How To Choose Legal Document Management Software

Name: Legal Software Service
Brand: AdvoLogix
Rating: 4.91 (53 reviews)

Law firms are often overwhelmed by the volume of data and cases in their systems. That’s why they should consider implementing legal document management software or practice management software with document management capabilities like AdvoLogix. Reliable and efficient, AdvoLogix enables legal teams to use its document and legal management tools to increase productivity, boost client satisfaction, and improve team collaboration.

With so many files and clients, lawyers can easily get overwhelmed, leading to missed deadlines, customer dissatisfaction, lawsuits, and revenue loss.

Fortunately, document management software helps attorneys attain transparency, efficiency, and control over all legal matters. Document management software automates storing, sharing, tracking, and managing documents, cases, and files.

Get Started with Advologix: enterprise-class legal management software.

As a result, lawyers and other staff members can easily find vital information within seconds. Document management apps can also bring business sophistication and strategy to legal teams and align their resources with business goals while offering real-time collaboration.

Legal document management software is available as stand-alone applications or as a capability within more wide-ranging programs like Salesforce-based AdvoLogix. AdvoLogix is a legal management software with powerful document management capabilities such as document automation, enterprise-class dashboards, and reporting for managing priorities and workload.

What Is Legal Document Management Software?

Legal document management software allows firms to organize, edit, manage, and collaborate on important documents, including case files, emails, and client profiles.

Note that there is a difference between document management software and practice management software. Lawyers use document management software to organize and quickly access digital legal documents, while legal practice management software is a more comprehensive toolset for managing firm records and activities.

You can gain the benefits of document management software from wider practice management platforms that include those capabilities, such as AdvoLogix.

Examples of Document Management Software That AdvoLogix Can Integrate With

AdvoLogix’s Salesforce capabilities allow it to connect with various document management software platforms. Almost anything that works with Salesforce works with AdvoLogix, including:

Box.com: A cloud-based content management system that allows you to store, share, and manage files and includes security, collaboration, and analytics features

Dropbox: A cloud-based service that offers file storage and synchronization

iManage: A cloud-based document management application that allows you to store, manage, and collaborate on files and emails, and includes a smart search tool to filter by metadata

Benefits of Document Management Software for Law Firms

Document management software for law firms provides many advantages, from improved collaboration and communication to more efficient onboarding and training.

Increased Productivity

Traditionally, most law firms stored files in physical cabinets or on USB keys and hard drives. Since these places are not sharable and are minimally searchable, lawyers often had difficulties locating files on time, leading to delays, disagreements, and miscommunication.

Alternatively, cloud-based document management software gives lawyers a searchable online hub for storing and managing documents. As a result, anyone with the right permissions can view and access important dockets and data within seconds. For instance, a lawyer can use a plaintiff’s surname to locate billing information, case documents, email correspondence, and other important records.

Happier Clients

Legal professionals can also use document management software to quickly provide clients with case updates and answers to important questions. For example, if your client wants to know the deadline for filing their personal injury case, you can use a document management software search function to locate answers within minutes. Some document management software includes optical character recognition (OCR), which digitizes documents from images or scanned paperwork.

More Comprehensive Conflict Checks

According to conflict of interest rules, attorneys can’t represent a client whose interests are adverse to their own or those of a former client. If an attorney doesn’t obey conflict of interest rules, they may get hit by negative internet reviews and bar complaints.

One of the best ways to perform conflict checks is to use document management software. You can easily run comprehensive conflict checks by storing your clients’ data in a centralized hub. Without document management software, you must manually sift through siloed physical and digital records in drawers, storerooms, USB keys, and hard drives.

Better Collaboration Within Teams

A legal document management application lets you share information between staff members. Some programs may allow you to assign tasks to other departments and workers and receive notifications once the task is done. Your program may also have chat and commenting systems for communicating with collaborators. Version control is another powerful feature of a robust law firm document management software.

Easier To Onboard New Team Members

Training new staff to use multiple organization systems is one of the hardest parts of onboarding. A single legal management software means less training and software to master. Document management software with automated workflows can also reduce training.

Also known as workflow automation, automated workflows involve using rule-based logic to complete tasks and activities without manual input.

Workflow automation usually relies on a series of if/then logic statements to trigger other steps. For example, suppose a lead submits a form. In response, the workflow automation emails the lead to schedule a meeting, and the lead clicks the scheduler to create a legal consultation. The automation then sends a thank you email to the lead confirming the consultation’s date and time.

Work From Anywhere

If you choose a cloud-based document management software, your employees can track time, communicate with clients, manage dockets, and check databases from any device that is connected to the internet.

What To Look for in Document Management Software

Now that you know the advantages of document management software, here’s what to look for when choosing the best document management applications. Keep these factors in mind when making legal document management software comparisons.

Matter-Centric Functions and Features

Ideally, your document management software should be centralized around each matter so that communications and information relevant to each case are easily accessible. A good document management system should also provide features that let you send emails, manage matter participants, log calls, schedule meetings, oversee workflows, and stay caught up with critical dates.

A Tightly-Integrated Timekeeping System

An effective document management platform should have a tightly-integrated timekeeping system. Users should be able to use this system to track time while working on cases. The timekeeping system should also have accounting solution integrations to provide a 360-degree view of your productivity and profit.

Ironclad Security

Storing client files in physical locations like storerooms and cabinets is not necessarily secure. Not only can people steal information from files, but disasters like floods, fires, and earthquakes can also damage files. Employees may also tamper with or misplace the files if you don’t have adequate physical protection for your files. Similarly, files on hard drives and USB keys may also be lost, tampered with, or stolen without the right security.

A key benefit of cloud-based practice management platforms is eliminating the risk and cost of applying acceptable security to your law firm’s confidential data. However, not every document management software program has ironclad cybersecurity controls, so you should look at each vendor’s security protocols and practices. Here’s a list of top-notch security protocols and practices to look for:

Encryption of all data at rest and in transit: Encryption of all data protects sensitive data and enhances the security of the document management system. Without encryption, an unauthorized entity or person can easily gain access to privileged information.
Third-party review comparing your software's security practices to those of competitors: A third-party review investigates your document management vendor's security practices and helps clarify the risks that may befall the company. Software companies without rigorous third-party reviews are more likely to fall victim to data breaches, supply chain attacks, and reputational damage.
Annual penetration tests and quarterly vulnerability tests: These tests can proactively spot and fix security vulnerabilities in the system before they affect your files and data.
Comprehensive operational security policies: These include policies governing access controls, remote access policies, antivirus policies, internet access policies, IT assets, and other risk mitigation measures.
Security certifications: Your legal software vendor should also have highly-rated security certifications like ISO 27001 and SOC 2. ISO 27001 and SOC 2 compliance ensure companywide protection, lower costs and spending on ineffective defense tech, increased cyberattack resilience, and much more.
Data retention policy: Your vendor should have a secure data retention policy and establish how long certain types of data should be saved.
Implementation of the principle of least privilege: Your chosen vendor should follow the principle of least privilege to increase security. This principle revolves around the idea that any program, user, or process should only have privileges that are essential for performing intended functions.

Mobility

Legal professionals want the ability to access data and work on cases anywhere, anytime, and on any device. Accordingly, the ideal document management software should allow for full functionality and access via tablets, phones, and other connected devices.

Compliance With Relevant Data Regulations and Privacy

Your legal document management software should comply with relevant privacy laws and directives. Otherwise, you may be fined or sued for noncompliance. Important data regulations and directives to consider may include:

The General Data Protection Regulation is a law that governs privacy and data protection in the European Union. It applies to any company that deals with the personal information of European Union residents, no matter where the company is located. Failing to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation may result in fines of up to €10 million or 2 percent of a company’s entire global turnover of the preceding fiscal year, whichever is higher.
The California Privacy Rights Act protects consumers’ rights by allowing California consumers to prevent organizations from sharing their personal data, limit businesses’ use of sensitive information, and correct inaccurate personal information. It applies to your law firm if you have employees in California and if your firm made over $25 million in global revenue in the previous calendar year.
The Colorado Privacy Act will come into effect on July 1, 2023. It applies to your law firm if you process or control the personal data of at least 100,000 consumers during a calendar year or if you earn revenue or receive a discount on goods and services from the sale of data and control the personal data of at least 25,000 Coloradan consumers.
The Privacy Shield certification aims to provide organizations on both sides of the Atlantic with valid legal mechanisms for complying with data protection requirements when transferring personal data from Switzerland and the European Union to the United States.

Affordability

Document management software can vary greatly in pricing. Pricing is usually related to the number of users and the amount of storage you choose.

You should also go with an option that does not require current software and hardware upgrades, is accessible on a PC or Apple device, and is mobile-friendly.

Availability

A reliable document management program should almost always be available. This refers to the time when the document management software’s tools, products, and services are available to your employees, clients, and other users.

If the vendor’s site does not mention the software’s service level agreement (SLA) uptime, ask them about the SLA uptime it expects to deliver for the software. You should also determine whether that estimate includes planned outages.

Recoverability

Hardware failures, power blackouts, and other unexpected circumstances can lead to data loss. Therefore, you should find a document management software provider that can quickly restore data from a backup in case of an emergency. Otherwise, you may have to wait extended periods of time before resuming normal business procedures.

Find a document management software vendor that:

Has a comprehensive data backup policy, including recovery time objectives and recovery point objectives
Creates backups of its current databases, including customizations of files like spreadsheets and custom reports
Stores multiple copies of backup files on external media
Backs up its databases regularly and restores data as needed

Cloud-Based

Lastly, the ideal document management software for your law firm should be cloud-based.

There are some differences between on-premises versus cloud document management software. Below are some of the advantages of cloud-based platforms.

Portability: Unlike on-premises or in-house software, you and your team can access cloud-based programs and documents from any device.
Increased security: Lawyers and paralegals must hold all information relating to the affairs and business of clients in strict confidence. This means you must store legal documents on a secure platform like a cloud-based document management program. Unlike in-house systems, a cloud platform’s full-time job is to monitor security. Meanwhile, in-house systems require you to divide your efforts between multiple IT concerns, with security only one of them. As a result, cloud-based software programs tend to be much more secure than their in-house counterparts.
Improved disaster recovery: Legal professionals must also keep information safe from disasters. One of the best ways to protect client information from disasters is to use cloud-based document management software for law firms. Cloud-based management vendors often have the resources and expertise to maintain state-of-the-art disaster recovery systems, so you can instantly recover lost or damaged data. On the other hand, in-house software programs require you to create your own disaster recovery processes, which can be costly. The results may also be less than stellar, leading to lost productivity, brand reputation, and revenue.

Flexibility: Legal documentation can take up a lot of bandwidth, especially when your firm expands. If you use an in-house document management system, you may have to buy new software and hardware to accommodate new files and documents, which is often costly and inefficient. In contrast, cloud services can instantly scale to meet your demands. For example, if you need extra bandwidth, a cloud-based vendor can instantly expand to meet that need.
Insights: As the volume and complexity of legal documents increase, you may need detailed analytics to better understand your clients and caseload. Cloud-based programs usually provide integrated cloud analytics that gives you a bird’s-eye view of your data. You can also use cloud software to implement tracking mechanisms and create customized reports to analyze data across your firm, using these insights to boost efficiencies and meet organizational goals. For instance, the beverage company Sunny Delight increased revenues by around $2 million a year and cut $195,000 in staffing costs via cloud-based business insights.

The Best Document Management Software for Your Law Firm

Finding the best document management software for your law firm can be daunting.

That’s where AdvoLogix comes in. Founded in 2006, AdvoLogix is not just the best document management solution for law firms and in-house counsel — it’s also a comprehensive legal solution that allows you to manage your practice across all operational domains. Below are some of the stand-out features of AdvoLogix’s cloud-based practice management platform.

Matter-centric functions: AdvoLogix is centralized around each legal matter so staff can easily access client cases and data. It provides matter definition, creation, tailoring, and workflow to streamline case processing for legal teams. It also provides workflow enablement with a built-in process builder, approval processes, legal flows, and alerts so that every task on every matter is done correctly and on time.
Communications management: Collaboration tools for internal and external users are included in the platform. You can also organize your contacts and relationships and send and archive emails.
Compliance tools: You’ll get a range of tools to support your conflict-of-interest processes.
Enterprise-grade security and availability: AdvoLogix has enterprise security and 99.9 percent or higher uptime, allowing teams to focus on legal operations instead of technology-related issues.
Mobility: Lawyers and other staff can use AdvoLogix anytime, anywhere, and on any device.
Automated processes: AdvoLogix increases effectiveness by capturing, estimating, prioritizing, and assigning matters via automated processes.
Streamline, improve, and economize workflows: AdvoLogix can streamline, improve, and economize workflows from matter intake to resolution.
Customizable reporting and extensions: AdvoLogix provides customizable reporting and clear metrics and extensions to meet changing business demands.
Built on Salesforce: AdvoLogix is built on Salesforce, a cloud-based customer relationship management platform. This enables AdvoLogix to provide industry-leading compliance and security. Running on Salesforce also empowers AdvoLogix to take advantage of Salesforce’s scalability. As a result, AdvoLogix has the time and resources to focus on helping lawyers and law firms.
A broad range of integrations: AdvoLogix integrates with many business and legal applications to help your law firm improve operational efficiency, including:

iManage
8×8
Accounting Seed
Box
Chrometa
ContractExpress
Five9

Informatica
Match My Email
Salesforce for Outlook
WebMerge
Worldox
Zapier

Top-tier customer support: AdvoLogix has over 15 years in the legal practice management industry. We always listen before recommending custom approaches or best practices to support your unique needs.

Interested in learning more about how AdvoLogix can help you? Contact AdvoLogix to see how our practice management solution can work for your law firm. You can also schedule a customized demo to experience the AdvoLogix difference.