Legal and claims
Case management software for firms that run files
Every matter on one record, from the first enquiry to the file closing. The stage it is at, the key dates coming up, who it is waiting on, the documents generated and signed, the referrer who sent it and what they have been told. Built around how your firm already works, hosted in the UK, and looked after by the people who built it.
What a firm actually tracks
Six records, one matter
- The matter, its type and the stage it has reached
- Key dates: limitation, court, exchange, review
- The parties: client, other side, insurer, expert, referrer
- Documents generated from the file, and whether they came back signed
- Messages to and from the client, kept on the record
- Who did what and when, for the auditor and the complaint
Six records describing the same matter, often kept in six different places.
A case system answers "where is the Whitworth matter up to, and what is it waiting on" without opening the file. One matter is one record: the type, the stage, the next date, every party on it, every document sent and every message since it opened.
Plenty of firms run that on a practice management package for the accounts and a spreadsheet for everything the package does not do, and it got them this far. Plenty more have case software that fits one department and a different arrangement for the next. The question is whether the record is written as the work happens, or pieced together when somebody asks.
A first system might be intake and the board for one type of work. The same system two years on can carry every department, referrers sending work in by feed, documents going out to sign from the record, and the month-end figures coming off it.
What you would be looking at, in the order a day happens
Three screens from our own example system. Real screens rather than mock-ups. The firm in them, Kersal Street Legal of Salford, is invented, and so is every matter, client, person and figure. Yours would carry your matter numbers, your stages and your words for things.
The day to day, in more detail
| Intake in steps | A new matter opened in a few short steps rather than one long form, saved as it goes, with the client, what happened, the vehicle or property, the other side and the source each on their own step. A web form from a referrer or your website can arrive part-filled. |
|---|---|
| Matter types and stages | Each type of work has its own stages, in your words and your order. Moving a matter on is one action, dated and attributed, and the board reflects it at once. |
| Key dates | Limitation, court, exchange and review dates held on the matter with who owns them, counting down on the board and on the record, and raised with the fee earner and a supervisor well before they arrive. |
| Referrers and partners | Who sent the work, their reference, and what they are owed in return: an update by feed every week, a file by CSV or XML, or a connection to their system where they have one. Sent on schedule, logged when it goes. |
| Document packs | Client care letters, agreements, authorities, letters of claim and the rest generated from the record in your templates, sent to sign from the matter, and marked signed when they come back. |
| Messages on the record | Text messages and WhatsApp sent from the matter, with the reply landing back on it, so the whole conversation is on the file rather than on somebody's phone. |
| Tasks and callbacks | What needs doing next on each file, who is doing it and when, with the client's preferred time kept. A supervisor sees every overdue task across the firm on one screen. |
| Lookups | A vehicle from its registration, an address from a postcode, a company from its number, filled in rather than typed, so the record is right from the start. |
The paperwork side of it, plainly
Most of what a firm has to show later is a question of whether the record was kept at the time. The system holds it against the matter it belongs to.
| The file itself | Who opened it, who worked on it, every stage change, every document sent and every message, with the date and the person. An auditor's or a supervisor's view of a file is the record, not a reconstruction. |
|---|---|
| Limitation and key dates | Held on the matter rather than in a diary, visible on the board, and escalated before they are missed. A date cannot quietly pass on a file nobody opened that week. |
| Client care and terms | Generated from the matter, sent to sign, and the signed copy kept against it with when it was signed and from where. |
| Complaints | A complaint logged against the matter with its own dates and steps, so the response is on time and the history is in one place. |
| Retention | Each type of matter with its own retention period, so files are kept as long as they must be and flagged for review when that passes, rather than kept forever by default. |
We build the records, not the legal advice. No system makes a firm compliant on its own. Your regulator's rules on files, client money, complaints and data protection are yours to meet; the system is there to make meeting them a matter of routine.
Who it suits, and who it doesn't
Where this kind of system earns its keep
- Claims handling firms and accident management offices
- Personal injury, credit hire and vehicle repair practices
- Conveyancing, private client and other high-volume departments
- Accountancy practices and other professional offices that run files with deadlines
- Firms with somewhere between 5 and 100 people, and work arriving from referrers
Where we fit best
If a practice management system already runs the firm and everybody uses it, keep it. What we build is the part it was never built for: the intake, the referrer feeds, the board the supervisor actually looks at, the reporting. We join the two where the package allows.
A small firm with one type of work can run on a spreadsheet for a long time. The system earns its keep once more than one person needs to see the dates, more than one referrer needs updating, or more than one department has its own way of doing things. A first step can be intake and the board on their own.
Where it saves time, we build in AI features too: a letter or a schedule drafted from what is already on the file for a fee earner to check, an incoming PDF read into the record and its figures compared with what the matter says, or the chasing of unsigned documents done on a schedule and stopped the moment they come back. More on AI and automation.
Usually built alongside case management, customer messaging, forms and e-signatures, document and certificate stores or client portals. The rest are on the services page.
Ask about our free Business Systems Assessment
An hour with whoever runs the day to day. Clear recommendations to act on.
We look at how the work actually runs and what it runs on, then send you a list of what we would change, what each change would do for the business, and what it would take. In person or online, whichever suits you. Nothing to pay, nothing to sign.
- One hour
- In person or online
- Recommendations we talk you through
Honest answers
- We already have case management software.
- Then it probably holds the matters, the time and the ledger, and it should carry on doing that. What usually sits outside it is the intake, the referrer updates, the board a supervisor wants and the reports the partners want. We build those beside it and join them to it where it has an interface, so nothing is typed twice.
- Our clients' information is sensitive.
- It is, and it is treated that way. Hosted in the UK, each login seeing only what its role allows, every access and change recorded, backed up every night and kept for thirty days, and built by a Cyber Essentials certified firm. We will walk you through exactly who can reach what before anything goes live, and your data is yours to export whenever you ask.
- Our referrers send work by email and want a spreadsheet back.
- That can carry on, only without anybody doing it by hand. Work arriving by email or web form lands as a draft matter with the referrer and their reference already on it. The spreadsheet they want back is generated and sent on the day you agree, in their layout, and logged when it goes. Where a referrer has a system of their own, we connect to it.
- Fee earners won't change how they work.
- They will not have to change much. The stages are theirs, in their words, and moving a matter on is one action. The point is that the record is quicker than the alternative: a document generated from the file rather than typed, a message sent from the matter rather than from a phone. If a step takes longer than what it replaced, it is built wrong and we change it.
- How long does it take?
- A first system is usually live in weeks rather than months, and bigger ones go live in pieces so the useful part arrives early. Scope, price and dates are agreed in writing before anything starts, with what is not included written as plainly as what is. More on that in how we work.
- Where does the data live?
- On UK hosting, backed up every night with the backups kept for thirty days, and monitored every few minutes. The details are on hosting and support.
Talk to us
Tell us what kinds of matter you run, where the work comes from and what you would want to see on one screen that you cannot now. That is usually enough to say whether we can help.
Ring, 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and Saturday mornings, or use the form below. Pick what you'd like to keep track of, add a line if you want to, and leave a name and a way to reach you.