By LEAP, AAML NJ Silver Sponsor
Legal professionals often follow manual processes of managing cases from beginning to end. This often makes matter management a tedious task. Consider what this looks like for many New Jersey law firms today:
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Referrals from previous clients come to your firm looking for legal help.
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Initial intake is written down on a piece of paper, to be manually checked for any conflicts.
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You reach out to this new client, via email or phone, to begin the case and have notes in different places.
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Legal assistants manually write up notices and motions based on templates downloaded from your court years ago.
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You meet with your client to print, mark up, revise, finalize, and sign documents whenever you both are available.
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Documents are submitted via the NJ courts’ websites, potentially not being saved back to your files.
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The recorded billable time is estimated based on your memory and the invoice for this client is created manually.
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You have no client reminders for this outstanding payment so it takes longer to get paid.
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You assume that you need to hire additional firm staff because there has to be a more efficient way to get work done, only accruing an overwhelming amount of administrative tasks and overhead costs.
This scenario is far too common for New Jersey law firms. Every step in this process causes inefficient workflows for you and your clients. Any combination of these points can be detrimental to your business’ bottom line, ultimately leaving you feeling exhausted.
There is a solution. Legal practice management technology is being adopted by New Jersey law firms, making matter management, document creation, time recording, billing, and trust accounting a more profitable and efficient workflow.
Changing the above habits and using automation techniques via legal software will make matter management look more like this:
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Clients and prospective clients are all managed within an online web portal; they complete online intake forms and submit case information 24/7, and schedule appointments based on your set availability.
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Cases are automatically created in a software database from the online intake form.
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Client communications are initiated through this software, and saved to a centralized location, so all your phone and email communications are updated in the matter at all times.
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The details of this matter are automatically pre-filled into the updated court form for this New Jersey-specific matter type.
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All client collaborations on the document are managed through the same software and e-signatures are requested to notify all parties of completed documents without hassle.
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The latest court details, case parties, and documents are synchronized back to your central database.
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You have instantly recorded your time on each of these steps so you can get accurate invoices to your clients quickly.
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Your online web portal allows you to send payment reminders to your clients, provide links to pay via credit card, and accept online payments so you get paid faster.
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Your legal automation software is taking care of all the tedious administrative tasks that you would have otherwise hired for. You also generate automatic reports that provide you with insights for productivity, fees earned, and profits and losses so you can improve your law firm.
Generally, you need multiple software programs to cover all of these steps. But, legal practice management solutions like LEAP Legal Software provide New Jersey attorneys with everything they need to automate their firm and make more money.
“With LEAP, my practice is streamlined and efficient. The automated document production feature and the ability to bill my clients on the go is life changing! The use of this product has allowed everyone in my office to have the ability to be more effective and we now have the capability to invoice for time that we never did before." The Law Offices of Ma'Isha Aziz, New Jersey Law Firm
Learn more about LEAP Legal Software by visiting www.leap.us and get everything you need to run your firm.
