Before you look: write down how your firm works
The most useful work happens before the first demo. A firm that knows how its matters really run can judge any system against that, rather than against the features a vendor chooses to show. Keep it short: a page or two per practice area is enough.
- Practice areas. Which teams will use the system, and what each one runs on today. Conveyancing, private client, family, litigation and commercial work each move at their own pace and in their own order.
- Stages. The milestones a typical matter passes through in each team, from enquiry to closing the file, and the points where matters most often stall.
- Who touches a matter. Fee earners, supervisors, secretaries, the accounts team, whoever handles compliance, and anyone outside the firm such as introducers, estate agents or brokers.
- What clients ask. The questions that arrive by phone and email again and again. They show what clients need to see without having to call.
- What you report on. The figures partners and supervisors look at each month, and how long it takes someone to produce them.
That record becomes the brief for every conversation that follows, and the yardstick for every answer you are given.
Questions to ask any legal case management software vendor
The questions below are the ones that separate systems in practice. Ask each vendor the same ones and write the answers down in the same format, so the comparison is fair.
Configuration
- Can each team have its own stages, tasks and templates, and who in the firm can change them?
- Does a change need the vendor, a consultant or a developer, or can a trained member of staff make it?
- What happens to matters already in progress when a workflow changes?
Configuration is where a system either fits the firm or forces the firm to fit it. Our page on legal workflow automation describes how configurable workflows carry a matter from one milestone to the next.
Integrations
- Which of the services your teams rely on are built in: searches, land registration, lender panels, identity checks, payments?
- Does information come back into the matter automatically, or does someone copy it across?
- Who maintains each integration when the other service changes?
Client communication
- Is there a client portal, and what exactly does a client see in it?
- Can clients exchange documents and messages securely, without email attachments?
- Does an update reach the client when a stage completes, or does someone have to remember to send it?
Clients judge a firm partly on how well informed they feel. Our page on a client portal for law firms shows one way to keep them updated as the matter moves.
AI and supervision
- What work does the AI do on a matter: drafting, review, checking, assembling reports, or answering questions?
- Does a fee earner approve its output before it reaches a client or anyone outside the firm?
- Is every AI-assisted action recorded, with who approved it and when?
- Can the firm decide where and how AI is used, and show that oversight to its COLP?
Our article on what AI can do in a law firm today goes further into these questions.
Security and audit
- Where is the data held, and on whose infrastructure?
- Can access be limited by role, team and matter?
- Is there an audit trail of who did what and when, and can a supervisor search it?
- If you leave, what happens to your data, and in what form do you get it back?
Migration
- What comes across from your current system: clients, matters, documents, history?
- How is the migrated data checked, and who signs it off before go-live?
- Can the move be phased team by team, so fee earners keep working?
Our guide to switching case management systems sets out a plan for the move itself.
Pricing clarity and support
- What does the price include, and what is charged separately: modules, users, integrations, training, migration?
- Will you receive a clear written quote that reflects your firm's size and the modules you need?
- How is support provided, during which hours, and how is a problem escalated?
- Is training part of go-live, and is help still there after the first month?