What Makes the Legal Case Management Systems a Necessity for Law Firms?

Today, almost every industry has leveraged technology to streamline its operations. The reason is a modern and digital world in which sustaining is challenging without the adoption of technology. If we talk about the legal industry, the use of legal case management systems is on the rise since not only does it provide you with multiple benefits but also lets you keep in compliance with the requirements and policies laid down by the legal and judicial authorities. Implementing legal practice management technology can help streamline various processes, including task management, matter management, secure client portal management, and law practice management. The initial investment is worth it for the long-term benefits it can provide to your law firm.

This is the only reason larger firms reported a usage rate of 62% and smaller firms reported a usage rate of 30-35% with respect to the legal case management system. When it comes to running your law firm, a lot of tools and business solutions are required to enhance work productivity and profitability. Despite this, many firms resist adopting this technology. Why? Let’s figure out the same!

Reasons Firms Resist Adopting Technology

Investment Reasons:

There are firms that do not have sufficient funds and the confidence to invest in technology since they expect instant ROI. They do not understand that it is a long-term investment.

Lack of Knowledge:

There are firms that do not have sufficient knowledge regarding the efficiency of the legal case management software and do not opt for the same.

Lack of Interest/Need:

These are the firms that think they do not need a unified system for their processes. They are more satisfied with running several programs at the same time.

Does Your Firm Need a Legal Case Management System?

You might be confused about adopting a legal case management system for your law firm, but if you meet the following criteria, you should definitely consider investing in the same:

1. You Are Not Organized:

If your law firm is not organized, and you have misplaced papers, lost documents, messy desks, and often face missed deadlines, you definitely need this robust software. It will not only help you manage files digitally but make your team more organized as well.

2. No Lead Track:

The success of a law firm depends upon the number of incoming leads. The more the number of leads, the more chances there are of turning them into clients. However, if you are manually handling all the leads, you are likely to miss some potential leads. With legal software such as ArkCase, you can easily track and organize your leads.

3. No Expense Track:

Most law firms waste a lot of money on marketing strategies that simply do not bring any ROI. Why? The simple reason is that they do not have any way to track the performance of their campaign and the expense associated with it, which is never the case with legal case management systems.

4. You Want to Access Office from Anywhere:

Today, every attorney wants to gain access to his files and folders from anywhere and at any time, be it during a late night at home, traveling, holidaying, and more. This is only possible when you have digital files stored in a cloud-based solution, one of the most common ones being Google Sheets.

Legal Case Management Systems Essentials

Now comes the time when you have to choose amongst different legal software available in the market. The most important thing over here is to select software that meets the specific needs of your law firm. However, no matter what you choose, the following are some of the common must-have features:

1. Matter and Case Management

This is one of the most important features to have in your legal case management software. With this, you are able to organize and manage the information based on the matter and case type, helping you and your client to gain easy access to it.

2. Contact and Client Management

Every law firm has a lot of cases going on at the same time, and this includes a lot of contacts and information related to the clients. So, make sure your software has this feature that helps store information on a single platform, which is easily accessible at the same time.

3. Fundamental Calendaring

Until you have proper schedules in place, your law firm will never be able to work in an organized way. Make sure your software includes fundamental calendaring that helps you track appointments with individuals, opposing counsel, clients, and more.

4. Docketing

This feature allows you to have rules-based calendaring (RBC), which means you can digitally track meetings and hearings, file deadlines, etc., based on the rules laid down by your jurisdiction.

5. Document Management

If there is one field that has the maximum number of documents in place, it is the legal industry. So, make sure you have this feature included that will help you manage all the documents of your law firm effortlessly and at one place, importantly.

6. Timekeeping/Billing

This feature allows you to track the time that is used to bill the clients and send them the invoices electronically. Also, it is a great option for tracking non-billable time for the employees of your law firm itself.

7. Accounting

Trust accounting is a critical aspect of accounting processes for law firms, and implementing proper procedures and utilizing reliable software can help maintain accuracy, efficiency, and, most importantly, the trust of clients.

8. Collaboration and Communication Tools

Today, this feature has become extremely important as different teams of the law firm need to collaborate and communicate amongst themselves on various matters related to different cases.

10. Notes

Every law firm needs learning, and it learns from every case it wins or loses. Having a feature for making important notes helps them prepare in a better way in the future.

11. Client Portal

This is an important feature to not only serve your clients in a better way but to win their confidence for a lifetime. This includes having a platform that can help your clients communicate with your team, along with letting them gain access to important information related to the case.

12. Document/Form Assembly

This feature is based on the templates’ use and helps in creating automatic documents or forms based on the information provided by the client or your law firm.

13. Client Intake

Usually, taking a client on board involves going through a lot of questions and form filling. This feature allows you to speed up this process by digitally entering the information of the clients and reviewing it ASAP to start the case preparation.

Best Legal Case Management Systems

Top Benefits Associated with Legal Case Management System

1. Have a Competitive Edge

By incorporating the use of technology into your legal processes, you will be able to set yourself apart from others by making your processes fast and streamlined.

2. Surpass Client Expectations

Today, every client seeks instant solutions, answers, and services. This is only possible when you have software in place that gives you a single platform to meet every client’s need in an efficient and timely manner.

3. Data Security

Law firms who handle data manually often are at risk of losing it. This is never the case with legal software since information is stored in an electronic format that cannot be lost, especially when it comes to cloud storage.

4. Effortless Information Sharing

Just as we discussed above, with legal software, you can easily share information amongst your team members and clients since everything is stored on a single platform.

5. Save Money, Time, and Effort Training New Employees

Training new employees can demand a lot from law firm owners and employees. Legal practice software is structured in such a way that even a layman can understand the nuances of the law, client handling, case proceedings, and more.

6. Motivates Team Collaboration

Most of the teams find it difficult to collaborate with each other owing to mismanaged data and information sharing. Legal software provides them with a single platform for working on everything, leading to collaboration and unity among the team members.

7. Better File Organizing and Deadlines Meeting

With a legal case management system, you are able to organize your files in an efficient way, helping you gain access to important information easily and eventually meet deadlines on time.

8. Direct Communication

Having a single platform for clients and your team members paves the way for direct communication, helping sort things in a proficient and timely manner.

9. Document Retrieval

Retrieving documents can be tough when it comes to having a manual data management approach, which is never the case with law firm software since everything is stored and arranged digitally, leading to an easy document-search option.

10. Work Remotely

This is what legal software is all about. Your files are stored electronically, and you can gain access to them from anywhere and work remotely, making you remove all hindrances in your path to work and success.

Conclusion

This concludes the fact that numerous benefits are associated with having a legal case management system in place for your law firm. Every legal software is unique and has different features. One should choose a legal case management solution that best meets the specific requirements of your law firm and which also falls into your budget at the same time.

Although having legal case management systems in place comes with an unmatched advantage, one should not forget that it demands some effort, time, and expertise to get the best out of it.

If you or your team members do not wish to shift your focus and time from core legal activities. In that case, you can consider outsourcing your back-office processes to a legal process outsourcing company like Cogneesol. We use the latest and advanced legal case management software to help law firms worldwide manage their back-office processes resourcefully.

Get in touch with us to get started with your 14-day free trial.