Legal Case Management in the Digital Age

Effective legal case management can have a major impact on a firm’s efficiency, productivity and, as a result, their profitability.

This is especially true considering that a single dispute can take years from initial assessment to resolution. This often results in thousands of case documents, multiplied by all the clients that a firm represents at any given time.

Time spent on non-billable administrative tasks quickly adds up, leading to lost revenue and other potential issues.

As in many businesses, how law firms manage their cases has evolved in recent years. This relates to both general efficiency as well as adapting to the technological expectations of clients, employees, and the marketplace in general.

These goals often go hand in hand as firms take steps to digitally transform and optimise their internal operations and client-facing service delivery. Any digital transformation project, investment in automation, or other business management technology initiative will only be as successful as the firm’s approach in driving it forward.

Most firms understand the need to establish effective case management practices and strategies guided by those in leadership. But not all firms have staff and CTOs dedicated to promoting technology-focused goals and integrating those with broader management aims.

The right legal case management strategies, coupled with adopting the right technology solutions, enable litigators and their teams to increase efficiency and productivity.

This, in turn, will help litigators optimise how they manage their firms holistically, maximising their long-term profitability and scalability.

 

Table of Contents 

1.     What Does Efficiency Mean for Law Practices?
2.     More Productive Legal Case Management Steps
3.     Litigation Software to Optimise Legal Case Management

 

What Does Efficiency Mean for Law Practices?

Law firms rely on billable work to maintain profitability, and to stay sustainable and scalable.

Yet many firms report struggling to manage the time spent on non-billable administrative tasks. A Reuters survey found that 83% of firms reported reducing time spent on administrative tasks to be a moderate challenge.

When it comes to legal case management, efficiency means that the time spent managing case documents and details doesn’t result in an excess of unbillable hours. An efficient law firm can offer more quality billable work that clients feel satisfied paying for, without litigators feeling the need to offer more for less.

Efficient management practises offer several other important advantages, including:

•       Fewer mistakes – Inefficient case management can lead to missed details and mistakes that require staff to correct errors that can be costly and damage a firm’s reputation with clients and the legal community. Reducing these mistakes saves time and money and ensures you’re offering high-quality legal work.

 

•       Productive fee-earners – It’s unlikely that your team wants to spend time sifting through duplicate case documents or digging to locate relevant case details that are often difficult and time-consuming to piece together. Staff who spend less time on repetitive tasks like these – and more time on the most important aspects of their work – will be more productive and have a more meaningful work experience.

 

•       Better client relationships – Less time spent on repetitive, non-billable work means more time to communicate with clients and build better relationships. Clients who feel informed and that their concerns are addressed will be more likely to give word-of-mouth recommendations, help build your firm’s reputation, and come back to you for future legal needs.

 

More Productive Legal Case Management Steps

Achieving more efficient and productive work can look different for each firm, based on their size, management systems, workflows, and internal metrics.

A few common elements of success can help any firm of any size improve their legal case management practices. Here are a few considerations every litigator should keep in mind.

 

Strong Communication

Stronger communication doesn’t necessarily mean being able to respond more frequently—as having to handle more callbacks and email responses throughout the day can make your workflow less efficient. Rather, strong communication for law firms often translates to more effective communication. Clarity, specificity, and accessibility regarding case details all play a role in achieving this goal.

The ability to strategise with staff by keying in on critical details, and then relaying those details to clients, can lead to less back-and-forth communication due to misunderstandings, mistakes, or vague messaging. Making the most important information accessible at the right time adds transparency and reduces confusion between legal teams and their clients.

 

Company Culture

Legal case management management comes down to people management. After all, your employees are the ones who ensure your firm performs optimally for clients day in and day out. When your staff thinks of company culture, do they feel they’re being tasked with quality work that is fulfilling and important? Or are they burdened by unnecessary and repetitive jobs that detract from the value of their position, such as endlessly navigating an ineffective document management system, using inefficient, time-consuming methods of communication with clients, and hitting roadblocks from disjointed workflows while trying to collaborate with other team members?

Implementing the right legal case management software can automate much of the process of storing, accessing, and reviewing case information. This vastly reduces the time employees spend on repetitive tasks and increase precision and productivity. It can be equally beneficial to invest in the needs and desires of your employees, to make them feel like a meaningful part of your company’s culture. This can mean encouraging creative thinking, more collaboration, technology training, and a focus on employee wellbeing. Your team will feel more valued and engaged with the nuanced and focused approach of case management software.

 

Making Data Work for You

Transitioning to new systems of automation can help boost productivity, profits, client satisfaction, and getting the most out of your employees. Yet to maximise these outcomes, it’s important to leverage data so you can identify what’s working and what isn’t. AI-driven automation software can help law practices use analytical data to manage outcomes, address inefficiencies, and set effective benchmarks.

But what exactly is automation software, and how does it fit into your case management strategy?

 

Litigation Software to Optimise Legal Case Management

Investing in litigation software can be an important step in automating your law firm’s case management workflows and getting the most value out of your team. Litigation software automates and streamlines many repetitive case management tasks, using powerful AI-driven technology to instantly store, organise, access, and share key information about a dispute, eliminating duplicates and identifying critical facts, issues, actors, pleadings, and evidence to piece together critical case chronologies.

LitiGate offers litigation software that can help litigators build efficient, productive, consistent legal case management practises that translate to positive outcomes, such as:

•       Happier clients: LitiGate lets your firm offer more transparency and more meaningful and precise communication about a dispute, enabling you to have a conversation within the software regarding any element of a case, even down to the sentence level. This in turn will allow clients to feel valued and more likely to provide positive reviews and word-of-mouth recommendations.

 

•       Getting the most out of your team: Less time spent on menial, repetitive tasks that can be streamlined by LitiGate’s case management software means staff can focus on tasks that are the most productive and meaningful. LitiGate’s ability to automatically organise, sort, and manage case data also helps legal teams consistently find the exact information they need, so they never miss a detail or a deadline.

 

•       Improving your bottom line: Litigators rely on being able to maximise billable hours and minimise time spent on non-billable administrative work. Getting the most out of staff and spending less time on repetitive manual tasks by using LitiGate can lead to more profitability and cost savings.

 

•       Top Level Security and Compliance: Firms must stay compliant with current legal guidelines and protect their clients’ sensitive personal data. LitiGate offers secure centralised storage of this data. Safely share documents with key parties without worrying about data breaches or issues with legal compliance.

 

•       Target inefficiencies and improve outcomes: AI-driven litigation software like LitiGate gives you an overview of all critical elements of a dispute. Firms can use tags to map relevant issues throughout a case, as well as track the review process to plan their next steps based on individual key data points. Use analytical data to determine the overall effectiveness of your management practices and highlight steps to improve and reach internal goals and grow your firm.

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LitiGate is the leading litigation platform for disputes and investigations teams with hundreds of lawyers using the platform across the globe, from small regional firms to ‘Global Top 100’ law firms. LitiGate’s consolidated platform is enhanced by its advanced machine learning technology, assisting lawyers across practice areas and throughout all the pivotal stages of the case. Request a free demo of LitiGate software, or contact us at hello@litigate.ai.