Technology is an integral part of 21st-century workplaces, and law practices are no exception. An innovative law practice on the cutting edge of technology is able to provide higher-quality services and reduce customer dissatisfaction while improving efficiency for higher profit margins. For this reason, a growing number of law firms today are investing in technologies that guarantee higher efficiency and productivity.
HOW LEGAL TECHNOLOGIES BOOST EFFICIENCY
Better Document Management
The right ways of creating, optimizing, and managing documents present a competitive advantage for law firms. Comprehensive document management tools allow legal practices to store and track all legal documents, references, case matters, case details, contracts, etc., on a centralized platform that is easy to access and highly secure. The cloud storage is secured with several layers of encryptions to ensure data protection and GDPR compliance. Also, when all the information is centralized, law firms can use it to generate insights to track its performance.
More efficient case management
Automating databases of cases to track, edit, and search easily is the most innovative way forward. Here’s why. Lawyers need to keep track of multiple pending cases, and an electronic database allows them to search for cases easily just by punching in a few keywords. Legal practitioners can also remotely access their data from anywhere and make it available to other practitioners working on the same case. Modern case management tools also ensure that data is securely backed up and easily retrievable whenever a legal practitioner needs it.
Error-free Contract Management
One of the major challenges legal firms face is difficulties in drafting and managing agreements and contracts. There are high chances of manual errors, which can cause several other issues down the line. Electronic contract management offers the ideal solution to this problem. AI algorithms ensure that the contracts are error-free and are perfect to the core. This reduces time wastage in redoing and amending documents and ensures higher client satisfaction and productivity.
Enhanced efficiency in legal research
When it comes to legal research, technology levels the playing field. For example, AI can do legal research on a lawyer’s behalf, saving their client thousands of dollars. Artificial Intelligence can also be leveraged for the discovery phase as it can rapidly confirm facts and makes the process of finding background information faster, accelerating legal proceedings and arbitrations.
Better Client Management
Client servicing is a pivotal factor in ensuring the success of legal practice. Disgruntled clients often leave bad reviews, which can hamper law practice growth. With the right client management tools, such as chatbots and client portals, law firms can improve the practice experience and nurture better client relations.
Advanced Notification System for timely updates
With integrated notification systems, teams get alerted of upcoming deadlines, any changes, or other notifications in real-time so that law practices can get better results and competence.
Another aspect of notification systems is to convey essential and relevant updates to clients. Modern notification systems can keep clients apprised efficiently and effectively.
Electronic invoices and payment systems
Slow and inaccurate invoices can ruin a law firm’s reputation and relationship with its clients. By creating and sending electronic invoices, legal firms can quickly send invoices to their clients. Also, e-invoicing systems promote accuracy by minimizing human errors.
Clients can view their personalized invoices, trust balances, and payment histories through client portals. With the help of integrated payment platforms, clients can make online payments in a few easy steps.
Intellectual Property Management
Intellectual properties like copyrights, trademarks, patents, etc., can be challenging to manage, but with the Intellectual Property Management software, law firms can keep track of all IP-related data and manage it seamlessly. Different modules can be deployed as an all-encompassing package or separately for comprehensive IP management, including the initial idea, foreign filings, and licensing and maintenance actions.
More accurate prediction of trial outcomes
Legal cases are riddled with uncertainties due to the involvement of several variables. AI can analyze large volumes of litigation information to understand the workings of legal professionals, cases, and parties to help law firms make predictions about cases. Lawyers can use it to answer various clients’ questions, like – how likely is it for them to win if they go for a trial?
Intelligent and efficient fact-checking
Fact-checking is very important and complicated in legal cases. AI platforms like OpenText can use machine learning and analytics to check facts from vast amounts of data.
THE GROWTH OF LEGAL TECHNOLOGY
In 2020, just 10% of the top 100 legal practices were using AI to improve the speed and accuracy of processing piles of information. But since 2021, it has increased by 30%.
Legal practices are now a lot more aware of the benefits of legal technology. More than one-third of all legal services are now accessible by email and have an online presence. They are choosing to invest in legal technology with excitement and awareness never seen before in the sector. Many prominent law firms use bespoke technological solutions specific to the firm’s unique needs.
The use of chatbots, pricing calculators, and online portals is quite common now.
Several firms are focusing on adopting advanced tech tools and training their employees for better outcomes.
THE ROAD AHEAD
The future can be pretty tricky to predict, but we can safely assume that we will likely see faster legal tech adoption in the coming years. But before a firm decides to jump on the bandwagon, it must note that legal tech adoption shouldn’t be treated as a one-time effort but rather a consistent effort in line with law firms’ growth strategy.
Several tools can be easily used in the office without much training— like Microsoft Word add-ins, but sophisticated tools and technologies require time and effort to get to know. Therefore, teams should be navigated through the tech adoption process and motivated to enable them to become much more efficient at using it. This approach will help law firms’ broader transformation efforts.
