The privacy policy says AI inputs also pass to document parsing and optical character recognition providers, none of them named. No model or version is identified, and nothing commits to notice if the provider changes.

Drafts come from third party AI providers called through their APIs, under contracts that bar training on inputs, with client and attorney details masked before a prompt leaves Drafty. The providers and models are not named, and nothing describes which model handles which flow. AI processing is one of six subprocessor categories in the agreement, all based in the United States. Prior notice of any added or replaced subprocessor is promised, with a right to object, which covers a change of AI provider. Use of the providers' models is also subject to their own usage policies, which the terms pass through to users.

Docketwise publishes per user monthly rates in both billing cadences. Basic is $80, Pro $100 and Advanced $120 on annual billing, and $90, $120 and $140 billed monthly. The unit is a seat per user with unlimited cases. Plan contents appear in three plan cards and in a comparison table of about forty rows covering case management, forms, CRM, DocketWise IQ and administration. The table shows the AI in Pro and above, and where eFiling, eSignature and permission groups sit. The terms around the price are published too, with a seven day free trial, no setup fees for standard accounts and free data migration on annual Advanced plans. Advanced can be started through a free trial signup, with a demo route beside it. There is no unpriced enterprise tier, and the one variable cost, LawPay transaction processing, is disclosed with fees waived for new subscribers.

Prices are published in USD and bought without a sales call. The base plan is $250 a month for one seat and ten matters a month. Each further seat costs $100 a month, and matters cost $25 each for the first ten and $10 each above that, shared across the firm. A matter is one client case with unlimited drafts inside it, charged once at the first AI generation. Overage at $20 a matter is off by default. Yearly billing gives two months free and releases the year's matter pool up front, and seat or matter changes are prorated. A four day Starter Trial with two matters needs no card, followed by a seven day trial once a card is added. The calculator stops at 25 seats and 500 matters. Enterprise pricing, with volume matter rates, SSO, an uptime SLA and onboarding, is set on a call. Self serve plans carry no stated setup fee.

Docketwise declares immigration law its only practice area and builds its positioning on that boundary, saying its data model, workflows and forms library are built around immigration practice rather than general practice. It lists solo attorneys, boutique firms, larger immigration teams, and legal aid and nonprofit immigration organizations, with roles for attorneys, paralegals, support staff, firm administrators and consultants. Coverage is defined at the level a practitioner checks, with the forms library set out by agency across USCIS, EOIR, DOL and DOS and the electronic filing subset named form by form. Firms wanting general practice management are pointed to Clio or MyCase alongside, through published integrations. Six common use cases are published, from multilingual intake for solo practices to nonprofit caseloads.

Immigration practice in the United States is the whole scope, for attorneys licensed there, from solo practitioners to firms large enough for an enterprise plan. Drafty puts that point at around ten users or 100 matters a month. Named case types include asylum, withholding of removal and CAT claims, I-601 and I-601A waivers, cancellation of removal, VAWA, U and T visas and BIA appeals. Motions to reopen and reconsider, RFE and NOID responses and family petitions are covered too, as are employment petitions such as EB-1A, NIW, EB-5, O-1A, P-1A, L-1 and TN. Limits are stated. Naturalization matters get a client filing checklist and cover page rather than a drafted brief, and court motions are offered only for immigration court matters. Forum detection frames work for USCIS, immigration court or appellate review. In house and government use are not addressed, which fits a product sold only to licensed immigration attorneys.