What is law firm automation?

 

Law firm automation refers to the use of technology and software tools to streamline and optimise various manual processes and tasks within a law firm.

The main value that automation brings to your firm is increased efficiency, reduced manual work, enhanced accuracy, and an overall improvement to productivity.

An example of this could be a repetitive tasks, such as obtaining new client data from a source (such as a claims management company), and imputing the data into your case management system.

What if you could integrate your case management system with a claims management company’s website and have the data automatically pull through to your system? Moreover, you could automate a workflow to allow new cases to be automatically allocated to fee earners in sequence or based on case load.

Very quickly, a time-consuming task has now been automated, helping your firm to save time and reduce the risk of human error.

Automation can be applied to a wide range of legal activities, from routine administrative tasks to more complex legal processes.

Examples of law firm automation

 

Law firm automation can be implemented in a number of day to day tasks, using automation software, and can be implemented into many case management systems, such as Proclaim.

Listed below are some examples of automation in legal practices:

Document automation:

Software tools are used to automate document creation and the management of legal documents. This includes standardising document templates, generating contracts, agreements, and legal forms automatically based on predefined variables.

Case management:

Automation in case management involves using software to organise and track the progress of legal cases. This may include managing deadlines, court filings, document management, and communication with clients.

Billing and timekeeping:

Automation tools can streamline the billing process by automatically tracking billable work, generating invoices, and managing financial transactions. This helps to reduce errors and ensures accurate billing.

Client intake and onboarding:

Automated systems can facilitate client intake processes, collecting necessary information, verifying client identities, and initiating onboarding procedures.

New client data entry:

As mentioned before, client information can be obtained from the client source and automatically entered into your case management system. This helps to save fee earners’ time and reduces the risk of human error.

Workflow automation:

Workflows within a law firm, including task assignments, approvals, and notifications, can be automated to ensure smooth and organised collaboration amongst legal professionals.

Compliance monitoring:

Automation tools can help monitor changes in laws and regulations, ensuring that legal professionals stay informed about relevant developments that may impact their clients.

Client communication:

Automated systems, such as chatbots or client portals, can enhance client communication by providing quick responses to common queries, scheduling appointments, and delivering updates.

Automated quantum calculations:

Calculating the value of a case can be a long and complex process. Audiogram integration could be implemented into your case management system to help save your fee earners hours on calculating quantum on a case.

 

What value could the LPS team bring to your firm through automation?

 

The team at Legal Practice Support can add value to your law firm whether you have a development team in place or not. For those who do not have a development team in place, we can be a cost effective option to help develop your case management system.

We also work alongside development teams on an outsourced basis to help improve your firms operations.

Some of the main benefits of law firm automation include the following:

Increased efficiency:

Automation streamlines routine and repetitive tasks, allowing legal professionals to focus on more complex and strategic aspects of their work. This leads to increased overall efficiency in the delivery of legal services.

Time savings:

Through the automation of task, law firms can save significant amounts of time, allowing fee earners to dedicate more time to focus on their clients and settling their cases.

Improved accuracy:

Automation reduces the risk of human errors in tasks such as document drafting, data entry, and billing calculations. This can contribute to increased accuracy in legal work, reducing the likelihood of costly mistakes.

Enhanced client experience:

With automation handling routine administrative tasks, legal professionals can dedicate more of their time to understanding client needs, providing personalised advice, and improving overall client satisfaction.

Cost savings:

Automating repetitive tasks can lead to cost savings by reducing the need for extensive manual labour. This can be particularly beneficial for routine administrative processes and document management. Outsourcing your development tasks to LPS can further help you to minimise costs as we cost less than hiring a team of developers.

Consistency in work output:

Automation ensures a consistent approach to tasks and processes. It helps to maintain a standardised level of quality and reduce variations in work output across different team members.

Faster document drafting:

Document automation and management tools can significantly speed up the process of drafting legal documents, such as contracts and agreements. This can be done by generating standardised templates and populating them with relevant information.

Effective case management:

Automation in case management helps organise and track case-related activities, deadlines, and document management. This ensures that legal professionals can stay on top of their caseloads more efficiently.

Better compliance management:

Automated systems can help law firms stay up-to-date with changes in laws and regulations, ensuring that legal advice and documentation remain compliant with the latest legal requirements.

Streamlined communication:

Automation tools can facilitate communication within the firm and with clients, ensuring timely notifications, updates, and efficient collaboration among legal professionals.

Adaptability to legal changes:

Automation allows law firms to quickly adapt to changes in legal processes, regulations, and requirements.

Competitive advantage:

Law firms that embrace automation often gain a competitive edge by providing faster, more accurate, and cost-effective legal services compared to those relying solely on traditional manual processes.

Why choose Legal Practice Support?

 

Legal Practice Support can assist with law firm automation by developing your case management system. We can help your team to eliminate the tedious, administrative, robotic tasks that they may currently spend a lot of their time performing. This means that they can spend more of their time focusing on the more complex issues and settle matters more swiftly.

Legal Practice Support are specialists in Proclaim and (other case management systems) development solutions and Legal IT.

We offer optimisation of your system through the development of the software to ensure you are making the most of your system. Development of your system will vastly improve the productivity and efficiency of file handlers and will deliver real financial returns to your firm.

We provide a range of services to all types of legal professionals to help their firms become more efficient and more profitable.

Our services include:

• Proclaim development/ Case management system development
• MI reporting and KPI dashboards
• Integrations
• Legal costs
• Legal marketing

 

If you would like to discuss how a Proclaim Developer from the LPS team could assist your law firm, please contact us for further information. We can be contacted via e-mail at enquiries@legalpracticesupport.co.uk, or get in touch with us via Live Chat or the contact form, below.