What a Matter Management Solution Does
One of the most important administrative tasks performed in a law office is matter management. It’s also one of the more tedious. Matter management solutions provide relief in that they help you intake and track matters, along with all related communications, approvals, and documents. They also help manage billing and make it easier for legal teams to work together on legal tasks. Essentially, matter management solutions track all actions and communications related to a matter, from client intake to matter resolution, and make the associated files easy to search with an audit trail.
What Matter Management Solutions Do
Among the tasks matter management solutions perform are deadline management, task assignment, status tracking and the establishment of access protocols.
Capturing and tracking key dates ensures that no filings are missed, and court dates are kept. Colleagues and vendors can be assigned quickly, and collaboration can take place on the platform. This makes keeping track of the status of a matter easier to accomplish because all associated data is stored in a central repository. What’s more, security protocols ensure that only the individuals assigned to the case have access to the files.
The best matter management solutions also support the establishment and tracking of key performance indicators. This helps ensure the case moves along as expeditiously as possible.
Matter Management Solution Benefits
Accuracy is absolutely critical to the successful resolution of a legal matter. However, manual data entry can work against this. The tedium of data entry can lead to distraction, which can result in errors. To alleviate this concern, matter management solutions automate data capture.
This, in turn, serves to mitigate risks associated with slipshod recordkeeping processes. With all of the data stored in one place and the progress of the matter tracked as the case proceeds, missed deadlines, and poorly managed files are far less likely to occur.
The potential for data loss is lessened as well. Working digitally, documents are stored automatically, rather than as individual sheets of paper in a folder in a filing cabinet—that may or may not have been properly placed. The lessens the likelihood of loss, damage or destruction of key evidence, documentation, and associated files.
Another important benefit is the ease with which collaboration on a case can be conducted. Remote access can be accomplished, with security protocols in place to protect data from interlopers. This makes it easier for in-house teams and third-party associates to work together, regardless of their physical locations.
What’s more, a set of procedures can be established to standardize operations. This makes training new people easier to accomplish, and data easier to track.
Matter Management Solution Implementation Tips
Once you’ve decided on a solution and installed it, the best way to proceed is gradually. Yes, you just spent money to get this system in place and you’re anxious to derive the benefit. However, you’ll be better served by applying it to something benign at first so your team can learn to use it on something that isn’t mission critical.
Get buy-in from all the major stakeholders by explaining the new procedures carefully and ensuring that adequate training is provided so that people don’t feel lost. Show the team how it can make something they’d rather not have to do easier to accomplish. In other words, help them see what’s in it for them.
Identify a set of metrics by which you will judge the solution’s performance. To accomplish this, you’ll need to keep track of quantifiable factors such as hours spent on various tasks you expect the solution to solve—before implementing the solution. This will help make the benefits readily discernable.
Did we mention the importance of providing adequate training? This is perhaps the most critical aspect of ensuring the successful implementation of a matter management solution. Toward that end, ongoing support is also crucial. The solution only works if people use it, and people will only use it if they get comfortable with it.
