How can a legal case management software help improve efficiencies within the public sector?
Year after year, the public sector is asked to look internally to see if additional savings can be had; a recent analysis by the Local Government Association warns that councils in England face extra cost pressures of almost £8 billion by 2024/25 to keep vital local services running at today’s level.1
This blog explores ways legal case management can aid this cost-saving exercise within the public sector.
How can a legal case management system help improve efficiency and productivity?
Legal case management software can significantly improve efficiencies within local authorities and government by streamlining the entire process of legal work. It can automate tedious tasks, such as filing documents, searching for records and tracking case progress. It also provides a central repository for all related documents, which makes it easy to access critical documents.
Local governments and councils can work more productively with internal teams and external stakeholders, expert witnesses, and other professionals involved in the case by using legal case management software that provides a central location for the exchange of data and documents that, in turn, facilities effective communication.
A significant cost-saving requirement within the public sector, printing, can be reduced thanks to the safe and secure central location of all case-related data. One council was said to have saved £185,000 a year by lowering their overall printing, per the Good Practice in Local Government Savings guidance.2
Our blog, The paperless law firm: A real option or a 40-year-old pipe dream? helps to break down the barrier of a paperless or paper-lite approach to today’s law firm.
How can a legal case management software help with lowering costs?
By minimising the manual work necessary to manage cases, legal case management software assists in lowering the costs of legal services. For instance, it takes a lot of resources, such as lawyers and clerks, to administer complex cases effectively. Software for legal case management can automate repetitive operations like writing reports, setting up hearings, and keeping track of deadlines, making teams more efficient in their assignments. Additionally, it keeps them informed of any alterations that might occur through a case, allowing them to decide quickly and continue to adhere to the regulatory standard.
Managing disparate information also becomes more accessible with legal case management systems since it allows users to easily create an audit trail of activities associated with a particular case. This makes it easy to answer questions like who did what, when and why if needed for review or compliance purposes. Furthermore, real-time communication between attorneys or other stakeholders becomes faster and more accurate due to automated notifications that can be sent via email or phone directly from the application.
Implementing a secure ISO27001 web-based legal case management system can help local authorities reassess their office space in light of the new standard that allows teams to work wherever suits them. This will quickly achieve the most significant cost savings, selling office space and land!
Lastly, the legal case management software offers more excellent decision-making capabilities than manual processes because of its built-in analytics component, which facilities data-driven insights based on previous outcomes. This enables teams to assess potential outcomes before making any decision, enabling them to arrive at the optimum option for a particular setting quickly.
