Introduction

“Paper-based systems have been with the practice of law for as long as there have been lawyers practicing law”(Bilinsky, 2002). Any argument to change to a different system must address real benefits to be achieved —and not simply a list of how to do the same tasks faster. With this in mind, I would like to present to this law firm some realistic benefits of adopting an electronic case management system.^[1]

Benefit 1 — Case management can organize an entire day, week, month, or year

• Calendar appointment can be created by clicking on any time and day. If the appointment date or time changes, drag and drop or click and move the appointment to the new date or time.
• The software will warn the user of conflicting appointments and upcoming appointments.
• The calendar can be loaded onto a PDA, and any changes reflect on a PDA and on the office computers.
• Anyone programmed (in the firm) can see and have access to the schedule/calendar.

Benefit 2 — Case management can manage deadlines

• When using the case manager to track and record calls, the user can create a follow up reminder for the business discussed during the call.
• Convert to-dos into appointments by the “drag and drop” function. This ability to carry to-dos and use them to block off time in the calendar allows the user to quickly take their priority items and create time in their calendar to get them done.

Benefit 3 — Case management can do some of the work

• Case management systems will generate documents using the information in the contact database.These systems can time these tasks automatically create a time and billing entry.
• When a contact’s information changes, make the update once and—since all contacts are in a common database—this update is immediately reflected on all files involving this person.

Benefit 4 — Case management ensures that the user NEVER forgets to return a telephone call or e-mail

• All case and contact managers will keep a record of calls. These software programs will allow the user to create a time and billing entry and a reminder from a logged call. New telephone messages automatically appear in the Unreturned Calls tab. This tab contains the caller's information and details whether or not the call is urgent.
• Retrieving a list of all calls, all messages, and all e-mails for a particular client or for a particular day can be done directly from the desktop.
• All phone messages remain under the unreturned calls tab until the user clicks “Returned.” In this way, a phone message is never missed or lost.

Benefit 5 — Case management makes it easy to keep track of the entire firm’s billable time

• Case managers can track and log time. This makes the task of keeping and logging billable time effortless. Studies have shown that people who track their time at the same time with completing tasks can log 20% more time than those who log their time at the end of each day.These systems will prompt the user to do a time and billing entry whenever a task is completed—such as making a telephone call or completing a “to-do.”
• Time sheet statistics can show how close the firm is coming to their targets for billable hours per day, per week, per month, and per year. This statistical analysis is not available in all case management systems; however, Amicus Attorney offers this feature allowing the law office to keep on top of billable goals—and those of the individual associates as well.
• A case management system that records time will export time directly into various accounting systems, which eliminates the need to enter client information twice.
• The user can determine to be notified if the total billable time on a file hits a certain number.

Conclusion

Case management software offers the user the ability to work from anywhere and customize it to fit their professional needs. The calendar can organize an entire day, week, or year allowing deadlines to be met. Automatically performing the time and billing entries while work is being completed can save a law office a significant amount of time. Having and using case management software properly will help the law office avoid malpractice claims and conflicts by notifying a lawyer to keep in contact with a client or search the contacts list to determine if there is a conflict regarding a new potential client.

References

Bilinsky, D. (2002, April). 25 Benefits of Case Management in 40 minutes. Retrieved February 11, 2008, from The Law Society of British Columbia: www.lawsociety.bc.ca/practice_support/articles/CaseMgmt.html

Notes