LEAPP
Case Management Tips
Courtney Kennaday
Practice Management Advisor
South Carolina Bar
Practice Management
Assistance Program = PMAP
• Advice on managing your practice – from start- up
to finish
• Technology Assistance
• Help finding consultants
• Personnel issues
• Lending Library
• Using Casemaker®
• Lots of Web content
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www.scbar.org/pmap
Have a procedure for…
everything!
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Telephone calls & voicemail
E-mail
Snail mail
Faxes
Periodicals
And of course…
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Docket & Reminder Date Control
Intake / Engagement Agreements
File organization
Client Communications
File Closing
Files, files, files
Danger Signals
• Disorganized files and messy file rooms
• Inconsistent procedures for opening or
closing files
• Excessive backlog of files to be shelved
• No system for archiving closed files
• Misfilings
• Daily Searches for lost files
• No file checkout system
File Management 101
• Consistent common-sense file naming
• Proper supplies for hard copies
• Document management software
(Worldox) or a good folder system in
Windows
• Copernic, Google Desktop, Windows
Desktop, X1
File Opening Checklist
Create a Client Intake form
to place within the file
Check for conflicts and place
form in the file
Organize!
• Two hole punch clip on either side of the file
folder, with correspondence on one side and
court docs on other. Keep in Chronological
order
• Files with dividers, each of which has its own
two hole punch clip
• Accordion folder with smaller folders inside,
labeled as to content
• Case notebook with all material three hole
punched and organized chronologically
behind tabs separating the material by topic
Good file habits
• A master index or log of all files (one
closed, one open) maintained manually or
through software
• A log of all documents within the file
• Check files in and out
• Create an index of all documents in closed
files
• Keep documents with the file
Jazz Bands®
• Easily identify files in accordion pockets
• Print with your computer using the
envelope feeder
• 12 popular colors to identify files without
cost of color-coded pockets
• Color-coding—year, month, attorney,
jurisdiction, court or area of law
Colored folders
Search “law office supplies”
• www.legalstore.com/
• www.blackstonelegal.com/
• Checklist at
www.scbar.org/pmap
“Starting Up”
Case Management Software
Calendars
Docket reminders
Phone message pads
Email
Contact management (address books)
Time keeping
Organizational tools for email, word processing
documents, faxes, memos to billing
• Links to time and billing software
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Document Management Software
• Find work product (such as word processing
documents)
• Creates a full-text index of every document in
your computer system
• You create a matching profile for each
document as it is created, so that you can also
know the author, the date, the client, the matter
number, the type of document, and so on.
• Never have to “reinvent the wheel”
• Also can be used to organize other types of files:
pdf, jpg, tif, emails, etc.
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Desktop Search Products
• Although Windows desktop search has
come a long way…
• Other products index your hard drive:
– Copernic Desktop (www.copernic.com)
– X1 (www.x1.com)
– MSN Desktop (http://desktop.msn.com)
– Yahoo! Desktop (http://desktop.yahoo.com)
– Google Desktop (http://desktop.google.com)
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Desktop Search
Functionality
• Search for:
• Search for:
– Documents
– Images
– E-Mail
– Videos
– PDF files
– Contacts
– Music Files
– History
– Favorites
– Spreadsheets
Results are instantaneous
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Computer folders
Case Closed
• Closing File form
• Determine whether client paid in full – trust
account balance = zero before closed
• Archive the case in billing and case
management systems; remove from active file
list
• Have a checklist so that each person involved
can initial that they have finished their part
• Store closed files separately
What about the file?
• The file should be purged of all important
client documents, which should be
returned to the client.
• Have a complete Index for each file box’s
contents; 1 copy in office and another
copy in the box.
• Don’t let old files become your family’s
problem.
$toring old File$?
• Many lawyers would love to eliminate
old files in storage
• See FAQ#1: http://tinyurl.com/m4ujp
• Scanning old files into electronic files
sounds good, but…
– Costs are usually prohibitive
– Why waste manpower and money on old
files?
• Better idea: go electronic starting
today forward
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CoreVault
www.corevault.net/scb
Calendar Management
Warning signs
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Frequent last minute panics
Too many unkept promises
No backup calendar
Disgruntled clients
Constant disorganization
Inadequate preparation
Failing to review mail for deadline notices
Relying on your memory alone
What to calendar?
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Statute of Limitations
Court dates, deposition dates
Client and other appointments
All administrative hearings and deadlines
All litigation deadlines
At least one docket date per open file – even if just a reminder
every 6 - 8 weeks to review file and send client an update
Self-imposed deadlines
Discovery requests
Client imposed deadlines
Appeals
Vacations or time out of office
More Tips
• Reminders before final deadlines
• Who is responsible for the docket system and
follows up to confirm an item is complete?
• Have a system for screening incoming mail,
faxes, e-mail, etc.
• Client intake form with due dates
• How does info get entered when something
changes and you’re out of the office?
• Put office procedures in your firm manual
Capturing Calendar Dates
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When you open a client file
Snail mail you receive
E-mail you receive
In office checklists
Synchronize attorney’s calendar and
assistant’s calendar and make sure they’re
current.
• Everything should have a date.
• Don’t calendar in pencil, but if you feel
that you must, cross out any necessary
changes. You may need this record
someday.
• Make sure that conference rooms and
other shared office facilities are included in
your calendar system.
• Have a back up.
Snail mail
• Designate a specific place to receive
incoming and outgoing mail.
• Handle incoming and outgoing mail
efficiently.
• Consider client confidentiality when
dealing with mail.
Incoming
• Give a specific person responsibility for
opening all mail.
• Open and date-stamp all mail packages
immediately.
• Compare the postmark date with the date
of the document.
• Make note of returned mail and changes
of address.
Use a mail log
Outgoing Mail
• Designate a specific person to prepare all
outgoing mail.
• Know when mail is picked up or taken to
the post office.
• A specific person should be responsible for
maintaining postage on the meter.
• Record return receipt letters in a log for
easy reference.
Client Communication
• Evaluate your message system.
– Computer-based
– Manual
• Messages should always be put in the
same place to be picked up by the
attorney.
Getting the bills out
• Bills are an important communication with
your client – Don’t be too terse.
• At least every month- no exceptions
• Communicate effort by attorney and value
to the client
• Have a written collection policy
• Over 60 days – average 70%
• Over 120 days – average 20%
My Favorite Tips
(lightning round)
• Free online legal research
• Bar members automatically signed up
• South Carolina cases, codes, ethics
opinions and more
• Federal codes and caselaw
• State law from all 50 states
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Login
• Go to www.scbar.org/casemaker
• Login with your Bar ID and first initial, last
name, suffix (if you have one)
• Downloadable User Guides
• Email help casemaker@scbar.org
• Research help 877-659-0801
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Casemaker 2.1
How much and how recent?
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Search the web with Google from any site
Eliminate pop-up ads
Fill in forms with one click
Highlight search terms on a page
Google search the current site only – so useful!!
Much more!
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Further reading
File too large to e-mail?
YouSendIt.com lets you send files
as big as a gigabyte for free.
http://www.yousendit.com/
Two Monitors are better than one
Check under the hood
with Belarc Advisor
www.belarc.com
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I can see clearly now.
• Increase the font size
on your wills, trusts,
cover letters and
other documents
often read by elderly,
or soon to be elderly
clients. They will
appreciate this small
touch for many years
to come.
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First Impressions
• When you’re out, how is your phone
being answered?
• Have friends call your office and give
you a report.
He ain’t
here!
He’s never
here before
11:00!
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Quickly
ZOOM Fonts for Easier Reading
• Need a bigger font for easier
reading of a document or a
webpage? Hold down the
control key and use the scroll
wheel on your mouse to easily
enlarge the text, zooming in.
This works with True Type fonts,
so it will work most of the time.
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Electronic faxing
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Do you really have to have a fax machine?
PC + Internet = easier faxing
Services provide unique toll free number
Faxes sent and received like e-mail
– www.maxemail.com/
– www.efax.com
– www.send2fax.com
– www.ureach.com
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Thanks for listening!