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For Law Practice Management Software, the following are essential features, and you should therefore expect to see a check in every box in this section.
Matter management is the defining feature of law practice management software, of course. However, some software is targeted at specific practice areas and may implement case management in different ways in order to manage information specific to those practice areas.
Managing clients and other contacts is a core feature of law practice management software.
Basic task management includes creating tasks with due dates that can be associated with cases/matters and assigned to different lawyers. Some products stick to pretty basic task management, while others offer enough features to make any Getting Things Done devotee happy.
As with email, this feature means a full calendar client, not just an integration with Outlook or Google Calendar.
Timekeeping is a core feature of practice management software, essential for lawyers who bill by the hour but useful even for those who don't.
An actual conflict checker is more than just a search box. This applies to software that actually has a conflict checking feature. Implementation varies, but at a minimum you should be able to search the entire database for matching names. It should check for conflicts accurately and intuitively, allow for a lateral hire to input their conflict database into the system, work quickly when new clients call, and comply with the rules of professional conduct for checking conflicts.
Does it include a full email client? (Alternative solutions that don't amount to an email client, like plugins for Outlook or Gmail, do not earn a check for this feature. See software integrations, below.))
Can you send and receive text messages and associate them with your matters?
Basic document management allows you to add documents and associate them with your cases/matters.
Loading your firm’s document templates into your law practice management software can save time and ensure consistency. This check means basic document assembly suitable for form letters, invoices, etc. For advanced document assembly, you’ll probably need additional software.
Does the provider have a way for your client to interact with you or their information in the system? This can take many forms. It can be a way to securely view and pay bills, a method of scheduling meetings, or a way for your client to view information about their case itself.
This means basic checkbook register–style bookkeeping, which is more limited than full accounting. You should be able to keep track of your operating accounts and reconcile your balances, but you may still need full accounting software.
This means you can track your client trust accounts, including expenses and payments. It is normal to see trust accounting without basic bookkeeping or full accounting, in which case you will need something else for accounting.
Some software includes full double-entry accounting features, making additional accounting software unnecessary.
Does the software allow you to send bills or invoices?
Payment processing is increasingly offered either as an included or add-on feature, especially with cloud-based law practice management software.
An Open application programing interface (API) allows other software programs to interact with the platform. It allows users to build integrations where there might not currently be one. However, not all APIs are equal. If you are looking to integrate using an API, it's advisable to review the platform's documentation before making a decision.
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Billing. Although their legal billing feature doesn’t allow you to take online payments and lacks full accounting capabilities, you can still track your billable hours, send invoices and keep track of client payments when they come in.
Built in CRM. When it comes to staying on top of growing your law firm, CaseFleet’s legal CRM (customer relationship manager) feature can help you stay on top of incoming leads, remind you when you should reach out to potential new clients, and help you win over new customers.
Transcript viewer. CaseFleet offers a transcript viewer that allows you to more easily review, markup, highlight, and annotate deposition transcripts. It automatically generates pin cites of lines you highlight and allows you to attach comments and notes to the highlight to help you organize and contextualize your work.
Timeline. CaseFleet’s timeline feature lets you organize documents, edit, sort by date, time, and fact, attach documents or sources of evidence, and much more. Each case you open lets you add issues (that you can color code), facts, contacts, dates, sources, and citations to better help you tease out and analyze trends.
Calendar. Its calendar is another visually remarkable feature where you can view overlapping events, tasks and deadlines. You can even compare calendar dates and tasks from different cases side-by-side, which helps prioritize the most important tasks in your busy schedule.
Settlement tracker. One unique CaseFleet feature is its settlement tracker, where you can create and monitor offers and demands. You can also manage trust accounts and create transaction records when a payment is received.
Pricing for CaseFleet starts at $30/user/month at the annual rate for its Starter package. (Monthly pricing is 25% more.) This comes with chronology building tools, document review, data visualization, 20 documents per case, and witness and contact organization among other features.
For $75/user/month annually, you can get its Standard package which comes with all the features of the Starter package plus unlimited documents per case.
CaseFleet also offers an Enterprise level package, which offers custom pricing and plans for firms with 20 or more users, or who are interested in more custom features.
You can reach out to learn more or to sign up for its 14-day free trial.
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