iCase management
Case management systems: driving efficiencies
Lawyers enjoy the benefits of a range of technology, with case management systems (CMS) signifying, perhaps, the pinnacle of facilitating an efficient legal practice. Nicola Laver reports.
About the author
Nicola Laver is a legal journalist and writer, and a former solicitor.
A utomating the administration of case management in law firms, legal CMS is a computer application that supports the creation and modification of digital content using a common user interface, and usually supports multiple users working in a collaborative environment. CMS helps lawyers to manage their cases more eÿciently and effectively, and is therefore critical to increasing firms’ profit margins successfully in what is an increasingly competitive legal marketplace.
CMS actually dates back to the 1980s, but it is only in recent years that such systems have really come into their own. Regulatory changes, such as the Jackson reforms and the move towards outcomes focused regulation (OFR) - all against the background of a competitive legal landscape - has driven law firms to chase efficiencies as far as they can, and it is technology that has put automation in the driving seat.
A recent Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) report, IT and innovation, states:*
As law firms seek to innovate, they are increasingly seeking out the technology that will help them to make the changes they want to deliver. Over half of firms responding to one survey stated they wanted new technologies to support mobile working. This is reflected in firms’ priorities – a quarter said they wanted better case management systems and many were looking to move information to the cloud.
In its report, the SRA states: ‘An innovative legal sector is essential for delivering the efficient , affordable services the public needs.’ Compared with automation, manual case management processes are costly, cumbersome, time consuming and allow greater risk of human error. The benefits of CMS are, therefore, clear (and what firm today does not use CMS?) : it means shared information, ready access to client information, cost eÿciencies and, critically, freeing up fee-earner time to concentrate on billable work.
Legal Workflow has developed CMS for practice areas ranging from conveyancing and probate, and personal injury, to employment and commercial property - and others besides. All its CMS workflows can be tailored to firms’ requirements and style. Martin Langan, founder and IT consultant at Legal Workflow, says that, as a bare minimum, firms should be using case management wherever possible because clients increasingly expect online services and varieties of electronic communication and commercial business - and this is not always provided for as well as it might by software vendors.
However, he adds that ‘eÿciencies are gained only through really making the systems work, and designing, customising and growing them so that they do the job you need them to do, and not just the basics that they will mostly do out of the box’ . He says that this takes time, investment and commitment, and also needs continuous development so that the product does not become a white elephant.
Martin Langan points out that Workflow technology can be used not just for client work (as he witnessed in assisting a mid-sized firm obtain international organization for standardization accreditation with not a single non-compliance , through driving processes via workflows to achieve 100% compliant processes every time). He says: ‘Such consistency enables effective training on the job too.’
Redbrick Solutions was the first case management provider to achieve the Legal Eye Quality Standard. Its CMS includes automatic updates by text and e-mail , 24/7 online tracking, and a ‘pay-per-case’ business model. Conveyancing firm Marcus Baum illustrates the huge difference an effective CMS can make to a practice, recently crediting Redbrick Solutions CMS for its instruction levels soaring by a huge 105% in the past four years. The firm says that it achieved a very quick return on its investment.
There is an array of CMS providers, with some best suited to small firms and others to large firms. The UK’s market leading CMS provider, Eclipse, is used by more than 23,000 professionals across various sectors, including law firms of all sizes and practice areas. Eclipse’s Proclaim is the only Law Society-endorsed system of its type, and can go on a firm’s own infrastructure or in the cloud.
Hoowla is used by firms undertaking conveyancing, family law, and wills and probate, as well as general litigation and crime. Its expertise is in conveyancing software, particularly and, in June 2016, Hoowla announced its partnership with leading conveyancing search provider PSG. Hoowla’s key elements include document management, and it enables firms to design their own workflows and offers options to upload scanned documents into any case; land registry integration; automatic completion of Law Society forms; and electronic payment collection and more.
A personal injury example is Advanced Legal, which offers CMS for personal injury lawyers. It provides full profiles of each case, and facilitates swift and eÿcient navigation of the system to help improve performance and decision-making . It also features quick links to various functions, including a road traÿc accident claims portal.
Martin Langan, a solicitor who founded Legal Workflow, recounts his experience since the pre-CMS days
I started in the legal department of the former Greater London Council (GLC), when they still had manual typewriters with ribbons and lots of Tippex! Some solicitors there still had secretaries, who would take shorthand dictation, while most mortals wrote letters and drafted documents in manuscript and sent them to the typing pool for transcription. We then moved onto Dictaphones, and I recall the first batch of Wang word processors arriving at the offices and replacing the electric typewriters used in the typing pool. When fax machines were installed, they were rather bulky objects, so someone had the bright idea of putting them in the basement at County Hall. Unfortunately, not many people traipsed down to the dank, dripping dungeons, so urgent communications often languished unloved and certainly unread.
Towards the end of my time at the GLC, in the mid-1980 s, things were starting to change. But case management was an unknown quantity to me, until a sea change in the Civil Procedure Rules in 1999 brought about a need to look at systemising the way we did our work. I taught myself the rudiments of writing workflows and templates, and this opened my eyes to the possibilities.
Fast forward 18 years and the majority of firms use some kind of case management, even if reserved for predictable work, such as conveyancing and probate. In all my years working in the law and with technology, the biggest challenge for getting the most out of IT is not the technology, but the cultural shift that is required for many people to accept that case management is not dumbing down, but is a tool to free a lawyer from the mundane and release their skills and experience to be put to the best use that they have been trained for.
So, how are firms and Chartered Legal Executives utilising CMS to their - and their clients’ - best advantage, and how are CMS providers helping firms?
Matthew Roach, Chartered Legal Executive at Anthony Collins, says that CMS comes with many benefits: ‘For highvolume , transactional work, such as residential conveyancing and development plot sales, case management means less experienced or junior fee earners can more easily be integrated to work as part of a larger process under the supervision of a qualified lawyer.’ He says that this has obvious benefits for the firm in terms of staÿng costs and efficiencies , and equally the benefits to the client are both financial and tangible. He adds: ‘Lower hourly rates should translate to lower fees, and a good CMS, operated in the right way, should lead to a smoother process for the client.’
However, Matthew Roach makes clear that CMS has its limitations, and warns that case management systems which are not run in the correct way, with fee earners without the right level of experience and supervision, will inevitably lead to a frustrating experience for the client. He comments: ‘The importance of maintaining high levels of client care, and good communication and interpersonal skills, should not be lost when operating a CMS. CMS does not work for lower-volume , larger transactions as there tend to be too many subtleties and differences on a case-by-case basis to make CMS workable.’
Matthew Roach believes that it is crucial that client relationships should be carefully managed: ‘CMS systems where there is no continuity for the client (in terms of who they speak to on their matter) can make for a frustrating experience for conveyancers and clients alike. The efficiency benefits brought by CMS systems can be enjoyed by firms without the need to completely dehumanise the conveyancing process for the client, and this should be borne in mind: there is a balance to be struck between costs savings and client care.’
For firms choosing the right CMS, proper research and due diligence are critical. CMS must, of course, be compliant with all the regulatory requirements: systems must enable firms to adhere to outcomes-focused regulation, and risk and compliance requirements.
Martin Langan says: ‘First and foremost, ask yourselves what you want the CMS for and, most importantly, be honest with yourselves and ask whether you will use it to its full capability when you get it. Sometimes, firms think that a CMS will be a panacea, without fully considering these questions. A firm will have many different personalities in key positions and not everyone will have the same outlook. Once you get beyond that, devise checklists for the key features you want and have everyone in the decision-making process score the results against each supplier. You may need advice on the content of the scoresheets, because you don’t know what you don’t know.
‘Be alive, in particular, to open databases that allow you to integrate any software and web services that you want to use, and not just those that the CMS provider has written integration software for. How easy will it be to import online data into the system, and export it out again to other web services?’
Once the screening process has been completed, you should issue an invitation to tender (for which, he says, you will need to take advice).
Once CMS is in place, Martin Langan offers invaluable tips for the effective use of CMS, which will form a great platform for firms to build on this functionality as their appetite for case management grows:
- Creation of workflows within practice database and case applications for the opening of new clients and matters, guiding the user through compliance, marketing data capture, etc.
- Case applications for every legal discipline, including those for which you have not purchased an off-the-shelf package from your supplier. Additional case applications should start with the items below, plus templates for communicating with everyone who could be involved with the case, along with attendance and telephone attendance notes, etc. The idea is to ensure that all work can be undertaken within case management, with its document management, time-recording and diary systems.
- Client-care procedures in each case application to be tailored to meet your firm’s requirements.
- Billing policy compliance procedures, for example, to ensure that money is taken on account where appropriate, etc.
- Client ID and money-laundering procedures to be stitched into case applications and systems to be set up to ensure that all records are stored and tested against centrally. (Integration with electronic client identification products is a good idea.)
- Client and matter risk assessment procedures to comply with customer due diligence requirements at the start of a business relationship and at subsequent intervals, where appropriate.
- File-closure procedures in each case application, for example, to ensure that money and property is returned to the client, file storage information is given, the file is properly archived, etc.
- Matter risk management in key areas through use of the diary, for example, to ensure that important dates, such as limitation, stamp duty, and so on, are not missed.
- Use of online billing for automated production and authorisation of bills.
- Forms integration in each case application to enable as much of each form as possible to be populated automatically from data already entered on the system.
Lawyers should resist ever considering that CMS is a panacea for inefficiencies . As Matthew Roach says: ‘CMS does not replace the need for good, experienced lawyers; it helps streamline processes, but cannot provide answers to complex legal questions. It is crucial to ensure adequate levels of supervision are provided when operating such a system.’
What is clear is that implementing an effective CMS can make all the difference between a thriving, increasingly profitable practice - and one that struggles to maintain an efficient practice.