Automation in the legal sector is becoming increasingly popular as the legal industry is becoming more forward thinking. Whilst some law firms began their digital transformation many years ago, some firms are still resistant to change, with many being unaware of the full benefits that automation and machine learning can bring to any legal department.

As well as providing advice to clients and using their knowledge and judgement to make key decisions, fee earners also have a processing role which requires them to carry out routine tasks in a compliant and robust manner.

Automation in legal services is mainly used to automate the routine tasks carried out by law firm staff in the course of their employment.

There are many types of automation in legal services, for example:

• Automated workflows within a case management system
• Automation of electronic signatures and digital agreements
• Contract automation
• Automation of billing
• Risk and compliance automation

The benefits of automation in legal services

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software is a type of artificial intelligence, and is the application of technology that allows a company to configure computer software or a “robot”. Software robots can be used to capture and interpret existing applications for processing a transaction, manipulating data, triggering responses and communicating with other digital systems.

There are many benefits to using automation platforms within all types of law firms. As well as reducing the risk of human error, an automation solution can help your legal team save time, improve efficiency and reduce costs.

The role of a fee earner involves carrying out a number of tedious and time consuming tasks, such as keeping clients updated on their case, drafting documents and sending documents.

Automation software could be key to cutting down a large proportion of these time consuming, manual processing tasks. The adoption of software that acts as robotic process automation (RPA) is essential to maximising profit margins and improving customer service levels.

A 2015 report from the international management consulting outfit McKinsey & Co identified that significant amounts of the legal profession could be automated using RPA. They estimate 69% of time could be automated for paralegals and 23% of time could be automated for solicitors. (This percentage is likely to have increased seven years later.)

The automation of tasks does not mean that you will have to remove a percentage of your workforce. It means that the tedious, administrative, robotic tasks that they currently perform will be eliminated and they will be able to spend more of their time focusing on the more complex issues and consequently resolve more cases much more promptly.

Incorporating automation into your case management system

The most beneficial feature of many case management systems is the fact that they are extremely flexible and can be developed in many ways. Systems, such as Proclaim can be developed to allow for legal process automation. This can be particularly beneficial for increasing the speed of processing of each case. Using an automated process will assist in saving time for fee earners, allowing them to focus on other, larger complex tasks at hand.

The system can also be developed to allow for automated client updates as the case progresses. This will improve customer satisfaction and client experience. It will also save file handlers the time of having to manually update each client, and clients will be less likely to call file handlers to request an update.

Case management automation can also assist your in house legal team with data collection, and data protection compliance using due diligence automation and GDPR Individual Rights workflows to manage requests and automate their handling. This will aid in reducing cost and assist in compliance with ongoing legislation.

With the right setup, you can ensure that all key reports are scheduled to run automatically and to be disclosed to predefined contacts or locations at specified times. Thus, ensuring you are never missing the information you need to make key business decisions.

Contract automation can also be set up within many case management systems using workflows and document templates. Your system can be developed to allow for the production of documents, such as contracts at specific points within any legal case.

An example of automation in legal services: Conveyancing

Law firms with conveyancing departments will be well aware that conveyancing processes can be very costly and time consuming. Tasks, such as undertaking Land Registry searches, property checks, and communicating with an estate agent can take up large amounts of time.

Automation can be particularly beneficial for Conveyancing Solicitors due to the amount of steps that are needed to be taken on each case. Conveyancing automation is possible for many manual tasks within the Conveyancing process using a case management, saving file handlers time and allowing them to focus on other, larger tasks at hand.

Systems can be developed to allow for automated client updates throughout the conveyancing process.

Through the development of your system, you can ensure that key reports are scheduled to run automatically and to be disclosed to predefined contacts or locations at specified times.

How can legal Practice Support Assist?

It is clear that automation of your case management system could lead to huge time and cost savings.

Legal Practice Support can assist with automation in legal services 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.