The objective of every personal injury law firm is to deliver fair compensation to your clients. Still, there are a lot of variables and micro-objectives along with personal injury litigation that makes this objective difficult to realize.
While personal injury attorneys can’t control every variable of a case, you can control how you run cases and care for your clients. Let’s talk about some of the ways your personal injury firm can improve litigation and deliver successful client outcomes.
Improving litigation: Organization, communication, and focus
Personal injury attorneys must balance documents and information, meetings, depositions, deadlines, and so much more.
Managing this many moving pieces requires the right strategies, and firms without this can lower their winning ratio significantly and jeopardize their bottom line. However, it’s entirely possible to improve courtroom outcomes with the right litigation support.
Here's how to use case management software to your advantage across litigation.
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Calendar and File Management
Being organized is a requirement of today’s successful personal injury firms, and the right case management software should give you the guardrails to create your own organizational systems. Your entire practice is predicated upon your ability to meet deadlines and be on time. The cases you litigate are set for certain times of the day, as well as stay in step with the judicial calendar.
Personal injury litigation support case management software acts as your diary and planner. With it, you can quickly add case-related events to the system's calendar, then attach the necessary files for that occasion. If you’re meeting with expert witnesses, your case management software’s litigation tools should set up the correct deadlines and centralize critical information so you don't have to waste time or energy looking for information.
You can (and should) also sync your case management calendar to whatever calendaring tool you use, from Google to Microsoft Outlook and beyond. You can even synchronize single events to individual employees or teams to better track litigation deadlines and keep with jurisdiction.
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Task Management and Communication Tools
Time tracking and accountability are integral elements of delivering successful case outcomes.
As a case progresses, your legal practice management solution should allow you to assign tasks to certain teams, flag priority levels, and automate completion notifications. With task management in place, it becomes much easier to track who does what, when, and how effectively. This also helps you pinpoint ‘superstars’ at your law firm, and who might need additional support to complete their jobs.
A good litigation support system should include automated notifications to let teammates know when they are assigned tasks, when they’re completed, and what the next steps are. This removes the redundant process of assigning tasks manually via email, then following up to find out if a task has been completed.
Use the email subject line to track correspondence with clients, attach contact details directly to the case, and empower seamless communications within one platform. Some legal practice management solutions include built-in email correspondence and texting, so you don’t need to share your personal contact information or jump from email to email.
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Litigation Support
Before your cases see a mediator or court, you have to conduct discovery--often entailing paperwork, depositions, meetings, and critical deadlines. To improve litigation and case outcomes, your case management system should help your firm keep track of important events, meetings, and deadlines required for a successful deposition.
Your case management system should give you a variety of discovery tools, like:
- Requests and responses
- Extensions
- Due dates
- Methods of delivery
In addition, your litigation solutions should also manage key relationships--something especially important when managing expert witnesses. With the right system, you can quickly see who you've worked with most on cases, what kind of expertise they provide, their hourly rate, and testimony fees, among other metrics.
One of the most useful features of litigation strategy is being able to track judicial officers. As a personal injury firm, you’ll often work with the same judges, expert mediators, and opposing counsel over some years. Make sure your legal case management system includes relevant client information, so you can easily view the history your firm has with those officers and how best to work your litigation to get a prime outcome for your client.
Improve litigation at your firm with case management best practices
Litigation is one of the most critical parts of your firm’s operations. With relevant information, communication tools, and transparent task management, your firm can work towards improving litigation along with case management and support your clients as best as you can.
To learn more about litigation, check out our blog on streamlining settlements or check out CASEpeer’s litigation support tools.
About CASEpeer
CASEpeer is the leading cloud-based case management solution built for personal injury attorneys and their firms. With a turnkey solution tailored for the unique needs of personal injury law and backed by industry-leading support, your firm can onboard and hit the ground running that day.
Gain visibility across your entire firm’s operations, from case management and calendaring to employee performance, pipelines, and profitability. Built around the feedback of successful PI law firms nationwide, CASEpeer provides everything your PI firm needs to succeed.