In the past few years, many lawyers have discovered the benefits of case management software. At the core, all the major case management products include individual and firm wide calendars, a firm wide contact list and a case list to manage the activities pertaining to the firm’s cases. Once you move beyond these core functions, the list of features differs and, more important, how they are implemented and work in different legal practice environments vary tremendously.

In my consulting practice, the most frequently asked question from clients and prospective clients is which product to choose and why. My ideal choice would take the best features of each and combine them into a single, perfect program. Of course, that won’t happen any time soon!

According to its website, WestWorks includes case management, client file notes, calendar, timekeeping, contact information, document preparation and management. Lexis has partnered with Time Matters to sell a customized version that will enable lawyers to access and connect their legal research to their cases. While those with Time Matters can use the web component of the program to perform similar steps with West and Loislaw’s services, the Lexis interface is simpler to work with.

At this year’s ABA Techshow, Gavel and Gown released Version 5. Around the same time, Data.txt released Time Matters Version 4. I will review what’s new in Amicus in another column.

Time Matters 4 has upped the ante to its competitors by making document production and management so elegant and simple, many users won’t even realize they’re relying on information stored and maintained by the program. Document production staff can press the TM Insider button from their Word or WordPerfect toolbar and choose a type of data record and a formattable clipboard to prepare the document using the information pulled from Time Matters in the selected format. If information is missing, such as a salutation or zip code, the program can be set up to "back fill" the missing information while the document is being completed. When documents are connected to Time Matters, they can be easily accessed and managed.

In my consulting practice, I use Time Matters 3.0. I chose Time Matters more than four years ago because then it was the only case management program that linked with my billing program, Timeslips.

Some people define ease of use by measuring how quickly they can begin using a particular software program. When a product doesn’t do as much or doesn’t allow as many options for customization, it may seem easier. However, the tradeoff comes when you outgrow the product and want to do more with one that isn’t as flexible.

The other aspect of ease of use follows the initial training. Sometimes a program is easier to learn because it can’t do as much as its competitors. For example, if a program offers only two formats for printing calendars, the choices are "easier," but not as adaptable to a specific firm’s requirements. While both Amicus and Time Matters can be customized, Time Matters wins hands-down in its ability to adapt better and to more situations and environments. In my experience, minimal customization makes Time Matters a much easier program to teach and use because it has been adapted to the firm’s needs and therefore is a more familiar system for staff to master.

It might be worthwhile to mention some problems I have addressed to provide some food for thought and assistance in evaluating the different products.

As an example, I recently worked with a medium-sized firm that purchased Time Matters. Its primary goal was to provide a calendar and deadline manager for the firm’s litigators. We spent one day working with the firm to make sure the classification codes for the types of events, to-do’s, contacts and cases met lawyers’ needs. We also set up Quick Tabs and column labels so lawyers could quickly sort their lists the way they wanted.

In Time Matters, Quick Tabs can be set up by person, case type, file number and a variety of other options. By allowing lawyers and staff to locate records quickly and easily, the program becomes a more useful tool. We also set up a trial list calendar report that could be printed while making the transition from paper records to a computer-based litigation docket. We actually spent the bulk of the day importing case and contact information from the billing program. In one day, we were able to get the firm ready to use the program. We didn’t automate everything we could have, nor did we customize the program extensively; we simply made it a better fit for the way the staff prefers to work and meet their immediate goals.

We spent about two hours providing the staff an overview of Time Matters’ capabilities and the steps required to enter events into the calendar. We provided materials to supplement the training and assist in cleaning up the imported billing data. When the staff returned to their desks, we answered any questions as they began working with the new program. They used our services only the first afternoon. We have checked several times and the firm is very pleased with the new computer-based calendars and has begun exploring other program functions such as adding notes to case records and using the messenger and phone message features.

Another firm had been using Microsoft Outlook for e-mail, contact list and individual lawyer calendars. While they liked the ease with which individual lawyers could sync their Palm Pilots to their own contact lists and schedule, they were frustrated by the difficulties in trying to use Outlook to combine information from everyone in the firm.

Using Time Matters to manage calendars, task lists and a contact list has enabled the firm to begin doing more pro-active marketing and avoid much of the duplication inherent in its old system. To my knowledge, Time Matters is the only legal case management program that allows firms to handle the Internet and internal e-mail within it. This means one can send and receive e-mail using programs like Outlook and a copy of the message is saved within Time Matters to be connected to the appropriate case. The ability to see a complete picture of activity concerning a case including three screens of custom fields of information, notes, phone messages with their notes, incoming and outgoing e-mail messages and documents makes Time Matters my favorite case management program.

Some case management programs organize information by providing a basic screen for each case and special fields for the type of case. In Time Matters, you connect the codes that define your case types to a Form Style that can overlap with other cases or have unique fields — there are more than 11 types of fields with even more options for those fields in Version 3, and 15 types of fields including calculations with formulas in Version 4. The Form Styles work on all the main record types — events, to-do’s, contacts and cases. This means you can have plaintiff and defendant labels on a litigation matter and change the labels to buyer and seller for a real estate closing. This feature is sophisticated enough so you also can pull a clients’ Social Security numbers from their contact record into their estate-planning case screen or their case’s docket number into the event screen. While these are easy to work with, making major changes to the basic design of any database must be done methodically and with forethought. I recommend that my clients live with the program as it is shipped for a little while until they understand the tradeoffs of different designs.

Several clients who have active litigation practices improved their calendaring by setting up a merge template that sorted upcoming court dates into a table format that included the date, time, location, case name, number and judge, while leaving the last column open so the managing partner could schedule the lawyers. The firm administrator entered lawyers’ initials in the staff portion of the events field and created a second version of the report so lawyers could sort them by date. At one firm, these two reports replaced a nearly 15-page weekly docket report. Needless to say, that client was happy with the results.

The built-in report options in Time Matters are extremely flexible. For calendars, there are daily, weekly and monthly views with many options and filters. Additionally, one can create six other pre-set options from the event list. If none of these work for your firm, there also is a built-in report writer that lets you design your own form with fields and layouts. Although they sneaked in the ability to print lists based on the columns sorted on the List Layout that provides one user-defined sort option, some of my clients require multiple levels of sorting, e.g., by attorney, date and court. We were able to accomplish this by creating a merge template, nesting a macro that used the sorting options of the word processor to further massage the information. While some people might see these options as overwhelming, it is usually clear which one will be the best fit for a particular need and none of them are difficult to set up or use.

Purchasers of case management systems have always been attracted to the notion that implementing one of them will organize their office. Most of these programs include a function allowing you to set up a chain of activities based on a starting or ending date. For example, if you’re preparing for a real estate closing, the base date would be the date of the closing. Beforehand, you might have a checklist of items, such as preparing and sending certain documents, making phone calls and receiving specific papers. Some of these items also may be dependent on other activities. After the closing, there may be a few follow-up items, such as preparing and sending a closing statement to clients.

Time Matters lets you set up chain templates using triggers when a defined activity occurs. These chains can include a combination of events, to-do items, messages and documents. Separately, these functions are useful, but together they can help a firm avoid malpractice and service their clients more effectively. One client is using these tools to manage its depositions. When scheduling one, the lawyer must reserve the conference room and send letters to the adversary, client and court reporter. These letters are started through the trigger connected to the event record when a deposition is entered. When the adversary schedules a deposition and that is added to the calendar, another trigger launches a letter notifying the client. Another firm uses the trigger function to add a follow-up to-do or phone call for each lawyer when specific types of documents are prepared. This reminds lawyers to call the client if they haven’t received a response to a critical letter or document.

According to most surveys I’ve seen, only a small number of law firms use any case management product. No matter which you choose, you must prepare yourself and your office to ensure a successful implementation. Firms fail in implementing case management programs by starting with unrealistic expectations about the time commitment required to set it up, complete the conversion and cleanup phases. Most times, firms will be converting a contact list, case list or calendar from other sources. They will expect the new system to flawlessly accept the data and not allow time for cleanup. This extra work at the front end will pay off over time, but often can sabotage a new system when employees become frustrated by all the extra steps suddenly required to prepare a simple letter.

Consider a typical conversion situation: The source information comes from the firm’s billing system. This means the contact list consists solely of the firm’s clients. None of the judges, adversaries, vendors, experts or other people the firm may deal with have been entered in the case management database, even though old correspondence to them may have been saved. Compare adding several new contact records and connecting them to a case with copying an old letter to make a new one and you start to see the beginnings of a failure.