[lawtomated]

Definitely agree. In legal we've ended up with this odd process by which we start with semistructured data that could, but isn't, stored as structured data, e.g. the summary deal terms in a corporate context. That is usually a Word table of key value pairs, e.g. parties, financial values, percentages, key clause types or even the exact text to be included.

That is then negotiated into a long form MS Word contract, negotiated and then signed and physically scanned back into a machine as a PDF (vs PDFing the native word doc and preserving the text layer).

Very avoidable as you note, and actually solvable via a look backwards and / or redesigning the technical paradigm for representing a contracts data model from cradle to grave.