Pandemic leads to spike in family law cases - how technology can help ease the burden
Family law specialists have always had a far-reaching remit, dealing with everything from Divorce and Financial Remedies, to Children’s Acts claims and injunction proceedings. By its very nature, family legal work is often complex, highly sensitive and time consuming.
The social impact of the pandemic has driven significant growth across almost all areas of family law. However, it was already an area experiencing notable increases. Between 2017 and 2019, family courts saw a 20% rise in cases and by Q4 of 2020, there had been an uplift of 7% compared to the same period in 2019, despite the upheaval of the pandemic and many courts not being able to sit as normal.
The lockdown impact
The latest quarterly family court statistics, covering January to March 2021, show that domestic violence cases had increased by 15% compared to 2020 and the number of divorce petitions also increased, reaching 30,420. Many experts have linked these surges to the stresses and strains placed on relationships during multiple lockdowns.
During the same period, adoption applications increased by 6%, which is the same rise as the number of adoption orders issued.
All of this is happening at a time when the courts are facing a significant backlog of cases that were unable to take place during the pandemic. Is it any wonder then that experts are warning that, as we emerge from the pandemic, the combination of cases getting through the courts and the rising demand for services is set to create enormous amounts of work for family barristers?
And, to some degree, this increase in workload is largely going unreported.
Over the past few months, there has been a lot made of the pressures conveyancers have faced as a result of the looming Stamp Duty deadlines, but in comparison, the rise of family law cases has been a more slow and steady incline, meaning that it has not stimulated as much discussion and debate.
Of course, at the same time as dealing with sector specific pressures, family law practitioners are also having to adapt to new ways of working like almost every other legal professional across the country.
Changing expectations
As workloads increase, consumer expectations are changing too, forcing many law firms to make changes to the way client relationships are handled.
One legal trends report for 2021 has highlighted the significant rise in clients seeking tech-enabled legal services, attributed to the growing consumer reliance on technology since the start of the pandemic. Data from the Legal Trends report shows that:
● 56% of legal clients say they place greater importance on technology now compared to pre-Covid.
● 69% would prefer the sharing of legal documents electronically.
● 56% want video conferencing instead of a phone call.
● 65% prefer to pay legal fees electronically.
As individuals have changed their behaviours, this, in turn, has also shaped their expectations of working with professional service providers. Choices are no longer being made purely on location and cost – the customer journey and experience is playing a much bigger part.
This all means that legal professionals are having to adapt too. A report by global management consultants McKinsey & Company found that on average, the pandemic has forced companies to accelerate their digital transformation by an average of seven years. One of our own clients, a managing partner at a leading law firm, told us that for the legal sector, it was more like decades.
So, with increasing workloads and shifting consumer expectations of how the legal sector delivers its services, the pressure is truly on for family law practitioners and it is clear that something needs to be done to ease the burden.
People first digitisation
True digital transformation should focus just as much on employees as it does on clients and customers – after all, people are the best asset of any law firm.
We have already identified the strains being placed on family law departments, but how can technology help to lessen the load?
The starting point should be a review of the software that your family law experts are using. Is it specific to their specialism and is it actually helping? Is the technology helping to free up time to focus on a higher quality of service to clients facing incredibly stressful personal situations? Is it completing time consuming admin tasks with minimal effort? If the answer to these questions is ‘no’, then it is probably time to question if this is really the ideal solution for your people.
Take our own Family Case Management Software as an example, which has been designed to simplify the complex processes of family legal work. It caters for Private and Legal Aid / Legally assisted casework by recording time against tasks and uploading directly to the Legal Aid Agency. Users can also view all cases related to one specific family in a single place through linked actions and its screens also mirror Form E and other commonly used forms in family law, so as users complete fields on screen, Form E is automatically populated, saving the hassle of manually copying over information.
The ability to save time by completing hours of paperwork in seconds, creating quicker turnarounds to please demanding clients, is vital right now. Family law is an area that is set to continue growing, practitioners predict a surge in divorce cases in September, but it is only those that understand the relationship between technology, their people and clients that will fully be able to unlock their limitless potential and benefit in terms of business growth.
Find out more about our family law solutions and see testimonials from those already benefiting from them.
