Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers practice management software designed specifically for law firms that specialize in personal injury and class action tort litigation (see article below), a law firm website design service, cloud document assembly software, and a cross-platform text editor. Don't miss the next issue.
A PRACTICE MANAGEMENT PAIN RELIEVER FOR PI FIRMS
There's litigation and then there's personal injury litigation. A subspeciality, personal injury litigation has unique case characteristics such as medical records. On the business side, the contingency fee model encourages a volume practice (though some firms place few big bets instead). Many practice management systems focus on commercial litigators who bill in six minute increments. But not all of them.
SmartAdvocate … in One Sentence
SmartAdvocate is a cloud practice management system for law firms that handle personal injury and/or class action tort cases.
The Killer Feature
With the smartphone practically a birthright, text messaging may better serve your client messaging needs than telephone calls. The new version of SmartAdvocate integrates with CallFire for individual and mass text messaging. CallFire normally charges 5 cents per message, but SmartAdvocate customers pay just 2 cents.
The CallFire integration obviates revealing your smartphone number. Instead, SmartAdvocate emails incoming text messages to those working on that client's matter. SmartAdvocate automatically stores all incoming and outgoing text messages on the Case Notes page of the corresponding matter.
Other Notable Features
Designed for a high-volume practice, SmartAdvocate automates the intake process. It includes Intake Screens that you can customize for common case types such as auto accidents. Case Wizards walk your staff through other aspects of the intake process such as obtaining retainer agreements.
SmartAdvocate can automatically generate a rejection letter based on the reason selected, mark a case as active when you scan a retainer agreement, and assign lawyers and others to new cases. The Intake Review Screen enables you to review intake decisions made by your team.
The automation continues once a case commences. You can create Task Templates for all aspects of your cases. Workflows enable you to break down large tasks such as obtaining, reviewing, and approving medical records. Speaking of which, SmartAdvocate has a suite of tools for handling medical records and related information such as doctor visits and injury classification.
SmartAdvocate contains traditional practice management features such as calendars, contacts, and document management. Add-ons for Outlook and Word enable you to save email and documents in SmartAdvocate. Dashboards and reports keep you apprised of deadlines, key performance indicators, and more.
"SmartAdvocate is creating quite a splash within the industry," SmartAdvocate CEO & President Jerrold S. Parker tells us. "At its core, SmartAdvocate's DNA is made up of the collective insight of practicing attorneys and paralegals in a high volume, high quality personal injury and mass tort practice."
What Else Should You Know?
Other specialized tools encompass statutes of limitations, lien tracking, and settlement calculations and disbursements. SmartAdvocate works in all desktop and mobile web browsers. You can also use the free iPhone app. Learn more about SmartAdvocate.
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