By
Jyoti Tejpal
Legal case management, Helps capture billable hours, Categorize tags based on client needs, Sets up custom rules, Cloud & mobile based, AI real time analytics
Integrated Online platform Managing from Cloud with single app, Project management Appointment scheduling CRM Time tracking Billing Flexibility of usage/pricing
Comprehensive suite Manages busy Social Security advocacy practice Records management Task management Integrated calendar OHO/Appeals Council Importing document
Law practice management software, also called legal software, offers lawyers to manage the case-related workflows and legal operations. The software provides to manage documents, tasks, calendars, client communications, and more. These helping tools can support the user’s both front- and back-office workflows and allows to store confidential information in one secure place.
Reduces time and effort to search case history: Law practice management software provides a record of all case-related information along with crucial deadlines and client communication. Having complete information in a single place makes it faster and easier for lawyers and paralegals to search case history and documents, allowing them to spend more time and effort in preparing for the individual case instead of going through external files and lethargic paperwork.
Better coordination for lawyers/paralegals: The software offers practitioners to improve task collaboration and coordination amongst themselves and their paralegal team. This provides everyone to be on the same page and helps enhance the productivity of the group as a single entity.
Track completed work and send bills accurately to the clients: The system keeps check on the work done by each staff member, i.e., attorneys, paralegals, assistants with individual attention. This data is then fed and used to calculate different payrolls for everyone, send the bills to clients, based on the number of hours spent by each employee on a case.
Document management: Collecting, sharing, and centrally storing all case-specific documents and files.
Legal case management: Managing workflow related to legal cases by tracking emails, notes, payments, contacts, tasks, and time entries.
Legal matter management: Managing corporate legal practice activities like compliance, internal claims, and marketing.
Integrated Calendaring: Viewing tasks, deadlines, appointments, and meetings on a shared calendar.
Billing and invoicing: Generating bills and invoices based on employee billable hours and other expenses on case-related tasks.
Most of the products available in the market are priced on a “per user, per month” basis and can be divided into three pricing tiers based on their starting price. Premium software has additional features like custom security roles, automated payment reminders, and advanced calendar rules.
Evaluate the security standards of the solution: Law firms deal with sensitive and business-critical information like client data and case details. Therefore, it is critical to check and evaluate the security standards of the tool you are planning to buy. The software must offer enterprise-grade encryption, as well as secure messaging, digital signatures, etc. more in-depth security measures such as multi-factor authentication and bio-metric signage are add-on features.
Smooth client communication via a client portal: Having a dedicated client portal offers lawyers to share sensitive information with their clients securely. It is recommended to go with a solution that provides client portal functionality as it enables the client that you and your firm value confidentiality.
Integration with third-party apps: Law practice management software should be capable of integrating with user’s existing applications for bookkeeping, CRM, email marketing, payment gateways, and others. There is software that provides lawyers to comfortably sign, manage, and track all digital documents and other systems which can be coordinated with email platforms to sync emails, calendars, and contacts. Integration with third-party apps will increase user experience and offer the user a unique platform to carry out multiple tasks.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming legal research methodology: Junior lawyers and paralegals are often burdened with copious amounts of audit and case research. They have a high probability of making errors or missing out on critical information while sifting through large volumes of paper contracts, case reports, investigation files, etc., any of which can disrupt or slow down case proceedings. In order to assist in avoiding such situations, vendors have started adding AI and machine learning capabilities to their law practice management software. AI-enabled tools look through a large group of unstructured reports and contracts to extract relevant and specific case-related information, thus saving paralegals a significant amount of time and effort.
Shift from standard legal contracts to smart contracts: Legal agreements are currently being written with physical signatures, which requires considerable time for a binding legal agreement to be concluded. It is vulnerable to human error due to the manual processing of legal documentation. A smart contract converts the terms and conditions of the traditional agreement to computer code. The same scripts can be uploaded to the block-chain, which is a collection of data, resulting in a decentralized contract. Smart contracts are automatically managed on the block-chain and do not involve any third-parties. This reduces the risk of fraud and lowers transaction costs.
