A few things hold true in the modern legal industry:
In short, these days it’s basically impossible to run a successful law firm without embracing legal tech. When it comes to building an effective tech stack for your firm, a legal case management system is one of those pieces of software that is a must-have.
Let’s start by discussing what a case management system is and what it does.
A case management system for law firms stores client data (case notes, pricing and billing information, communications, etc.) in one centralized location for easy access. Using this software, law firms can automate their workflows and simplify task management, scheduling, billing, and much more.
Think of a case management platform as the core legal technology solution for a law firm, which all other software can connect and integrate with to maximize efficiency and productivity.
Using legal technology in a law firm is standard practice today, but how the law firm uses technology is an important consideration.
Every law firm has its own policies, processes, and procedures for different types of work, but these are often individualized— one lawyer may prefer email to instant messaging for the majority of communication, while another prefers phone calls, meaning they may take longer to respond to email, which inadvertently stifles streamlined communications.
This is because law firms, like any workplace, employ individuals with different levels of comfort and experience with technology—meaning that consistency, communication, and information-sharing can suffer as everyone acts on their own preferences.
The goal of a case management tool is to get all professionals in a law firm using the same communication and information-sharing methods so consistent and effective processes can be developed.
A case management platform helps with this by:
This not only helps with keeping everyone on the same page in terms of law firm operations and client matters but contributes to a more client-centric experience by allowing legal professionals to provide streamlined consistent customer service.
Aside from streamlined operations and providing a more client-centric experience, there are several other benefits that case management systems software can provide, including:
Law firms that are interested in scaling their services will benefit from adopting software that can scale with them. Even if a law firm isn’t interested in scaling quickly, as demand increases for legal services in general, even smaller law firms are likely to feel the pressure to take on more clients. A case management system can help keep legal services consistent and up-to-standard even when the workload increases.
Clients often expect lawyers to communicate with them on demand, which isn’t always realistic from the lawyer’s perspective. Still, endless phone calls, texts, and emails can quickly affect the flow of a conversation and cause details to be missed, affecting the level of service that the client expects. But understandably, clients want updates on their matter, they want to update their lawyer with any new information relating to their matter, and overall prefer a direct line of communication with their lawyer.
A case management system with a client portal can help ease some of the client/lawyer communication pressure. A self-service client portal allows the client to log in whenever they want to check case status, upload documents relating to their case for their lawyer to review or send their lawyer a message. This saves time for both lawyer and client by eliminating unnecessary back-and-forth, provides a secure, reliable way for the client to share documents and information, and overall helps deliver a more client-centric legal experience.
The 2021 Legal Trends Report by Clio suggests that as much as 16% of billable time is not included in the client’s final invoice. Whether a law firm still uses the billable hour or if they’ve switched to alternative fee arrangements—extra time spent on a matter that doesn’t reflect on the client’s bill suggests possible process inefficiencies and/or a fear of presenting clients with a bill that exceeds the originally quoted amount.
Fixing process inefficiencies isn’t focused on charging clients more for a lawyer’s time, it’s more about marrying consistency, competency, and client-perceived value of service. One of the ways that a case management system can help achieve this is through time-saving tools, such as automations, that synchronize data across integrated platforms (e.g., client information between the case management system and a legal pricing tool like AltFee) or complete tedious, repetitive tasks (e.g., sending confirmation emails or meeting reminders).
More and more lawyers are working remotely than ever before, with the pandemic being an obvious catalyst. The draw for remote work for lawyers is increased work-life balance and in some cases, the ability to set their own work schedules. But as the 2022 Legal Trends Report by Clio points out, one caveat of working remotely that lawyers have had to contend with is the blurring of work and one’s personal life, as ease of accessibility means that work can be done anytime, anywhere.
Law firms that employ remote lawyers need to strongly consider how the software that they use supports them, not only in ensuring that operations run smoothly without someone present in the office, but also how to streamline workflow to help maintain work-life balance.
A case management system can act as a single source of truth for your legal professionals and automate tedious tasks like sending client reminders and providing onboarding information for new clients (such as logging into a self-service client portal, for instance), and much more. Better project management allows a legal professional to spend less time on a project overall, allowing them to focus on other work with some of the heavy lifting automated for them.
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Choosing the right case management system for your law firm can seem daunting, especially with the large number of offerings out there. Ease of use as well as a good balance of features to price are two great considerations, but there are more capabilities that you should look for as well:
These high-level considerations are a good starting point, but let’s get into more detailed features of case management systems that you should be looking for.
|
Case Management System Software Feature |
What It Does |
|
Client intake |
Centralizes client information and streamlines the intake process by using customizable client intake forms, sending automated welcome emails with next steps or instructions, and more. |
|
Workflow and scheduling |
Streamlines workflow and makes scheduling easier by having one place to assign and prioritize tasks, keep track of deadlines, and send automatic reminders. |
|
Secure communication and file sharing |
This ensures that communications and files are always secure, whether they be shared through a self-service client portal, email, or within the case management system itself. |
|
Matter and document tracking and management |
Allows changes, updates, and other details affecting specific cases and documents to be viewed in one area (sometimes in real-time) so that nothing falls through the cracks. |
|
Access control |
Allows permissions to be set to control access to sensitive information and documents, while still allowing users to access other parts of the system. |
|
Improve colleague and client communication |
By having a case management system as the one source of truth for your law firm, communications can be streamlined and controlled. |
Clio is one of the market's most popular case management systems, and for a good reason. It's feature-rich, user-friendly, and comes with a robust support system.
Stand out features:
Clio works in sync with Altfee so client information stays up-to-date between the two systems when changes are made. Whether you’re scoping and pricing matters in AltFee or managing your clients in Clio, information will automatically update in the appropriate system, saving you time and ensuring consistency between platforms.
From young start-ups to large law firms, Practice Panther is a great case management system for all types of practices. Its focus on automating law firm workflows is one thing that sets it apart.
With Practice Panther, you can:
Practice Panther also offers a wide range of features, including
With MyCase, you can manage your entire law firm from one centralized platform. It's a great option if you're looking for a comprehensive case management system to make your life easier.
MyCase comes with a wide range of features, including:
MyCase also offers a wide range of integrations to manage all your data in one place. Some of the software applications that MyCase integrates with include:
This makes MyCase another significant addition to your list of considerations for case management software to help improve your firm’s efficiency.
Case management software is just another legal technology tool that contributes to a client-centric, efficient, and purpose-driven law firm. Using case management software as the central hub of your law firm’s operations guarantees your legal professionals a single source of truth, and eases communication challenges.
A large part of offering a client-centric legal services experience is being able to present pricing to your clients confidently. AltFee allows your law firm to accurately manage your different alternative pricing structures with built-in pricing templates, the ability to leave comments and feedback, and much more. When integrated with a case management system such as Clio, AltFee becomes part of the core software experience for your law firm.
See AltFee in action today by getting a demo.
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