Nearly every industry today has invested in technology to automate and streamline their operations and activities. This is simply because of a new and digital world in which sustainability is impossible without the adoption of new technologies. Information Technology has become a huge part of almost every company and office over the past few decades, and it is hard to foresee how any enterprise can handle its operations and be more profitable without taking the advent of technologies.
And if we talk about the legal industry, beyond only court trials, a fair lot more goes in the legal industry. It includes handling document volumes, arranging sessions, and controlling the needs of customers. Not only does doing it manually waste time and resources, but it’s also prone to mistakes. As long as the practice of law continues, paper-based processes have existed. In the past, they have tended to do a very tremendous job with these paper-based systems. However, the world has changed, and lawyers are searching for more effective ways of operating their practices with the advancement of technology. This is where tools for Case Management Software steps in. These efficient softwares help simplify the many moving components in the service of a law firm.
As per the Technavio report, the global market size of legal case management software is predicted to grow by 933 Million dollars during 2020-2024 with the CAGR of 10%.
What if everybody at your law firm had an easier and more effective way to access up-to-date legal records, connect, and exchange knowledge and papers? Sounds good, you will improve productivity and teamwork at your company and provide an ideal experience for your staff and clients by choosing to invest in best legal case management software.
Do you contemplate revamping daily operations for your firm? To learn more about case management software, how it can assist you, and why you do need it, read on.
What is Case Management Software?
Case Management Software is a digital framework that helps businesses and companies to monitor and preserve data and reports in a centralized location. A number of users have access to case information such that users could work on cases and exchange data in a safe environment. On even a local area network, a case management system can be built and it could also be web based. The most popular form is web-based case management software, and the reason behind its popularity is its available 24 by 7 and can be accessed via an internet service anywhere across. Case management software is a bit different from ordinary one. Let’s quickly discuss,
What is Legal Case Management Software?
Legal Case Management Software helps to incorporate all the important information that is applicable to a specific case. It offers a well-structured rundown of a case’s general facts, assigned attorneys, email correspondence, deadlines, and plenty more. The introduction of this program has changed the conventional approach of law firms dramatically and has made the procedures paperless and easy to handle. In law firms, this method is used as a database for past, present, and prospective clients and cases. The legal case management software could indeed be grouped with numerous eDiscovery tools to obtain case-related data and legal billing software for client billing. You won’t believe it, but the US is the largest and major market (Worldwide) for legal case management software in 2019.
Why Lawyers & Law firms should use Case Management Software?
Implementing law is an extremely competitive field, and there are different explanations why another law firm may be preferred by a prospective customer over yours. Planning ahead and staying two steps ahead of your competitor is essential. You will help the firm work as a consistent unit by incorporating a robust legal case management software system across your legal process. Currently, clients are demanding quicker access, more data, and better efficiency. It is important that your company become mindful on how the needs of your client are met. It could be a daunting process to meet the high standards of your customers and clients. But it can be made simpler by the right case management software.
Even though many firms have invested in such softwares, while others are still pondering over it. This also means that before they go searching for a solution, they are left waiting until the company is in trouble.
Here are four indicators which show that your company or law firm needs best case management software:
1. Leads are being lost
Any law firm needs to even get leads, though without the correct procedure, potential prospects and clients may easily be lost. Law firms with strong legal case management software can monitor leads and strengthen schedule management to alert them to catch up with customers and clients and other noteworthy meetings.
2. Expenses are not adequately tracked
It is too common for law firms to end up spending money on unproductive tactics without a full understanding of how their campaigns operate. The legal case management software automatically draws all applicable time entries and expenditures, making it easy to determine what happens next. This strategy will save your company’s countless hours of time and cash month after month.
3. Unorganized office
Lack of organization leads to misplaced paperwork, messy desks, records being lost, and deadlines being missed. The most noticeable indication that your law firm requires case management software is disorganization. It’s important for your company’s credibility to make absolutely sure that each and every case is treated properly. By integrating case management software, this can all be achieved effectively and flawlessly. The software makes it easier for your team to work together, concentrate on what is necessary and do more work.
4. Your team needs to work on the go
Most experts tend to take their job outside the workplace, whether in court or at home, today’s lawyer requires access, whenever and wherever they might be to their files. Although it’s possible with many solutions like Google spreadsheet and other, these solutions do not allow an attorney to have a full image of each case. But cloud-driven case management software, gives lawyers the option of bringing their cases anywhere they need to be.
As of now we’ve discussed the basics, now the time has come to discuss the features of legal case management software. You have to select the software which meets your firm’s requirements. However, it doesn’t matter what you select, below are some cool must have features, so have a look.
Features you can look for in legal case management software
- Case Management – In your legal case management software this is among the most significant characteristics to have. Through this you can arrange and handle the data depending on the type of matter and case type. Besides that it also allows you to want your prospects and clients to gain quick access to it.
- Client Management – There are a lot of cases running together at the same time in every law firm, and this involves a lot of clients-related connections and details. Well so, make absolutely sure that your software has the feature which helps to store data on a single repository that can be accessed conveniently at the same time.
- Calendaring – Your law firm would never be able to operate in a structured way until you have a proper schedule in place. Make sure that your software contains a simple calendar which helps you track people’s meetings, competing attorneys, clients, and plenty others.
- Records management – The sector which has maximum documentation is none other than a legal industry. So, please ensure that you have incorporated this feature in your software which will help you quickly and substantially manage all the documents and records of your law firms in one location.
- Docketing – This feature enables you to have a Rules-Based-Calendars depending on the laws handed down by your jurisdiction which ensures that you can digitally monitor meetings, proceedings, file deadlines etc.
- Billing – This feature or role helps you to monitor the amount of time used to bill customers or clients and digitally send those receipts. It’s also a perfect alternative for the staff of your firm themselves to track non-billable time.
- Accounting – If there is one aspect that most law firms struggle with is the typical accounting process. Getting appropriate accounting characteristics in place helps to streamline the firm’s accounting process which ultimately improves your team’s accuracy and performance.
- Client Panel – This is an essential feature not just to better satisfy the customers, but also to gain their loyalty for a lifetime. This means providing a portal that can help your prospects and clients with your team, along with allowing them to access relevant case-related information.
- Remarks keeping – Each law firm wants to learn, and it learns from any winning or losing case. Having a feature for making substantial notes allows them to plan in a better manner for future cases.
- Other features – Client intake, Data security and backup, Business reports, form assembly, team collaboration and communication tools.
These are some features legal case management software offers. Moving on, let’s discuss,
Why do you need Case Management Software?
1. Helps to save your precious time
Lawyers have a really crazy busy working time, and during the day they handle different duties. Tasks such as manually searching through tons and tons of data to locate specific data were both time-consuming and exhausting. Presently, by getting a robust database at hand it will save attorneys 48% of their time. This enables them to have 48% more time to devote to more precious activities. The record management function helps to keep files in one-centralized location, meaning that you don’t have to spend time looking for the documents.
2. Helps to Manage Deadlines & Improves record management
You know the importance of completing deadlines as a legal professional. The result of a court hearing may be influenced by any lapse in the management of deadlines. You can meet the deadlines more effectively by using advanced legal case management software. At a certain point in the case management workflow, modern systems allow you to include these important dates, and the software sequentially applies these dates and time to the case workflow which makes sure that an approaching deadline will never surprise you. Using legal case management software ensures that you can process and store documents from your prospects or clients quickly. All of the information collected associated with an individual customer is stored in one section where all the documentation about that customer can be shared. This means that you can now easily access any documentation about any prospect or clients.
3. Better Client Experience
Using the cloud based case management software, when you’re out of the workplace, you would not have to make the client delay for any relevant details. All relevant information can be accessed via the internet anytime and can also be transmitted to the client or prospect. You could also improve your availability with the convenience of remote monitoring and therefore, retain better client and customer relationships. Case management software offers you a forum to easily communicate, share the information, and interact with your customers and clients. In which a documentation of all information shared is almost always accessible. Customers are informed about invoices via the client portal that this software provides, and they can quickly check the same and even though they can pay online as well.
4. Less Human Mistakes
The probability of human mistakes significantly rises when the systems includes old school pen and paper procedures. Records may even be filled inaccurately or data may be lost due to mistaken documents. All the information is gathered and processed in one location, from which it could be easily accessible, via case management software. It also offers the ability to create forms dynamically based on file details, and can even be digitally approved.
5. Better Reporting and Analyzing
Predominantly, law firms were hesitant to invest in the functionality of automated reporting and analysis, as they may not have much value in the prevailing market. However with the increase in competitive pressure now and the urge to do something more in fewer time, these features and functionalities are in demand. Case management softwares will also look at patterns and evaluate how well the procedures and forms operate, aside from providing useful information and allowing the case to progress towards resolution. It tends to help you to quickly resolve fraudulent activities and deliver summary reports by analyzing unique relationships between cases, and also supports judicial writing and research. Its own reporting feature offers reports that help you assess which efforts are effective for you and which ones should really be dumped. This software can therefore be useful for maintaining your law’s whole operational structure.
6. Standardized Invoicing and Billing
In order for a legal firm to handle its revenue effectively, its billing and invoicing procedures should be standardized and simplified. A law firm is held back from maximizing its maximum potential by traditional manual processes and restricted payment methods. Case management software eliminates the stress out of your billing process by streamlining the creation of bills, taking note of clients’ accounts, as well as reducing manual processes. The software offers customer online banking services and invoice alerts, which ensures that you end up receiving your timely payments.
7. Ensures Greater Security
As a legal profession focuses around information, keeping it secure is very important. Clients sometimes worry about their data and would like to keep their data confidential. When they have trust in the security protocols of your legal firm, they will remain loyal for a longer period of time. The case management software automatically performs data backups on a daily basis, ensuring that your data is still safe. Local server based data is vulnerable to harm due to any hardware or software problems especially in comparison to the cloud which is a much safer choice for storing and accessing data.
With the above mentioned information, one thing is clear that case management software for lawyers and case management software for legal firms is definitely beneficial. But it’s important to choose the right case management software. Below we have mentioned a few tips which help you to choose the best one, so have a look.
Tips to choose Right Legal Case Management Software
- Choose cloud-based legal case management software.
- Look into their features and functionalities.
- Demand for more integrations.
- Never compromise with the backend design.
Final words
The potential of legal case management softwares is on boom; this indicates that having legal case management software for your firm is correlated with several advantages. All legal softwares is unique and has distinct characteristics. You must select apps for legal case management that perfectly suits your law firm’s unique criteria. You can also develop custom legal case management software by partnering with the best App Development Company like Matellio. To assist law firms globally, and handle their operations resourcefully, we use new, advanced, innovative technologies.
For further information, visit our website www.matellio.com
