Until a few years back, the term “legal services” would immediately create a certain picture in your mind – an office, a receptionist outside to fix your appointment, an air-conditioned room with a lawyer sitting inside to hear details of your case. They would collect your related documents, compile them all in a new file, make a new entry in their register, and so on. Well, that was years ago when digital technology was still to come to the forefront.
Is everything still the same?
The answer is NO. It’s changed now for the better.
Let’s put it in perspective.
A lawyer always prioritizes serving their clients in the best way possible. Excellent client service is crucial for legal services and consultation. But the big thing to consider here is – legal service no longer confines itself to a strong legal representation in the court of law, winning of a case, or the best legal consultation to help a client solve the problem. Neither lawyers nor clients want only those traditional ways to offer legal services.
Lawyers want convenience and look to manage their clients more efficiently. They look for ways to centralize all their clients’ data to facilitate fast fetching and viewing it.
At the same time, clients have also got smart and tech-savvy and seek speed and the means to reduce effort. They no longer want to run errands to a law firm’s office to submit or collect documents, call or email a lawyer for updates, etc. They instead want the ability to do all such small things right from the comfort of their home.
So, if you are an individual or run a law firm, this post will help you understand traditional legal services management challenges. You will also learn how legal service portal solutions can help overcome those challenges and improve your legal services.
Challenge 1 – Document Management
When it comes to big law firms, one of the biggest challenges they face is maintaining records. With so many clients they serve, the documents keep adding up, and it becomes difficult to manage them all in separate files and folders.
Safekeeping old files and folders with bulky documents become bulk to carry on – especially for over-stretched cases. There is also a risk of physical damage, loss, misplacement, or mixing of clients’ documents. It may cause additional issues and lead to loss of trust in your firm.
Solution – Centralized Legal Document Management System
A legal service portal is a solution to take you out of the hassle of maintaining physical records. It gives your clients a secure log-in to a portal space where they can easily upload any document you ask for on the go. You can also enable your clients to submit digitally signed documents on the portal. You can simply download these documents and carry on with your work without waiting for them to submit them physically. It saves you from the hassle of maintaining separate files or checking emails to download the documents your clients send.
As the lawyer or owner of the law firm, you can have a central overview of all your clients’ documents. You can simply search your client by name and fetch the records you need.
In the same way, it also helps enhance legal service document management on your clients’ side as well. Your clients can also download documents like the next hearing, invoices, bills, etc.
All in all, it helps strengthen the synergy between you and your clients and helps you serve your clients better.
Challenge 2 – Fetching Past Data
When it comes to long-drawn cases and multiple hearings of some clients, it becomes tough to keep up with documents and data. The need to access and present any document you use in the previous hearing may arise at any time. Especially if your client’s cases reopen, you may need to access and review the old documents, decisions, and more.
If everything is on paper in physical files and folders or even in spreadsheets, retrieving the right data at the right time may pose challenges. You may fail to find the old file, right document.
This may land you in a problem where you need to reinvent the wheel. You’ll need to recollect all the details, compile them, and match them with the current requirements, and so on. It won’t only take time but also increase your effort, and hassle, and delays.
Solution – Compile Once, Forget Forever
Legal service portal solutions come in handy as they let you compile unlimited digital data for as long as you choose to. You always can simply log in to your portal, fetch a client’s record, study the case, and think of the best way to render your legal service.
A legal portal solution eliminates the need to get bogged down into multiple old emails or old files and folders to retrieve what you need.
Once you or your clients upload any documents, enter any details, they are there to stay unless you choose to delete them. This makes it different from other ways to compile data like emails, spreadsheets, files, etc., that you are more prone to lose.
Challenge 3 – Security
What if your client’s folder lands in the wrong hands through stealth? Or your email account gets hacked? Your reputation as a lawyer or law firm can go for a toss in no time. It can cost you a huge loss of money and credibility. To make the case worse, you may end up facing a legal suit for this unintended “carelessness” in handling sensitive data. This is the challenge that plagues every law firm and is real for small law firms and lawyers who rely on conventional law service methods.
Solution – Secure Log-In, Secure Data
Imagine if you have a secure portal to give your clients a dedicated space to manage their details. They can simply log in, view details, get updates, upload relevant documents, book appointments, and log out. This prevents the risk of leak or abuse of sensitive information by any third party. Only you or your client can access the information you both need to exchange.
On your part, a legal services portal again proves to be of great help. It can help you ensure high security and confidentiality of your clients’ data. It prevents you from accidental loss or stealth of data, sending sensitive info to the wrong person by mistake, making errors in entries, etc. The reason is that a portal compiles it all in one place and enables you to provide further role-based access to a client’s info to your fellow counselor or any other involved person.
All of this helps bolster the security and confidentiality of your legal document management and prevents security breaches.
CRMJetty – Your Best Legal Service Portal Development Partner
If you are looking to streamline your legal services, now’s the right time for it. CRMJetty can help you build the right legal service portal fit for your needs. We offer a launch-ready legal portal solution that provides you with all the next-gen features you need to manage your legal services better. It provides dedicated web space to manage your clients, payment gateways, accounting and invoicing, secure access, and more you seek in a legal service portal. We also provide customization services to make our portal fit your logic. We also provide custom development services for a unique portal exclusively for your legal services.
So, it is time you build a legal portal for your legal services and keep up with digital advancement.
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