Litigation support services are becoming the next big thing, are and your law firm ready to match pace with them? As companies look to restart their businesses, several questions need answers. Adding flexibility to work norms, protecting customers’ health and safety, or attracting new business are all issues that need to be considered. Law firms and general counsels are bracing for a lawsuit influx despite the uncertainty that continues to plague business operations. In addition to wage issues, discrimination, and hazardous working conditions, there will also be matters related to leasing agreements, supply chain breakdowns, and payment terms.
The devastating impact of the pandemic on workforces worldwide makes it inevitable that people will seek compensation. It looks like this trend isn’t going anywhere anytime soon given the current economy.
To prepare for this onslaught, law firms and general counsel should be proactive and position themselves to defend against these lawsuits. Outsourcing litigation support is a great way to achieve this goal. The past several months have shown that legal teams and firms can perform legal tasks securely and effectively in a remote location, such as at home, such as document review. As a result, a number of myths about litigation support services have been debunked, allowing businesses to start to realize the following business advantages associated with this service: –
Quicker Response to Litigation
Litigation support services are often costly and time-consuming, but modern technology has enabled legal professionals to manage their cases more quickly than ever before. New technologies allow for electronic discovery (e-discovery), thus saving law firm owners both time and money in the long run; they do not need to pay for expensive work crews who would otherwise have needed to complete the job manually. Legal professionals are also able to share information instantaneously with other lawyers, clients, or even judges via email or cloud storage because of technological advancements. As a result of these technological advances, law firms can perform e-discovery, file papers electronically, and communicate with clients much more efficiently.
Client Service
As customers expect more from service providers, law firms must offer their services in a timely fashion to remain competitive in the industry. Managing cases comes with added pressure, and can even lead to clients leaving for another firm if they feel that their case is not being handled effectively. Litigation support services companies can handle some of these tasks at a lower cost than traditional law firms (such as document retrieval) which allows legal professionals to focus on other important aspects of the case at hand rather than paperwork alone.
Increased Productivity
Time management is an integral part of any successful business transaction; whether it be lawyers or even accountants who bill time by the hour, increased productivity is crucial to any company’s success. Since litigation support companies can handle some of the mundane tasks that full-service law firms usually take on, legal professionals have more time to work on other aspects of their cases. The combination of these two methods can lead to increased productivity for both business models.
Reduced Expenses
Not only does litigation support services save legal professionals’ time, but it also reduces expenses by eliminating or reducing certain costs associated with traditional law firm services. Litigation support companies are generally paid less than traditional firms because they do not employ attorneys who bill by the hour; as a result, customers can pay significantly less money for similar types of support services (or receive similar value).
Better Case Management
In addition to saving time and money, litigation support helps lawyers stay organized in a way that was previously unavailable. Litigation support companies can manage things such as document retrieval, redacting confidential information from documents, organizing thousands of pages of evidence into searchable PDFs, and video conferencing with clients so legal professionals can discuss the case in person without having to travel back-and-forth just for an in-person meeting.
Experience Beyond Litigation Support
Litigation support services have been around since the beginning of e-discovery; they have many years of experience managing cases with millions of documents and emails being analyzed every week. Not only do these companies’ systems help law firms save time on boring paperwork, but they also have access to tools that can save time on tasks related to marketing online, scheduling important meetings, and tracking expenses.
Quicker Collection of Evidence
Due to the sheer amount of evidence available in many cases today, e-discovery has become a necessity for law firms who wish to remain competitive in their industry. With thousands of pages or even hundreds of video clips that need to be saved and organized into searchable PDFs or videos, litigation support companies have been able to develop information systems that allow them to complete this task much more quickly than a traditional law firm would. This leads to a quicker collection of evidence for legal professionals because they only need to submit a small portion of the evidence rather than all documentation associated with a case.
Clarity of Workflow
In a traditional law firm, there are generally many different employees doing different jobs with few people managing the workflow. A large part of litigation support’s business model is focused on creating a clear workflow that everyone can follow and understand. This helps legal professionals stay organized while working on their cases; they know what tasks need to be completed and when they should be done by.
Better Understanding & Communication within the Case Team
Since litigation support companies often communicate with clients every week (or more) and also offer online document review systems, workflows, and other services which require them to interact with lawyers on a regular basis; both sides of the case team become better at understanding each other over time. Litigation support company employees are usually required to attend weekly or biweekly meetings which discuss problems in real-time so both sides of the case team can work together to resolve these issues.
Better Knowledge in e-Discovery
Litigation support services companies have been focused on managing large litigation cases for years, so they have a better idea of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to collecting electronic evidence. With more experience in this area, litigation support employees are able to train legal professionals at their company on how e-discovery is done properly with few mistakes being made along the way.
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