Law Firms - Matter Management vs. Case Management – a Continuum?

Modern lawyers still spend an unwarranted amount of time looking for information and attending to administrative tasks. And, if the old adage is true that time really is money, lawyers should be embracing ways to lessen the amount of unproductive time they devote to such details. Technology is one way forward and case & matter management software has undoubtedly improved front-office productivity over the last two decades.

You often hear folks refer to case management software when they are really talking about matter management software. Are they really that dissimilar? The pertinent answer is yes and no!

In reality, matter management is more akin to low volume, high value case management as opposed to high volume, low value work normally associated with traditional case management. It can actually be viewed as a continuum in today’s world with systems growing from one end of the spectrum i.e. value to embrace volume as a firm rolls-out and supports its relevant practice areas. 
 

Matter management systems are valuable assets and often deployed in a more pervasive manner than large-scale volume case management systems. A matter management system affords you the ability to run thorough conflict checks across all of a law firm's current matters for ethical and business conflicts of interest before a matter is ever opened. Anti-money laundering checks can be made to check that your customers are who they say they are. The system permits you to open a client/matter number or billing number and assign the lawyers and other timekeepers to the particular case in question. A matter management system may well have more rigid controls so data that could potentially affect the matter's specifics, such as name, fee rates and unique billing number, cannot be altered. In addition, embedded time recording functionality is an increasingly common feature of matter management systems. This allows users to track the time associated with a specific matter and pass it directly into the PMS for a billing cycle.

We may take the above for granted but Cloud-based matter management can also be brought to bear in a number of other important activities:

• It provides a perfect opportunity to create one version of the truth when firms merge and/or systems are consolidated
• New lines of business can be quickly set up and powered by new technology unimpeded by legacy systems
• High value practice areas can be become more automated through modern workflow technology

Food for thought? At the end of the day, we think matter management is akin to high value case management and case management per se is the volume end of the business! But to really leverage the power of this software, we believe the cloud is the answer! Our Matter Management offering powered by Windows Azure will reduce maintenance and other infrastructure costs, improve collaboration between lawyers and their clients and bring about a revolution in mobile device access that will see productivity rise to new levels – critical to success in an increasingly competitive legal market.