Volume 19, Number 4
June 2002
SOFTWARE
Case Management Systems: Helping Hands
By Ross L. Kodner
Case management systems literally can transform the most disorganized law practice into a super-efficient legal services delivery engine. Firms that effectively implement case management software systems consistently report higher profitability, increased client satisfaction with status-related inquiries, reduced stress, and increased quality of law practice life. People who are suspicious of case management products loudly proclaim them to be a waste of both money and work. The difference often depends on how such a program is integrated into a firm's existing systems. Several factors contribute to successful case management rollouts in any size practice.
Explain the Product
One important fact about successful integration is that the
introduction does not start after you've chosen a specific
product. Before you talk about software, you should spend time
educating everyone in the firm about what exactly case management
programs are, what they do, and how they can improve both
workflow and work practices.
Case management programs are literally the "kitchen sinks" of the
legal software world; you can enter almost any data and track its
flow through the firm and trial process. The information can
range from obscure references you pull up once a year to party
contact info for counsel, courts, experts and witnesses; fact
patterns and issues; case strategies; docketing and tickler
systems; and to-do list managers. Conflict of interest searches
can be done with just a few mouse clicks, and e-mails and all
documents related to your cases can be centralized. And it's all
portable-whether on a laptop, Palm or Pocket PC, or linked
between the main office and branch offices or your home computer.
All the information stored and tracked by the case management
system can be accessed from anywhere at any time. Who wouldn't
want these kinds of capabilities available in their
practice?
You also should prepare for an inevitable question: "Isn't the
Outlook (GroupWise/Notes) program we already have good enough?"
That's like saying, "We have a 40-year-old Radio Flyer wagon with
three wheels and a broken handle-can't we use it as our company
car?"
Specifically, opting for a "generic" personal information
management system like Microsoft Outlook or Novell GroupWise
instead of a modern case manager like Time Matters, Case Master,
(recently updated to PracticeMaster), or Amicus Attorney will
affect office capabilities in the following ways:
o Case calendaring v. people calendaring. Outlook and most
PIM-like (Personal Information Manager) systems easily calendar
dates by individual people. But, unlike case managers, they are
not set up to track multiple people on a case who need to see a
"case calendar" to set up future appointments. Huge amounts of
time can be wasted as people consult multiple calendars, jump
back and forth, and duplicate tasks. Using a program like Time
Matters, on the other hand, lets you get a case calendar view at
any time.
o Case information tracking. Outlook doesn't track much; legal
case managers, on the other hand, track enormous amounts of
information, from contacts for counsel, courts, and insurance
companies to facts of the case, to-do lists with
impossible-to-ignore "alerts" (malpractice carriers love this!),
and date-chaining capabilities that permit a series of related
events to be tied together and automatically counted and posted.
Another blessing is that the entire chain can be rescheduled with
one move if the trial gets bumped! And all this information is
easily searchable, printable, Palm-able, etc.
o Document management. I believe most firms are better off with
designated document management products, but case management
capabilities allow you to attach documents to cases and launch
them while looking at-and thinking about-the case you're
currently working on. Such capability doesn't exist with generic
personal information managers.
o Conflicts checking. Legal case managers contain an incredibly
powerful text search that scours every scrap of case information
in your system, down to the level of individual time-slip
entries. Generic personal information managers don't do conflicts
searches.
o Integration with billing systems. Programs like TABS, PCLaw
Jr., Time-slips, and QuickBooks Pro, to name just a few, are
useful for passing client/matter information back and forth and
also for passing time entries from the case manager to the
billing system. Typically, a few months of captured time that
otherwise would have fallen between the cracks will pay for the
entire case management implementation. Generic managers cannot
provide this.
o Easy integration with current word processor. Integration of
address/contact info into WordPerfect or Word documents is a snap
with case managers. (I suspect it might be possible using
Outlook/WordPerfect with VBA programming, but VBA opens computers
to serious macro-virus threats.)
o Document assembly/Building "smart documents." The mass of
information stored and tracked by a legal case manager makes it
the perfect source for assembling routinized documents. You can
integrate with Word or WordPerfect, with or without HotDocs. Not
using such an easily available system is-to me-completely
unfathomable for routine documents where little content changes
other than client or counsel names, captions, etc.
o The timeline/chronology function. In Time Matters, for example,
this shows the progress of work on a case and lets you see a
pattern or chain of case events, which is incredibly useful, as
is CaseSoft's TimeMap.
o Synchronizing with laptop/remote systems. Using Time Matters
and Amicus Attorney, for example, to send files to a branch
office PC, a mobile lawyer's laptop, or a partner's home via
plain ole e-mail is easy and-most importantly-reliable.
Encourage Participation
The next step is to get everyone-and I do mean everyone-to buy
into the case management concept. An easy way to do this is to
develop consensus on the "team reasons" for implementing the new
system-the "what's in it for me?" angle. Hold staff meetings in
which technology or other department heads anticipate and answer
the most important questions and clearly demonstrate the personal
benefits of case management software to every employee of the
firm. Focusing on the benefits for each department or person will
likely gain the "buy-in" you seek.
For example, partners and managing partners can make more money
(by getting more work done and also avoiding malpractice
claims-case managers make it really difficult to miss deadlines
and make it easier to keep clients apprised of case statuses).
Associates and paralegals can respond to work assignments more
quickly, which makes them-and you-look good. And firm
administrators can track otherwise disparate information such as
equipment leases and depreciation schedules, staff vacation time
and other human resource information, legal research
subscriptions, and equipment maintenance.
The more you can relate the benefits of case management software
directly to improved job performance, the more you will help your
colleagues appreciate the extra work that learning such a system
will entail (sure to be the primary concern of many!). More on
this topic later.
Decide on a Product
For most law practices, it is neither economical nor practical to
make this decision without outside assistance. Representing
yourself "pro se" here is akin to a client's deciding to handle a
corporate merger on its own-an expensive disaster! Fortunately,
many qualified case management experts and resources are
available to assist in this process. A directory of the
continent's most capable legal technology consultants is
available online at www.lawcommerce.com/t3, the website of
LawCommerce.
If you already have a specific case manager in mind, visit its
website; the major companies generally have a roster of qualified
and/or certified consultants who can assist with planning,
customizing, and deploying their software. If you want completely
independent guidance, be sure the consultant is certified.
Books, periodicals, and legal technology CLE conferences also are
great sources of information. One of the leading publications on
the topic of legal case management is Andrew Adkins' book
Computerized Case Management Systems: Choosing and
Implementing the Right Software for You, available from
www.abanet.org/lpm/catalog/511-0409.html. Law Office Computing
magazine also features a major case management review article in
each December/January issue.
The most helpful piece of advice you can follow is don't skimp!
The cost of acquiring the software may seem like the tip of an
iceberg, but a large portion of the cost of implementing a case
management program takes place after you've bought the software.
Get outside help from the start, and ensure your peace of
mind.
"Plan" is Not a Four-Letter Word!
The key to case management success is acknowledging that such a
project is similar to managing a complex litigated case for one
of your clients-a multi-step process, spread over a period of
time, with coordinated efforts from everyone in the practice.
Nothing is more important to this project's success than
planning.
Start the planning by appointing a case management SWAT Team. Be
sure they represent a variety of perspectives: a partner (in a
larger firm, possibly one from each practice department); an
associate (who handles different aspects of cases than partners);
the administrator; the head of the technology committee (you do
have a technology committee, don't you?); and a paralegal and
legal assistant from each practice group. And, of course, your
consultant.
The first task of the team is to plot the timeline of the entire
process. Use your consultant for experienced estimates. Allow at
least 30 days to arrive at the plan for configuring and rolling
out your new case manager-you'll need the time if you are
correctly soliciting diverse input.
Document the Flow
Before configuring a new case manager, document the "flow" of
your practice. For most firms, this exercise in and of itself
will have significant long-term value.
Documenting the office work flow means writing out checklists
that detail all procedures, from case intake and file opening to
file closing and archiving. Trace a test case step by step,
documenting everything done, who does it and when, and then let
it sink in. The SWAT team should study and critique every step of
this flow chart, using an LCD projector if possible: Why do we do
it this way? Does it work? Can we eliminate that step? The goal
is to simplify the processes to better, faster, cheaper . . .
eliminating the stress and aggravation that result from outmoded
or inefficient methods.
Once you have reviewed and streamlined current procedures, you
can begin to translate these processes into automated form using
the case management software. The implementation team should be
the training guinea pigs, learning the software in order to
determine the best configurations, develop a comprehensive
training plan, and decide when to activate advanced capabilities
like document assembly systems.
Customize! Customize! Customize!
Case managers like TimeMatters, Amicus, ProLaw, Case Master, and
others are chameleon-like programs that can adapt to any area of
law practice yet perform as if they were custom-made to fit that
particular area.
Today's case managers are easily customized: stretched, molded,
and modified to fit your work flow and your practice needs.
Customizing can include adding to or modifying common screens to
detail subject matter, contact/addresses, and conflict of
interest information on adverse parties.
Can customization be done later, after the firm has tried out the
software for awhile? Certainly. But successful implementations
usually anticipate specifics in advance, so the new software fits
like a glove the first time you try it. This leaves everyone in
the practice with a positive impression from the start of
hands-on implementation.
Training
Most software in the average law practice is installed and then
learned. Case management systems require the opposite
approach.
It's important to emphasize and reemphasize that case managers
mean more streamlined information entry and less upfront work.
Information centralized in a location accessible by everyone on
the network means no more turning the office upside down to find
the right form. Legal-specific case managers can significantly
reduce overall stress levels and contribute to a more positive
office environment.
The consultant can provide all employees with a detailed overview
of the program and explain the levels of customization available.
Several systems can be installed as a "demo" or "tutorial" that
allows the planners to work through the key functions of the
program using canned demonstration data files. This is another
area where skimping will backfire: Allow all users ample time not
only to learn the basics of the system but also to become
comfortable using them, so they're not having to reinvent the
wheel every morning at startup time.
Ross L. Kodner is president of MicroLaw,
Inc., a national legal technology consultancy based in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin. He is a member of the editorial board of GPSolo's
Technology & Practice Guide and a prolific speaker and author
on legal technology topics. He can be reached at
rkodner@microlaw.com.
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
You can find out more about the services and products mentioned in this article by checking out the following resources:
Time Matters: www.timematters.com
Abacus: www.abacuslaw.com
Amicus: www.amicus.com
Case Master/PracticeMaster:www.stilegal.com
CaseMap: www.casesoft.com
Law Office Computing:www.lawofficecomputing.com
Law Commerce: www.lawcommerce.com
ABA TECHSHOW: www.techshow.com
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