3 Secrets of Legal Case Management, From Intake to Analytics
An Introduction to Legal Case Management
Whether you’re an attorney or a paralegal, you’re juggling a number of cases all at once. As a result, it’s easy to unintentionally let things fall through the cracks. Unfortunately, letting things fall through the cracks when you’re in the business of law could mean missing crucial deadlines or meetings. These oversights can adversely impact your client, the case, and your reputation. As the legal industry becomes more reliant on technology, you’ll notice that almost every case management software out there has a central homepage or dashboard. However, these tools are only as effective as how they are designed. Many firms force their staff to use a program that’s outdated or fails to meet the broader needs of the firm. For the modern law firm, these needs extend beyond mail merge and task management. Of course, each firm’s requirements are different. You want a system that you can configure to your needs without being forced to create workarounds because of the software limitations. GrowPath was built by lawyers for lawyers, and that’s why GrowPath is specifically focused on law firm operations.Legacy Pain Points
Some of the pain points we’ve heard most often about other software dashboard features are:- It’s difficult to configure, manage, update, and maintain.
- The user’s screen is too cluttered with reminders and notifications for it to actually be a benefit.
- Users have to click on separate, individual tabs to seek the information they need. This translates to wasted time.
- Documents in the software take a long time to load and/or open.
- The software itself runs slow.
- No data reporting or reporting on superficial data points without practical value.
- User interface is outdated.
- The intake system is not integrated into the case management system.
- Poorly “integrated” intake and case management software requires staff to spend an inordinate amount of time verifying the information between the two systems. Thus, time is wasted verifying data integrity and entering data twice.
“Either run the day, or the day runs you.” – Jim RohnWhat GrowPath can do for your firm is revolutionary in light of currently available solutions. We aim to upset the status quo of intake and case management. But first, how exactly did we build our software to be the best out there?
1. Zoom into the micro-details of a case and zoom out into a macro view of your firm’s (or an individual’s) performance
GrowPath empowers you by putting the information each individual user might need on one screen. The case view allows you to see exactly where the case is in the life cycle and where it’s been. One can simply hover over the status bar at the top of a case file and be able to track how long a case has been in a certain status. In addition, the user can see how it moved from one stage to the other, who moved it, and when it was moved. GrowPath saves you time by having all this information at your fingertips. Depending on your firm’s roles and practice area, GrowPath can be configured to the law firm to display the things that are important to you. By having all that information at your fingertips, you’re able to quickly digest what’s going on with the case. You can easily see where the bottlenecks and hot spots are that need the most attention. As a result, you’re not wasting time putting out candles when there’s a bonfire elsewhere, so to speak.“Needles was very siloed. If I needed to find information about a case, there was not a central location for me to search through one case, let alone what other cases have similar characteristics. I had to go and find that information manually by sorting through every single case.” – eminent domain paralegal
2. Be reminded of the things you need to be reminded of in real-time
With GrowPath’s Matter Trackers, users can have customized views unique to them. These views filter actionable items into workable lists. From that vantage point, users can see what their role is from beginning to end. Importantly, what’s in front of them is always the most updated information. In addition, not only are reminders specific to one case, but they also alert you when a case needs attention. Based on your preferences, these alerts are triggered by anything from a simple milestone (like your 30-day follow-up with a client) to more complex matters (like settlement check disbursal). Every firm may have different nuances they want to track. Matter Trackers have the flexibility to give you insight into exactly what you’re looking for. One paralegal describes Matter Trackers as a net to help catch items so as to reduce or eliminate the cracks where things can, and do, fall through:“Needles would cluster all notifications and reminders together so if you got behind on your work because you were, say, waiting for the hospital to send your client s bills to you, it would keep piling up. If you are behind, you re no longer working in real time so you were constantly battling to climb a very steep mountain. It was honestly confusing and overwhelming to do it that way. It felt like I wasn’t being productive and moving forward with my workload.” – personal injury paralegal
3. Save time and run your firm from the fast lane.
Many salespeople will tell you about how they can save you time. Some are pitching legacy systems that still require locally-installed software. Some are selling adaptations of legacy systems that moved to the cloud. While many cloud based systems have limited capabilities, GrowPath boasts unique cloud-based software holding over 20 patents. Indeed, our software was designed specifically to help you accelerate the rate at which your firm is closing cases. It helps inform you so you can make sounder business decisions. Furthermore, it helps you have better visibility over your staff and into the cases you’re trying to resolve, from status to rate of progression. GrowPath helps you gain efficiencies you may not have known were possible or existed. At the heart of it all, our software can help you better organize and manage your law firm so you re closing cases faster. At the same time, GrowPath means stability for you. You get a high-level understanding of your firm, with its strengths and weaknesses. You can then capitalize on that information to drive more revenue. According to one personal injury firm, “we were maxed out at a caseload of 100 cases with [competitor software]. With GrowPath, our paralegals were able to maintain 50 more cases individually without an issue. Since we were moving them faster, our firm trimmed off over two weeks on average per case. Depending on the case level, this is potentially $10,000 a day.”“Time management is an oxymoron. Time is beyond our control, and the clock keeps ticking regardless of how we lead our lives. Priority management is the answer to maximizing the time we have.” — John Maxwell
Isn’t It Time to Go GrowPath?
In empowering you to see your individual cases and your entire caseload from A to Z, GrowPath provides one solution for all your needs. By helping you triage the chaos and seal up those cracks things are falling through, GrowPath can decrease your stress and increase your profits. Interested in seeing what that looks like? Schedule your demo here.
September 12, 2019