What is Matter Management Software?

Lawyers manage hundreds of cases every year, and each case comes with lots of case records (e.g. legal documents, notes, tasks, contracts, etc.) from both internal and external sources. Therefore, it is impossible to manually control and track all your processes.

That’s where legal matter management software comes in.

Matter management software are designed to help lawyers track and organize these details so that no information goes missing and no deadlines are missed.

However, before we discuss the benefits of legal matter management software, it’s important to look at the challenges that can arise during the matter management process and why law firms need to adopt a more sophisticated and modernized approach.

Table of Contents

Four Common Challenges with Matter Management

1. Scattered case and client information

Without legal matter management software, your client’s information is stored across a variety of different emails and spreadsheets. This decentralized approach means that it’s difficult for your team to view and edit documents at the same time. This also means that there is an increased risk of losing client information.

2. Barriers to collaboration

Teamwork is a core discipline of most law firms. If you have no management software, the absence of a centralized source for all matter data can mean that various team members have access to different files. The rest of the team, then, can’t always access that matter information, and can’t make amends on that information if needed.

3. Risk of missing critical deadlines.

Without matter management software, your firm will likely be using multiple calendars to track your cases. This can lead to chaos and increases the risk of missed deadlines. Legal software enables your firm to build process templates that help keep your projects on track, meaning that you’ll never risk missing a deadline again.

4. Relying on manual processes

Sorting through hundreds of folders and files to ensure that your firm is sending the most recent legal document is a waste of time. Without a management solution, you can’t determine if all necessary documents (e.g. hospital bills, medical certificates, police reports) were collected at the intake stage. Nor can you ensure that all information was documented correctly. This chaotic management style can result in a high volume of emails, phone calls, and team meetings to check and double-check certain files, tasks, and deadlines. Not to mention the nightmare this becomes if a staff member is off sick or your team suddenly all have to work from home. Additionally, all your intake information must be transferred to effective management software manually, meaning that finding important case files or documents becomes incredibly difficult. Legal case management software can do all this for you automatically.

7 Hidden Benefits of Modern Matter Management Software

Collating all your legal documents in one location offers several advantages that will help your legal practice reduce expenditure and boost productivity. Investing in modern matter management software is a must if you want to improve your productivity, efficiency, profitability, and client service. Below, we’ve detailed how a legal case management system will help your law firm save time, money, and effort.

1. Seamless Information Management

The better you know your clients, the better you can defend them. Every interaction they have with your law firm needs to be identified, documented, and recorded. These documents can be difficult to keep organized if you’re incredibly busy working on cases. Legal matter management software provides you with ‘pre-defined templates’ to ensure that you can accurately document all your matter data in one location and make this data available to everyone on your team.

2. Improve your client service

Customers are the most important aspect of any successful law firm. With legal matter management software, you can create a thorough intake process for new clients – this will allow you to gather all necessary information at once – even via a web form if they can’t visit your office, all additional documents are stored in their intake file too so no chasing additional documents later! This information will then be seamlessly transferred to your matter management system once you take the case and your legal team can get straight to work. With integrated communication methods (email, text, efax) your team can send regular updates to the client without ever leaving the case management system. Your clients come to you during a stressful time, keeping in regular contact helps to put them at ease and will help you stand out as a professional, superior law firm.

3. Automate Everyday Tasks

There are hundreds of small tasks that need to be completed for any firm to run smoothly, and whilst time-consuming they are vital aspects of any case. With matter management software, you will be able to automate these repetitive tasks. This means that you and your team will be able to focus on casework while automated case management modules take care of the repetitive admin tasks.

4. Achieve Greater efficiency and collaboration

Legal matter management software allows you to automatically store all your communication (e.g. emails, legal documents, phone call details, texts etc.) in one easily accessible location. With everyone on your team now able to access the same information, you can create, edit, and co-author documents at once. This increases the productivity of your law firm and means that your team can work seamlessly together to improve the bottom line. And the latest benefit for law firms already using legal matter management software? They were able to seamlessly transition to work-from-home when needed during the pandemic.

5. Insightful Analytical Data and Reporting

Legal matter management software enables you to easily personalize your dashboard views so that you can quickly locate the information you need (e.g. usage information, KPIs, performance reports). With this, you can then make actionable and data-driven decisions that will help you get happier customers and higher profits.

6. Get more cases/revenue

Getting new cases is never easy; it often requires marketing expertise and can cost lots of money. It is often thought that this is the best way to expand your practice area and get more clients. However, that’s not always the case. Proper case management software should help you give referrals, get referrals, and expand your business with partner firms. This will, then, help you strengthen your law firm’s position as a personal injury practice.

7. Boost your law firm’s profits

Traditional case management software can cost quite a lot, requiring significant investments in both equipment and human resources. However, there is no set-up cost for a cloud-based matter management system, and it doesn’t need large outlays on imposing data servers or software licenses. Routine expenses (e.g. equipment maintenance, IT infrastructure, the overhead cost of hiring IT personnel) practically disappear as well.

Conclusion

To overcome the challenges discussed above, and to gain the benefits we’ve outlined, you need to take advantage of modern practice management systems. Not only will this help you organize all your legal documents in one place; you will also be able to collaborate with co-workers in real-time, from anywhere, on any device, and never again worry about losing documents or chasing clients for information. You can also get a holistic view of your practice and insights from one single source to help you make informed decisions quickly and easily.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is matter management software?

Matter management software is a tool that will help you organize and track all your matter information (e.g. types of cases, legal documents, budgets, expenses, etc.) in one location.

Do I need matter management software?

Clients are your firm’s most valuable assets, and keeping them satisfied should be your top priority. Legal matter management software will enable you to find legal documents and case information quickly and easily, helping you find prompt solutions to client’s queries.

What is matter manager?

Matter manager is a core application and the hub of CloudLex. It has all the information you need (e.g. calendaring, document management, the ability to track medical expenses) in one accessible location. It also allows more senior members of staff to effectively manage the progress of cases so that they can properly allocate resources to areas of need. This helps your whole firm stay ahead of potential problems.

What are the top features of matter management software?

CloudLex’s legal matter management software has unique features that were designed with a personal injury legal practice in mind. This includes firm-wide calendar management, task management, medical bills and expense management, a settlement calculator, in-built client communication, and more.

How much does matter management software cost?

CloudLex offers pay-as-you-go monthly subscriptions which are cash-flow friendly and do not require an upfront payment. Our case management packages grow with your firm and start from $65 per user per month which is suitable for solo-to-small personal injury law firms. See our website for specific pricing plans or get in touch today.

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