In my most-recent columns, I took a look at the leading case management programs. In the last of this series, I will examine AbacusLaw from Abacus Data Systems (800-726-3339, www.abacuslaw.com). The company began in 1987 and quickly established itself as the dominant legal calendaring and case management provider. According to the company, more than 85,000 attorneys use its product.

AbacusLaw comes in two versions: The Professional version, which costs $199 per user and includes a calendar, docket, tickler, case, contact, document and conflicts control, along with synchronization to a Palm Pilot and remote PCs. The Advanced version includes everything in the Professional version and adds links to popular billing programs including Timeslips and Hot Docs to assemble more-complex documents, featuring dynamic workgroup scheduling and the ability to customize the database. The Advanced version costs $299 per user. The company offers a 100-day money-back guarantee. Both versions are network-ready and no server license is required.

Abacus' California roots show in both its origins and current features. California's courts have complex but standard deadlines for cases. Beyond the basic options, the company offers sets of Timelines for California Civil Procedure, California Fast Track Rules with updates as well as the Texas Civil Procedure Timelines, a generic set of civil procedure rules, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and a set of general-practice templates. These add-ons cost $99 each.

Abacus has a clean and simple look when the program starts. However, with the Advanced version, lawyers can create their own screens. While Amicus Attorney lets you attach sets of custom fields by practice area to different files and Time Matters allows you to change the attributes of nearly any field on any screen and provides more types of fields to pick from, Abacus provides a design tool that lets you totally change how the data entry screens look. For example, you could choose a simplified look with bare-bones information for entering events or simply add a comments section to explain the upcoming appointment.

The tool to customize the screen is the easiest to work with among the case management programs. In the screen editor, simply right-click, choose what type of field to add, click and drag it to the location you want and size it. The flexibility that comes with being able to design your own screens makes Abacus a serious contender for case management.

According to Jeff Levine of The Systems Shop in New York City and an Abacus consultant, the "drag-and-drop screen designer feature is to die for." I have to agree. The ability to design your own screen and add fields is something none of the other case management programs approach. Some firms want the "keep it simple" approach and primarily want a firm-wide calendar to manage court dates and deadlines along with case notes. The ability to eliminate fields that won't be used or move fields around the screen can make this an easier program to use.

The program allows you to add an unlimited number of fields on seven screens for each of the three main databases - events, names and matters. There are four types of fields that can be used: character for text entries, date, numeric and logical (yes/no). Additionally, when you use the screen designer, you can set up masks to force people to enter their answers in a specific format such as initial caps, all caps, specific number formats for case IDs, etc. Another tool is a Notes List box, where you can see any notes pertaining to the contact or matter on the main record screen instead of having to tab to the second screen. The report generator with the program lets you calculate totals for any numeric field.

If you customize Abacus and use it with a Palm Pilot, you can match fields from Abacus to the Palm. If you add additional fields, you simply tell the Palm desktop in which fields to place the added information. Abacus uses the Palm link to transfer information. Each person can have his or her own screen design. This means the tax partner doesn't have to see the fields for plaintiff and defendant that are important to the firm's litigators.

Searching

AbacusLaw is designed around a relational database and consists of names, matters, events and documents. Ticklers are incorporated into the events. As with its competitors, you can search for a matter and look at the related events or review the names screens for everyone connected to the case. To find information in Abacus, you use a query screen. You use Boolean logic (is equal to, is greater than, etc.) to form your search. Searches can be saved and reused, and can be performed across different data lists. For example, you can search for all clients with pending matters before the Workers Compensation Review Board. One nice touch is you also can use the query function to determine how many records fit the query.

Names can be classified by user-defined contact types such as client, witness, judge. Abacus comes with a built-in zip code list so when you add a name, you can enter the zip code and the city and state automatically will be completed. Names then can be linked to events and matters. The basic name entry screen includes fields for first and last name, a record ID, salutation, mailing label address section with the zip code finder and e-mail field, four telephone fields, a referred-by field, the contact classification (only one per contact), which attorney is connected to the record, its status (e.g., open, inactive or closed) and the date the record was opened.

Abacus combines events, ticklers and to-do items into its events list, using familiar language that provides lawyers an easy transition from manual calendars or red books. The labels on the event screen are: who, what, where and when. The who refers to the person in the law firm who should be scheduled for this event. The what is the type of event such as a meeting, court date. While entered like events of other case management programs, Abacus uses the same screen with different "what" codes to record deadlines such as an expiration of a statute of limitations or reminders such as "draft appellate brief." Initially, some people might find this design confusing since there usually is no time of day associated with reminders or deadlines. On the other hand, as with all case management programs, once people have learned the elements of the event screen, they also have mastered the other types of event-related activities.

Scheduling

Abacus always has been popular with litigation firms that initially entered court dates for the "to be assigned" attorney and later assign lawyers once it's determined who must be in which court on what day. While it's easy to assign several of the firm's lawyers or staff to an event, Abacus doesn't have the ability to assign multiple people to the same event. One option is to clone the event for each or use the notes feature to list the other attendees. This limitation is an area Abacus must address as it's fairly common for lawyers to schedule multiple people for a deposition or hearing, or even an in-office meeting. Of course, the trade-off is that it's simpler to understand how to create events and link names to matters and events, since they can't be cross-linked in as many ways as Time Matters. You can complete either a standard event screen or set up a Quick Appointment, filling in only the staff person attending the event, the time, date, duration and notes.

When linking names to matters or matters to names, Abacus lets you define the link's relationship. This is helpful since an attorney on your names list might be your adversary in another circumstance. In the current version of Abacus, you can't link names to names or matters to matters; you can connect multiple names to a matter or multiple matters to a name. Time Matters lets you connect contacts to other contacts or relate cases to each other. This is useful since you may want to connect several lawyers from the same firm to each other or you might have related cases for a single corporate entity.

Security is limited to either read-only access, no access or unrestricted. This may present a problem for some firms that take security more seriously and want to limit people's access to particular parts of the program while giving them access to others. Abacus doesn't have the ability to mark any records as private and there are some issues with synchronizing databases if you have done substantial customization. The program, however, does include an operator audit you can query to create reports to determine who did what on a particular day. Another helpful feature is the history button that allows you to review where you have been during a session and backtrack if needed.

Links

The Advanced version of Abacus has built-in links to both Timeslips and PCLaw Jr. The setup for these is quite simple, and sending information from Abacus to the billing programs is flawless. To set it up, simply tell Abacus where to find your Timeslips or PCLaw database and match Abacus fields to their equivalent fields in the billing program. Clicking the bill button in the events or notes window or right-clicking from the organizer lets you transfer information to the billing program as slips. It doesn't provide the opportunity to review or edit the description before sending the information to the billing program or review the billing for the day before sending it as the other programs do. If it doesn't know the case name, it will prompt you. Again, Abacus has chosen a simpler format and doesn't let you connect information in Abacus to custom fields in the newer versions of Timeslips. For some firms, this will be more than they need, for others it may not be needed at all and for others still, the link may not be sophisticated enough.

Getting information from Abacus onto paper is quite easy. For example, when you show one of the calendar views (daily, weekly or monthly) and click on the printer icon, you're given a number of formats including an organizer style, a week(s) style, the current month or year, as well as a days or month view, to-do list or other report. These standard reports can be modified to a firm's preference.

As for reports, AbacusLaw has a full reporting engine and is the only one of the three leading case management programs that directly supports ODBC (open database connectivity), a standard database access method developed by Microsoft. The goal of ODBC is to make it possible to access any data from any ODBC-compliant application, regardless of which database management language is used. The ODBC driver sits between programs like Abacus and Microsoft Access or report writers translating the Abacus data into instructions that other programs can understand. This is needed sometimes to design reports not immediately available in the program or to share data with other applications such as billing programs. Time Matters requires the purchase of an additional driver for $100 while Amicus supports it only in its Client/Server version. This means the data is accessible to someone comfortable with advanced database design and can take the information from the case management program and combine it, link it or massage it to get totals or other formats from the original data.

Assembly

Abacus works with the various versions of Microsoft Word and Corel WordPerfect for merges as well as CapSoft's Hot Docs for document assembly. Using the information stored in Abacus to prepare letters and documents is quick and simple, once the basic structure is established. There is a one-time setup to ensure the fields needed to complete forms and documents have been added to Abacus' Internet format .ALF file. Essentially, the .ALF file serves as a repository of the data fields available to be merged into Word or WordPerfect form documents. The .ALF file includes a repeat option for sending a letter to multiple people of the same class such as all defense counsel on a case. This design has limitations, however, in especially large cases, since it may not be sufficient for preparing correspondence. One nice touch is that the .ALF file can include the caption information for matters, making it easy to prepare pleadings.

Once the .ALF file has been generated, the resulting data file can be connected to copies of existing documents that can be converted into merge templates. Open a name or matter record, click the printer icon and select Forms Generation and your word processor. A list of template documents will appear from which to choose. Abacus will open the word processor and present a document with the blanks completed with information from the name or matter on the screen. If you want to send a letter to multiple parties, perform a query first to identify the records to be included, then perform the merge.

Merge forms also can be assigned to events from the event screen. The program has a menu item, "Today's documents," which shows all the documents that must be generated that day. Click the "go" button and Abacus will merge the needed documents. The program also comes with some Quick Forms that make it easy to prepare a basic letter, envelope or fax cover sheet. There also are preset forms that will prepare a data file with all the basic fields from the names, matter or event screens to be used with merge documents.

Documents

Time Matters has been ahead of both Abacus and Amicus in terms of built-in document management. In Time Matters Version 3, you can define a set of rules for storing and naming documents and have Time Matters keep a linked record of the resulting document on the document tab of both contacts and cases as well as on the document list. When you tell Time Matters to create a document and you're using the auto name feature, the program will assign the proper folders and file name, generate the document with the completed information and keep a permanent record under the appropriate case or contact or both.

Amicus Attorney recently developed a link to Worldox, a popular document management program that also takes care of file naming and folder structure as well as setting up a full text-searchable index. Worldox offers tools beyond those available in these case management products. The link from Amicus to Worldox transfers client and matter information from Amicus to Worldox so you can take advantage of both programs.

Abacus doesn't yet have the ability to name and link to documents it creates. Currently, after merging your document from Abacus, you must name and store it yourself using your word processor and manually add a link to that document on either the case or name screen. This is an area I trust AbacusLaw will enhance in upcoming versions to stay competitive.

Both Amicus and Abacus have decided to leave the storage of e-mail messages to programs like Outlook Express, Outlook, Netscape and Eudora. In Abacus, if a field contains an e-mail address, you can click on it to open your e-mail program and insert that person's e-mail address into the "to" box of a new e-mail message. Abacus doesn't keep a record of sent messages. In contrast, Time Matters has chosen to incorporate much of the functionality of the e-mail programs. Within Time Matters, you can access a copy of your Internet e-mail, attach it to specific cases or contacts and view it later under the e-mail tab for those records.

Priorities

Overall, Abacus does a nice job of tracking events and to-do's, collecting case and contact information, and linking them to provide a computer-based resource about your firm's practice. My bias when evaluating products is to compare them to their competitors. Often I have found people can be very happy with fewer features if they don't need them or don't even realize they are an option. Frequently, even with very basic applications, people have more tools at their fingertips than they realize.

For example, you might never see the need to establish rules for handling e-mail messages or even see the need for the ability to connect those messages to case records in your case management program. Depending on the nature of your practice, this simply could be a low priority. While I think the ability to create documents that get named and tracked automatically is critical to my firm's operation, others may find the entire issue of document creation a much-lower priority than having a computer-based firm-wide calendar to manage trial schedules.

There is a strong argument to be made that having less to customize is better since even though you may not be able to do everything you want, you can begin using the program more quickly and not get bogged down in different approaches to meeting your firm's needs. Keeping things simpler definitely has a place and if that's one of your goals, you might want to consider Abacus for managing your practice.

Carol L. Schlein is president of Law Office Systems, a Montclair-based training and consulting firm assisting small- and medium-sized law firms with technology. She formerly chaired the Computer and Technology Division of the ABA's Law Practice Management Section and is an author of The Lawyer's Guide to Timeslips, published by the ABA. She can be reached at carol@losinc.com.

Questions for Carol L. Schlein on law office technology may be faxed to New Jersey Lawyer at (732) 650-7010, e-mailed to news@njlnews.com or mailed to "Law Technology Questions," New Jersey Lawyer, Edison Square, 2035 Lincoln Highway, Suite 3005, Edison, N.J. 08817.