LAW PRACTICE TIPS

The Case for Case Management Software

By Jim Calloway, Director
OBA Management Assistance Program

January brings the start of a new year and time to both reflect on the year past and plan for the year ahead. For writers, January is a good time to make predictions or to compile lists of the significant events of the previous year. None of us need any help remembering the big events of 2001. Whatever else may be said about the past pivotal year, it was clear that it was nothing like any of us imagined and nothing like the 2001 movie.

Predictions and prognostications for the upcoming year are another tried and true topic, along with grading the results of the prior year’s predictions. Kansas City, Mo. lawyer Dennis Kennedy does a fine job with his legal technology predictions each year and invited several of us to serve as guest panelists for that article. So if you want to read some predictions, this article is online at the Law Library Resource Xchange website at http://www.llrx.com/features/techtrends2002.htm.

Resolutions are popular this time of year. Resolutions and strategic planning for the law office operations are always in season.

Rather than creating a list of some resolutions for the year ahead, we are going to focus on one area where a lot of Oklahoma lawyers still need to make decisions. This area is case management software (CMS). Some of you may have heard some of this from me and other presenters before at our Solo and Small Firm Conference or at your local county bar meeting.

Case Management Software - It’s Not Just for Computer Geeks

It’s hard to nail down a number as to how many lawyers presently use case management software. The Legal Technology Institute of the University of Florida Levin College of Law did a comprehensive survey for a study in January 2001 which indicated that 27 percent used CMS. Another source in the industry told me that the number is more like 40 percent. Some of these surveys show many large firms still do not use CMS; however, you have to believe that most all of the very large firms use case management software even if they developed custom software in-house.

Whatever the exact number, this means a whole lot of you reading this column are not using case management software. Keep reading for a special offer for OBA members. While I recognize that many of you have very good paper systems and have used them for a long time, the slowness to embrace "law office software" is somewhat surprising. After all, how many mechanics and auto dealers and bakeries do you think avoid the use of the software made for their industry and still rely on paper systems? Not many I’d guess. I see keyboards and monitors just about everywhere I go whether it is paying the bill in the restaurant or buying an extra stereo cable at Radio Shack.1

While it is hoped this discussion will be useful to any lawyer, these comments will be directed to products directed to the medium and smaller law firms markets.

Why do I need Case Management Software?

It is the digital age. Information in digital format is more valuable to you. You can quickly access what you need. You can copy information into an e-mail or document. You can manipulate it and analyze it. You can do keyword searches. You can synchronize it with your personal digital assistant and carry it around in your pocket. You can burn everything in the file onto a CD-ROM to take to court. You can avoid paying your staff to constantly re-type the same information over and over again.

Is looking for a lost file a frequent exercise in your law office? Should you bill clients for that wasted time? Files generally get lost when someone grabs them to look up one bit of information – an address, a phone number, a case number or a witness name. With CMS, the paper files spend more time in the file drawer while several people can access the digital information on the same file at one time over your network.2

Most of the most popular CMS packages will keep track of your time that you bill. It is one of the greatest features that improves law office efficiency. You type in the billing description and the client name and matter are inserted automatically. Some products even have timers that you can run while you work on a project and will insert the precise time into the billing entry when you finish.

This is a great boon because it is done right the first time. No one has to translate a lawyer’s hurried handwriting and no one has to carefully proof the individual entries for typos. Even a lawyer with limited typing ability can peck out descriptions of the tasks as they are completed on a virtual time sheet.

The good news is that you don’t have to believe me about this. Ask around in your local community or at your next county bar meeting. You will probably find a lawyer you know who has implemented CMS. They will probably tell you that they do not yet have it doing everything that they think it can do, but they will also probably tell you that they would never go back to a law office without CMS.

What Is Case Management Software?

Essentially, case management software consists of a database that is designed for lawyers and law firm staff to easily use to manage all of your office information. It should either replace or be used to generate many of the paper tracking systems you now utilize.

In an ideal world, CMS would encompass all of the information you use in your office and help you perform all of your daily tasks. You should look to your computer to determine anything you need to know about a case instead of looking to the paper file for one bit of information, the card file on your desk for another and your pocket calendar for a different one. Why wouldn’t any of us wish to embark on this road if the end result is one piece of software that does everything for us?

The first road block to this Nirvana is that no products cheaply do everything for a law office – in fact no products for the small firm market even attempt to do that. Computers are pervasive and their uses are varied. What’s the main reason that law firms were early adaptors of computers? Word processing, of course. We take the present for granted now, but in years past legal secretaries used to spend a lot of time retyping pages that had already been typed to make a change or add something new. Whether you are a true believer in Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect, you have to agree that the latest word processing software packages are powerful tools. No CMS company would hope to duplicate a word processing program starting from scratch. These products have been refined and improved over many years.

So one aspect of good case management software is that it has to interact with your word processor.

There has to be a way to take, for example, the name and address information from your CMS and import it into the letter to the client. Importing and sharing data between software programs is one of the difficulties in implementing a CMS system. It does not just involve word processing programs either. There are other programs that have to be involved.

Earlier we outlined the fact that billing information is truly best input into the system directly by the lawyer rather than using the old paper time sheets. But most of the popularly priced products do not have the capability to produce billing statements. So you have to export the billing information to another program. This is where a lot of lawyers seem to lose steam on the project. Learning that you need more than one product and have to configure them to work together seems daunting. Of course you probably don’t have to buy two products. Most law firms already have time and billing software.

It is true that implementation of a CMS product is not an easy road. You have to carefully shop for the features you want. Then you have to integrate it with other systems. Then you have to train everyone on how to use it.

There are many Reasons to Put Off Buying CMS

The old "If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it" comes to mind. And it is true that most law offices run relatively well whatever systems they are using. Of course, there is always room to do better. For those of you out there who know that all of your matters are entered in your computer system, you know that you sleep better at night and work more efficiently during the day.

Another reason has to be time. Everyone seems to be a bit more time challenged these days and lawyers are no exception. Public misconceptions abound, but the lawyers I know work hard and work long hours. So, if a lawyer has worked several late nights in a row and has a pile of things that have to be done before the end of the next day, long range planning takes a back seat. It is no wonder many lawyers are daunted by the prospect of embarking on a big project of reviewing the options, deciding which product to purchase, determining where to buy it, spending the money, getting it installed, learning how to use it and so forth on "mission critical" law office operations.

Cost is always a big concern. But often it seems that there is more resistance to the expense of retraining and the time commitment involved. Some techno-phobic lawyers may doubt their ability to master a complex new software program and wish to stick with the system that they understand. Training is sometimes hard to come by for legal specific software programs.

Selecting a CMS program presents challenges as well. A recent article suggested that there may be close to 100 products claiming to be some flavor of CMS. Many of the products are either very specialized or not ones you would want to use. Some law firms developed CMS internally. (They are just specialized databases after all.) They then decided to try and recoup some of that investment by marketing their creation to other law firms. Some of these products may be very useful. But one has to be concerned about issues like customer support and future upgrades in that scenario. We tell lawyers that the safest course of action is to stick with a well-established product.

Fear and Loathing in the Law Office

So we’ve outlined your numerous reasons to delay or avoid case management software- uncertainty of which product to use, training, integration with other products, inertia, time commitment, techno-phobic lawyers and the expense.

But do not fear the purchase and installation of case management software. The end result of installing CMS is positive. While you may not feel that you have been dramatically penalized by the lack of CMS so far, that time could lie ahead.

The American Bar Association estimates that there are 1,048,903 lawyers in the United States, up from approximately 858,000 in 1995 and approximately 350,000 lawyers in 1970. With a population estimate in the United States of approximately 285,000,000, this translates to having one lawyer for every 272 persons now versus one lawyer for every 572 persons in the U.S. in 1970. This includes adults and children. Although not all of these lawyers are engaged in private practice (approximately two-thirds are), this rate of increase in the number of lawyers is dramatic.

Now compare the increasing number of lawyers with the gross domestic product of legal services.

Source: -Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2000

The conclusion is that we have more lawyers pursuing fewer dollars, at least when the dollars are adjusted for inflation.

We have all heard the old aphorism equating statistics to lies. In truth, the situation may not be quite as sobering as these statistics suggest. Anecdotal evidence suggests that many who hold a law degree and a license to practice law are, in fact, involved in other endeavors in other sectors of the economy.

But as participants in a sector of the economy that appears to be increasingly more competitive, it appears that lawyers who wish to remain in practice and enjoy the same or greater income need to get more efficient. "Law office software" is the path to do this if you do not already use it and learning to use your software better should be a goal if you do have it.

Unfortunately, I really haven’t reviewed all of the CMS products recently and don’t have a month to donate myself to "test drive" the latest version. But we can mention some brand names to give you a starting place. An omission here does not mean that it is not a great product.

For the large law firm market, it seems to be a two horse race for market share with Elite (www.elite.com) in front by two to one over CMS Open (www.cmsopen.com). I also know of some firms using Juris (www.juris.com). Other companies include ASA (www.asalegal.com), and Rippe and Kingston (www.legal.rippe.com). ProLaw is starting to make a move and we will discuss it a bit more, even though it is not a product for the small firm at this point.

The above products are generally only applicable to the largest Oklahoma law firms. There are exceptions and some smaller firms do use these, particularly where the lawyers have come from a larger firm that used the system.

We will mention five of the most popular products for the smaller firms and direct you to you their websites for more comprehensive information.

Amicus Attorney – www.amicusattorney.com – You can order a free evaluation CD-ROM from their Web site of Amicus Attorney V. This product has always showcased its friendly graphical user interface. The files look like folders and the time sheets look like time sheets. This sounds inconsequential but actually saves a lot of time in training. There are three versions of Amicus: the Client/Server Edition, the network version for up to 500 users; the Advanced Edition, the network version for up to 29 users; and the Organizer Edition, a workstation version for solos.

Time Matters – www.timematters.com –Time Matters has won the 2001 Law Office Computing Reader’s Choice Award for Favorite Case Management System. Veteran users of this package like the way you can customize the ways you view your data. Time Matters Software is available in four Editions: Personal, Professional, Enterprise and World Edition. The Web site has demonstration videos. They do not have true evaluation CD-ROMs, instead Time Matters first-time purchases and first upgrades per version come with a full 90-day money back satisfaction guarantee.

AbacusLaw – www.abacuslaw.com – AbacusLaw has been around since 1983. This program has little penetration in the Oklahoma market, but remains fairly popular in California. You can get a brochure sent to you from the Web site and they offer an interesting "live demo" concept where a consultant spends some time on the phone with you actually going through the product features. It offers a 100 day 100 percent guarantee.

Case Master – www.stilegal.com – Software Technology, Inc. produces the time and billing program TABS III in addition to the CMS program Case Master. So if you are a TABS user, you owe it to yourself to review Case Master. You can request more information from their website or download a self-running demo. This program is very fully featured and gets good reviews. You also may want to read their "Factors To Consider Before You Invest In Case Management Software" publication online at www.stilegal.com/cmfactors.html

ProLaw – www.prolaw.com – ProLaw maintains that their product links front office and back office operations into one package. It is not designed for the small law office without good IT support as it requires Microsoft Small Business Server for the small firm installation. ProLaw integrates with other systems and so Novell’s GroupWise or Microsoft Outlook are used for items like calendaring. Nevertheless, the recent acquisition of ProLaw by West Group means that they should be a future force in the industry.

Conclusion

We said it wasn’t easy to get started with case management software and we think you will agree. But it is time for those of you without case management software to get cracking on becoming familiar with the capabilities of these products. Then you can make a decision and start implementing it. There’s no right or wrong answer. Well, that’s not exactly true – the wrong answer is to lay this material aside and hope that you can keep on doing things they way you always have done them.

1. Why does Radio Shack insist on learning your name and address when you are buying anything? I don’t know, but I’m running out of fake names to give them and one sharp lady told me she didn’t believe that I lived at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave in D. C.
2. While I do believe that CMS is the most important system to implement in law offices that do not have it, if you do not have your computers networked yet, then that is your priority project. It doesn’t matter that only two people work in your office. If you have two computers, then they should be networked.

Tip of the Month — Don't forward virus warnings without checking their truthfulness first. Many lawyers have been receiving e-mail warning them to delete the "undetectable"sulfnbk.exe virus that has infected their computer. They use the instructions to locate the file and use them to delete it. They then spread the news to all of their friends. The only problem is that this is a hoax and this is a part of the Windows operating system that they have deleted. Never forward a virus warning without first checking with a reputable source like Symantec at http://securityresponse.symantec.com. (There is a link there to a list of hoaxes.)

The following link explains how to rebuild that file if you deleted it because of the hoax:

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/sulfnbk.exe.warning.html

Originally published in the Oklahoma Bar Journal Jan. 12, 2002 - Vol. 73; No.2