More times than not, behind every good attorney is a great paralegal. They are the glue that keeps the firm together and many attorneys rely on their dedication and hard work to properly serve their clients. Paralegals are expected to be the organizers, researchers, communicators, writers, and so much more. A paralegal’s software program should always be there to help alleviate some of that stress and enhance their efficiency. And we think that behind every good paralegal there should be a great software program.
As a paralegal, what should your software program be doing for you?
1. Eliminate redundancies and unnecessary double and triple data entry
You should never waste time entering the same information over and over again when this is such a simple thing to be automated through technology. This is especially true for form heavy areas of law such as bankruptcy. As a paralegal, you're not a robot and you shouldn’t have to be, so let us be one for you.
2. Assist with the client intake process
For many firms, the first step in any case is the initial client consultation to ask the basic information needed to assess the case and determine how to proceed. Your software should be easy enough to enter that information on the spot with the client in front of you to prevent having to ask those same questions again later. This not only saves you time, but takes some of the stress and burden of answering too many questions from your clients too. Users frequently tell us that they love the time they save and how easy it is to enter a client’s information while they are right there with them in the office or on the phone.
3. Allow for clear and effective communication within the firm
With so many tools for communication, emails, phone calls, texts, your software should not add to the noise. Paralegals need to quickly and easily know the status of a case and to interact with the attorney to complete a case filing. A big element needed to achieve this need is a cloud-based program. If a paralegal enters information, the attorney should be able to be in the case from a different device at the same time and they should be able to see the updated information in real time. No lags or delays in communication keeps the case always up to date and eliminates possible confusion.
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4. Provide peace of mind with automation and reliable calculator
Paralegals are always juggling complex and sensitive information and applying that information incorrectly can have grave results for the client and the firm. Legal software should provide you with the tools and calculators necessary to properly administer each client’s case to meet their specific needs without doubt or worry that calculations are wrong. Calculators should be simple and easy to use and require little to no extra work to complete.
5. Easily organize client data and documents
So many law firms have moved from not only being paperless, but now many are turning to remote offices as well. Working remote is a great benefit for attorneys and paralegals and technology is essential to make this benefit possible. Client data and documents need to be nicely organized and easily accessible for all users. NextChapter’s document storage and cloud-based program makes accessing client documents so easy to do from any device for any authorized user in the program. For some firms, this tool allows firms to rely solely on NextChapter for document case management, reducing the number of programs the firm must use.
NextChapter is always striving to ultimately meet the needs of attorneys and paralegals alike.