Technology in Law
As a lawyer, you face a lot of challenges. You have to deal with clients who may not be clear about what they want, coworkers who are sometimes more interested in their own success than yours, and an ever-changing legal landscape that requires you to constantly keep up with new regulations and technologies. It’s no wonder lawyers get overwhelmed sometimes! But while these challenges can make your job difficult, there is one thing that should never be a problem: technology. Technology has had many transformative effects on the legal world over the last few decades – and it will continue to change things as we move forward.
What Technology Can Do
Technology Can Help You Stay on Top of Things
If your client has a lot of questions, it’s best to get the answers to them quickly. You don’t want them calling back or emailing every day asking for updates on the case or what’s going on with their case, so it’s important that you have this information at hand as soon as possible so that they can focus solely on their recovery process.
Technology Can Help You Understand Your Case Better
You might use it to search for relevant legal decisions or to gather information about the facts of your case. For example, if someone is accused of a crime, technology allows lawyers and their clients to research whether similar cases have been tried in the past and what their outcomes were. They can also use technology as part of their strategy going into court by creating an outline of what they plan on saying during opening statements and closing arguments.
Technology Will Improve Your Client Relationships
If your clients are able to contact you easily and quickly, they’ll be more likely to feel valued. They also may be more willing to share information with you that could help their case.
By using technology, lawyers can keep tabs on their clients’ situations–and this can make it easier for the lawyer and client alike to keep up with what’s going on in each other’s lives. For example, if a client is having marital problems or financial difficulties, he might not tell his attorney right away out of embarrassment or fear that his lawyer will think less of him as a person. But if he knows he can use email or text messaging as an outlet for expressing those emotions without worrying about being judged by others who might see them, then maybe he’ll feel better opening up about how things are going outside court appearances.
Technology Can Help Everyone
You don’t have to be a big firm or corporation to make use of technology in your legal practice. In fact, for many small and medium-sized law firms, using technology effectively can help them win cases.
The most important thing is to keep an open mind about what kind of technologies might be useful in your practice area and give them a try!
How Smart Lawyers Utilize Technology
Smart lawyers use technology to communicate with other lawyers and staff in their firm.
- Use email, instant messaging, and video conferencing: Email is still the most popular way to communicate at work, but it takes time to compose a message that’s clear and to the point, especially when you’re talking about complex legal issues. Chat programs can help streamline this process by letting you share files directly from your computer without having to attach them or send multiple emails back and forth trying to explain what you mean.
- Use online collaboration tools like Dropbox or Google Drive: If you find yourself needing access to someone’s files all the time (whether they’re stored on their computer or not), consider using one of these cloud storage services instead of relying on email attachments alone. They’re easy enough for anyone in your office who needs access; all they have to do is log into Dropbox with their username/password combination before they start working with documents there!
Smart Lawyers Know How to Use Technology to Find Information Quickly
- Google, Bing, and Yahoo are your friends.
- Use online legal databases such as Westlaw or LexisNexis to search for case law (precedent) and statutes.
- Use online legal research tools like Fastcase or Justia’s Legal Dictionary to quickly find definitions of words and phrases used in legal documents.
- Read blogs written by lawyers about their experience with specific cases, issues related to their practice areas, etc. which can help you make decisions about how best to handle your own case(s).
- Participate in forums where lawyers share information about their specialty fields through questions-and-answers sessions or discussions on topics relevant to your case(s).
- Use social networks like LinkedIn for networking opportunities with other professionals who may be able and willing to help out during difficult times.
Keep Your CRM Up to Date
As a lawyer, you’re probably always on the lookout for new ways to streamline your business and increase efficiency. One way to do this is by keeping your CRM up to date. A CRM (customer relationship management) system is an essential tool for any professional service business; it allows you to keep track of all the information related to clients, cases, and staff members in one place so that you can quickly access it when needed.
While there are many different options available when it comes time to choose which type of software will best suit your needs, Runsensible has been proven effective at helping lawyers become more productive during their day-to-day activities. Here are some reasons why:
- Its easy-to-use interface makes managing client relationships simple and straightforward.
- You can easily access important documents from within Runsensible’s secure online storage system.
- Runsensible’s reporting tools allow you to easily see how your business is performing and where there are opportunities for growth You can easily stay up-to-date with all the latest developments in the legal field by following Runsensible’s blog
- By keeping track of your business activities, Runsensible can help you avoid common pitfalls and preventable mistakes. You’ll never have to worry about missing a deadline again!
- Runsensible’s online timekeeping system allows you to track billable hours and generate reports that can be easily shared with clients. You can also use Runsensible’s invoicing feature to send out professional-looking invoices on a regular basis.
Use Technology to Automate Tasks
The most obvious reasons to use technology in your law practice are to save time and money while improving efficiency.
However, there are many other benefits that you can gain from embracing new technologies. Here are some examples:
- Use e-signatures to streamline the signing process for documents such as contracts or wills. This will save you time and money because it will no longer be necessary for clients’ signatures on these documents to be witnessed by a notary public or other third party.
- Use document automation software like Procore (a project management platform) or Rocket Matter (a law practice management system) so that all of your client correspondence is automatically saved in one place where you can easily find it later if needed during litigation proceedings against another party who may try claiming they never received certain correspondence from you when all evidence shows otherwise! Or perhaps there was an issue with the delivery? No worries, you’ll know exactly when this happened, thanks again due diligence!
Use Technology to Track Billable Hours and Expenses
Here’s how you can use technology to track billable hours and expenses:
- Use technology to track billable hours. If you’re not using a time-tracking app, start now! There are many great options out there that will help keep your practice on track. They also allow clients and other lawyers in your firm to see what everyone else is doing so they can plan accordingly.
- Use technology to track expenses. As soon as an expense comes up, add it to the app so that everyone knows what’s going on and when they need money from the client account (or if they owe money back). This helps keep things organized and avoids confusion later on down the line when things get busy again after a slow period like the summer vacation season or winter holidays.
Conclusion
Technology is here to stay. Treat it as a resource, not a crutch. Technology can be a powerful tool for lawyers and other professionals, but only if they use it correctly. Instead of relying on technology as an easy way out or quick fix, treat it as an additional resource that can help you do your job better and even improve the quality of your personal life!
