J. A. Powell, Jr.
Case Management
I have heard that some of you were shocked that I could do something other than computers. Well, there is an old saying "Even a blind squirrel can find an acorn every now and then."
The phone rings. It is Mr. Jones at the ABC Insurance Company. He wants to talk settlement for your client, Mr. Smith. You put him on hold and buzz your secretary to bring you the file. Of course, she is not at her desk but at the copier. So you get up and go to the file cabinet and find that the file is not there. You go to the copier and ask your secretary where is the file. She tells you that she last saw in your paralegal's office. You go there only to find that your paralegal is not there. You search through her desk but cannot find the file. You stomp back to your office with steam coming out of you ears and sheepishly tell the adjuster that you can not find the file and will call him back. Five minutes later your paralegal shows up and, after you yell at her, shows you the file that was on your desk the whole time.
You are at home sound asleep. It is 2 a.m. You suddenly wake up in a cold sweat with one thought on your mind. Did you file the answer on the Mr. Smith vs. Ms. Reckless file? You lay there for two hours worrying until you finally realize that you will not be going back to sleep and you might as well get up. You arrive at the office at 5 a.m. and check the file and find out that an answer was indeed filed.
Case management software can help you with these and many other problems. In the first example, you could have pulled up the case information on your computer and talked to the adjuster immediately. Good case management software will provide you with the information you need to discuss the case with the adjuster. More importantly, the file can be worked on by your staff but will always be at your fingertips.
In the second example, you could have used your home computer to call the office. The case management software at the office would show you a list of everything that has been done on the file. After seeing that an answer has been filed, you could have gone back to sleep and dreamed of that devastating cross examination that wins the case for you. (Dream on.)
When I first started looking at case management software, it was with the idea that we would replace the home-grown system we are now using. After getting several calls from members of the bar requesting information about case management software, I decided to write this article.
There are many software packages that come under the category of "Case Management." I have willy nilly decided that software in this category should have the following features:
1. Keep track of client personal information such as the name, address, phone, the spouse, employment, etc.
2. Case information such as case description, dates, assigned attorneys and staff, insurance information, opposing attorney, etc.
3. Document management such as listing of pleadings, document viewing, document generation, etc.
4. Notes.
5. Calendaring such as important date ticklers, reminder of tasks to do, etc.
I found many packages that meet these requirements and I have received demos of some of them. In the next few articles I will review each package and give you my humble opinion of each. Meanwhile, the web site, www.lawofficecomputing.com, will give you a pollyanna description of each. Before you buy one of these systems, get a demo copy of the program and test for your needs. If the company does not provide a demo, move on. Do not buy one of the most complicated software packages you will ever use from such a company.
The first case management system I tested was Needles. Needles started out as a DOS program called Pins. Needles is the Windows version of the program. Cute, huh? So far, Needles is the best case management for a plaintiff's attorney I have reviewed. The features that made this program stand out is its ability to create merge documents with WordPerfect and Word from the data stored in it and its date tickler system. The tickler system lets you create rules for different activities, for example, interrogatories would automatically trigger at 30 day reminder that the answers are due. The downside of Needles is that its price is higher than a cat's back. A system for four simultaneous users and up to 500 open and closed cases is $7,200.00. Also, there is no way to import your existing data which is a major factor for us. If you just won the Lottery, contact the Needles company at www.needpins.com.
Last year, I reported on our computer base dictation system, Dictaphone's Boomerang system. I recently saw a demonstration of the next version if its software and it is amazing. For the first time, I have seen voice recognition actually work in an office environment. Glen Grossman, our handy dandy Dictaphone salesman, read an entire page of dictation and the computer translated it perfectly.
In the past, voice recognition would only work reliably in a very quiet room while the user is wearing a goofy looking headset. Dictaphone's system uses the same hand mike as before and the user dictates as before but now the computer translates the speech into words. With this software, the translation can be made on the dictation end or after it is sent to the secretary. Imagine, being at the office on a Sunday, getting ready for a trial, and dictating a request to charge and printing it within a few seconds.
I have received the latest software and am in the process of setting it up. This takes some time because the software has to be trained to the users voice. In the next article, I will report on the results of my use of this software.
While you are having your computers check for Y2K compliance, have your phone system checked also. Most phone systems are nothing more than computers and could have a problem on January 1.