Choosing a case management system is one of the trickier things a law firm must do. Even within a single firm, there can be many different opinions and needs. To make it more challenging, you must consider the case management program in conjunction with the other applications your firm runs as well as your current and desired procedures for handling client-related activities.

As a consultant, I support clients on Time Matters, Amicus Attorney and Abacus Law, the three major contenders in the law firm case management arena. By way of disclosure, I use Time Matters to manage my consulting practice. In last month's column, I looked in depth at Time Matters; in this column, I'll take a look at Amicus Attorney and next month will evaluate Abacus Law.

Amicus Attorney's Version IV, from Gavel and Gown Software, 800-472-2289, www.amicusattorney.com, began as a system designed on an Apple Macintosh for the company president's law firm. While it has been a Windows product for many years now, its design still reflects those graphical roots and sets it apart from competitors with origins in DOS.

The program comes in several versions, including a single-user version as part of the Corel WordPerfect Legal Suite, the Organizer Edition intended for single users, the Advanced Edition for up to 15-user networks and the Client/Server Edition for up to 200 users.

Gavel and Gown has eliminated the lawyer and assistant licenses, now charging $299 per user and distinguishes within the program between timekeepers and those who don't bill time. The Client/Server version is based on the Faircom SQL database and ships with an NLM version that can be run on a Novell network. In contrast, the Enterprise version of Time Matters requires Microsoft's SQL 7, which, in turn, requires a Microsoft NT server.

Improvements

Some of the biggest improvements to Amicus Attorney have been behind-the-scenes. The company has addressed complaints about speed and reliability, especially over networks. By giving assistants and lawyers the same capabilities within the program, they each can have their own calendars, assignments to files, tasks and appointments. Assistants still are able to open and work in their boss's "office." The "team" product also was eliminated and each individual license was made network-ready. Attorneys whose vision is starting to deteriorate will appreciate the larger, clearer and easier-to-read screen.

While each of the case management programs handles similar functions, as they have been enhanced they have been heading into more-distinct directions. Philosophical differences among the programs - such as whether to include certain functions within the core product or link to other products performing that function - are starting to emerge in this latest round of enhancements.

For example, in Version 3, Time Matters incorporated direct support of MAPI and POP3 e-mail. This means you can send, receive and manage Internet e-mail from within Time Matters. If you're using a MAPI-compliant e-mail program such as Microsoft's Outlook or Novell's GroupWise, you see a copy of your incoming e-mail in your personal in-box within Time Matters. Both Amicus Attorney and Abacus Law made the design decision not to integrate e-mail within the product. Amicus Attorney allows you to use your contact list as a source for e-mail addresses or the Corel WordPerfect address book as well as other MAPI e-mail address books, but assumes you will create and manage your e-mail messages with an e-mail program.

Documents

Another place where the products recently diverged is in their approach to document management. Time Matters doesn't yet link to Worldox but has an auto-naming feature that, for some firms, can be an answer to managing documents. Amicus has established a direct link with Worldox from World Software Corp., (201) 444-3228, www.worldox.com, a popular document management program for small- and medium-sized law firms. (This is not to be confused with Hotdocs, which is used to assemble documents and also can be used with either Amicus Attorney or Time Matters.)

Worldox is a program that automatically names and stores documents according to rules your firm defines upon installation. With Worldox running in the background, a document generated from Amicus is saved automatically according to the client and matter with which it is associated. In addition to looking at documents associated with a client's file in Amicus, Worldox provides additional powerful search tools to locate files, such as a quick search based on text within the document within a particular date range.

When beginning Amicus, open to the Daily Report, which serves as a quick review of your activities and reminders. For instance, it will let you know whether you have time activities that have not been billed, whether recently added files are missing information, whether you have not been in touch with contacts you have requested to be reminded about periodically, etc.

After closing the Daily Report, you step into your office. Amicus provides a number of choices for a screen background and the graphic looks like a fancy corner office with wood paneling and a large desk. Underneath your nameplate are buttons representing the main components of the program: Files, Contacts, Calendar, Time Sheet, Timer, Phone, Call Center and Daily Report.

Virtual office

Amicus is designed to both look, feel and function like the physical equivalents in your office. For example, when you press the Files button, you see a Redwell-type folder with tabs to show All, Active, Special, Closed, Billable and Non-billable cases. On the front of the Redwell is the resulting list of files with four sortable column titles (File Name, Client ID, Matter ID or Type). While you cannot customize these, you can determine with a checkbox which cases fit which categories and combine all these tools with a search by practice type to winnow your list of cases.

There are two methods for finding a case with search tools. First, you can use the basic find files screen and search for text within specific fields in the file records. The other method is to use the alternate search, which is more sophisticated. You can define relationships or ranges as part of the search. Larger firms often request to see case or contact lists sorted by the responsible lawyer. While it can be done in Amicus using the search tools, it would be better if there were more options to customize these folders so they are more readily available. The addition of "Whose file is it" lets you quickly determine the responsible lawyer on a case as well as the team members assigned to it. Both Time Matters and Abacus Law allow you to save your frequent searches to locate information more quickly and easily.

The graphic imagery continues when a specific file is accessed. The screen looks as if a manila folder has been opened. In the upper left corner, you can connect the people from your Contact List to this case. When you add people to a case, you can specify their relationship. Below, there's a summary of the contact card for the person whose name is highlighted. You can click on the Edit button to see the rest of the contact card and click on the phone icon to open a new phone call record. This screen connects the call record to the file and contact, and starts the timer automatically so you can efficiently bill the appropriate case. A Show Calls button displays all the calls with this person. There is a large area to take notes during calls. When finished, you can make a call-back reminder, print the memo area for your physical file and make a time entry to send to your billing program.

Phone calls

Built into the phone call record are categories such as spoke, left message, no answer, busy signal and voice mail so you can monitor which calls have been completed. One of my frustrations with the previous version of Amicus was its assumption that calls either were received or initiated by the lawyer rather than the more-common situation of a staff person taking a message. The Call Center now offers a new tool for managing phone messages and monitoring calls taken by others in the firm. Version 4.0.3 also adds a screen to show today's calls and messages. Maybe it's me, but there are times when I need to review calls that have been returned, but we haven't actually spoken. In Amicus, I can check the "call was returned" box and make a to-do to remind me to call again.

In Time Matters, I can mark a message "read but not done," and I can set up my own lists with my own criteria. While I didn't have these options in Time Matters Version 2, I have found these new options very useful in Version 3.

This brings up an important point to consider when selecting a case management system. Think about what you are doing now, what you think you will want to do and then think about how your procedures may evolve with more options. For example, I use the phone tracking feature of Time Matters regularly. Many lawyers rely on voice mail and do not consider monitoring telephone calls in their case management system a priority. Additionally, while it's not easy to be objective once you've selected and become accustomed to one of these programs, when comparing the different programs, you not only should think about how you handle your office now, but how you might handle it with these software tools.

Calendar

Firms interested in implementing a case management program usually are motivated by the need to better manage the lawyers' schedules or to have a common, accessible contact list connected to basic case information. A corollary requirement may be to use the common name and address list as the source for document creation.

Amicus Version 4 has vastly improved the calendar and group scheduling aspects of the program. The graphic design of the calendar has always made the program an attractive contender for lawyers' desktops. The calendar screen looks like a date book with to-do items on the left and events on the right. You can click and drag your mouse over a time period to set up an event. You also can click and drag it to another date on the reference calendar to move it to another day.

The "Do" button has been enhanced to allow sending e-mail or accessing websites. This could be helpful if you want to create a to-do as part of a precedent (Amicus' term for rules) to review current mortgage rates before proceeding with the next step of a real estate closing. Tabs along the right side of the calendar now include a month-at-a-glance view. Additional calendar formats are provided that work with date books you carry in your briefcase such as the Day Runner and Franklin Covey organizers.

According to an Amicus spokesperson, there is an upgrade due soon to improve the Amicus link to the Palm Pilot. Currently, Amicus can share calendar, contact and to-do information, but has no underlying case information relating to those appointments. The next upgrade will add the ability to see what file is associated with events, etc. This feature, which has been in Time Matters, makes the Palm Pilot a more useful tool for busy lawyers.

Abacus has a Free Time view allowing you to easily see who is available for meetings as well as the ability to combine individual or workgroup schedules onto any of their calendar views. Time Matters lets you combine multiple people and resources onto any of its calendar views. Amicus Attorney includes a master schedule separate from individual calendars, allowing you to make an appointment for an entire group or an individual.

The different approaches to group calendaring among the leading case management programs meet different needs. Some firms may have to find time for all the partners to meet while other offices may wish to see who will be where on a given day. Different formats and options work better for different goals.

Deadlines

If you don't want to set up court rules and precedents, you can purchase pre-defined court deadlines developed by Compulaw. The precedents feature is elegantly implemented. You set up an actual file with the reminders, tasks and deadlines you wish. Once they are set, you save the settings and can apply them to similar transactions. If you want to change them, though, you will need to retrieve the current settings and make a new one from it.

The contact list looks like a huge Rolodex with individual cards visible. The cards can be customized further in Version 4 with more than 20 customizable fields with new layouts. Additionally, 20 fields have been added per contact for phone and communication information such as e-mail and web addresses. While I know people who have several phone numbers and e-mail addresses, I haven't yet met anyone with 20! All these new fields can be used to fill in blanks on merge documents.

Two general improvements to the program are the built-in reports and the ability to access data from the program using Seagate's Crystal Report Writer. This powerful program allows you to pull information from different parts of Amicus and combine them into nicely composed reports with calculations or other additional information. Version 4 also introduced new keyboard shortcuts and the ability to right-click on lists to quickly move to other parts of the program.

Amicus shields the average user from the setup and administrative tasks by having them in a separate program, the Amicus Administrator. This is where to set up the users and register their licenses, set up word processing merge templates and custom fields, and perform database backups.

There are advantages and disadvantages to this design. The benefit is that once the system is customized, the average person will rarely need to add new classification codes or categories to the database. The drawback of this design is that there are times when you have a new requirement that necessitates adding a category such as a new role for a party in a case. This requires everyone to exit the program while the administrator adds the new category.

For those already using Amicus and trying to decide whether to upgrade, there are some new features that may entice you. The addition of 50 more custom fields per file type is a welcome addition, particularly with more choices for layout. Version 4 also introduces the concept of workgroups to better enable attorneys to manage the teams of people within their office working on different cases.

Choosing the right case management program may be one of the most-difficult tasks you will undertake. Once you implement the one that best fits your firm, you will wonder why you agonized over the decision and didn't do it sooner.

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.