Second Opinions

We Need Criminal Law Case Management

Richard Dana asks: "The Minneapolis City Attorney's office is searching for a good software product for prosecution purposes --something that can manage cases, receive new cases, handle calendars for cases, subpoenas -- i.e., everything that is related to the prosecution of a criminal case. If you could suggest a product, vendor, or place to find something that would be greatly appreciated."

By Sheryn Bruehl

WOW! RICHARD and Richard have asked for both ends of the criminal case management spectrum!

Mr. Frankhoff is correct that there are several case management programs designed specifically for criminal law, but they are primarily custom programs designed specifically for high-volume public defenders, prosecutors, courts and other agencies involved with the judicial process.

Most are designed to run on relatively expensive enterprise databases, such as Microsoft's SQL server, are often significantly customized, require vendor installation, and are most likely only cost-effective for larger entities. However, many of them are precisely the sort of software that Mr. Dana is looking for.

In answer to Mr. Dana's question, the best place to start your search for practice-area specific software is in practice specialty publications and at meetings of practice organizations, such as the National District Attorneys' Association. Vendors of "niche market" programs will usually target their marketing budgets very carefully toward events and organizations which concentrate their market, and will often exhibit and demonstrate their products at larger meetings.

FindLaw.com's Legal Tech Center also has some useful leads, though you will find more information in the general case management heading than in the practice-specific heading.

A brief review of the products I was able to find that seemed appropriate for the City Attorney's office yielded several interesting results. My favorites, based primarily on the information available on the product Web sites, were Case-In-Point by KeyPoint and JustWare by New Dawn Technologies. Both companies have been in business several years. The sites offer substantial feature lists and the products appear to have very well-planned, well-designed and professionally presented databases.

Both offer demonstrations of the programs, either by download or by calling the company. JustWare, interestingly, featured glowing recommendations from clients in Wyoming and Wisconsin, either of which might be close enough for you to travel to see the programs in action. (Note: They've buried all the best info in a PDF document, and will request info about you before download. However, simply entering your name is sufficient.)

Other programs of interest included: Criminal Case Management from Software Unlimited; Prosecutor II; CJIS products from INSLAW, Inc.; and Case Tracking System from Enterprise Solutions Group.

I would suggest that you glean whatever information you can from the Web sites of these vendors, download demos where available, get pricing information, and contact your counterparts in the organizations mentioned on the Web sites to see how happy they are with the product and services in action.

That little bit of research should quickly cull your choices down to one or two. You and your staff should thoroughly evaluate both before making a decision.

Solos

As for the solo practitioners in the criminal lawyers' association, it is possible that one or two of these products may be scalable to a solo or small office. It is certainly worth a telephone call to determine system requirements and pricing information for a small site.

For instance, Prosecutor II, despite its unfortunate name, might be adaptable to the needs of a criminal defense practice. It has minimal system requirements (a 486-33 and any Windows-based operating system), and is priced at $600 per workstation.

The same company also offers a generic case management program, Law Partner, Sr., which may have features derived from their criminal case management experience.

Another vendor, KeyPoint, quite candidly points out that "Implementation [of Case-in-Point] requires on-site consulting, set up and training and considerable infrastructure. Therefore, solo and small practices (less than five users) will need to consider the cost/benefit of such a sophisticated, comprehensive system." The company's point is actually well-taken the other way as well.

There are some small, high-volume firms for whom $10,000, or even $20,000 or more for hardware, software, installation and training on the right product would still be a good investment and a wise decision.

Especially when you consider that a well-chosen case management product could save twice that much (or more) every year if it keeps an office from hiring one extra employee or losing/turning away just a dozen cases or so due to overload. For those without the cash on hand, there are equipment lessors who will finance such things into a more manageable monthly payment, at reasonable rates.

The Big Three

Realistically though, there are few solos prepared to plunk down that kind of cash, or convinced enough to buy into a long-term payment, so many of your members are going to be looking for far less expensive programs. My suggestion in the sub-$500 range would be to look at the "big three" in general case management products: Time Matters, Amicus

Attorney and AbacusLaw (Advanced Edition). They are all powerful programs, and run about $300 per user, but there are significant differences in system requirements, features, and practice approach.

All three programs allow extensive customization, so you can create fields and screens that are specific to your practice area to track information that you need, and all three offer "event chaining" to allow you to create easily-docketed standard time sequences.

For instance, you could set up a chain called "dispo" that dockets a disposition hearing, plus a one week hearing reminder to the client, a 10-day reminder to the attorney, a follow up letter to the client, a docket date for the last day to pay court costs or register for probation, and a 10-day reminder letter to the client of that date.

However, the programs vary widely in how easy it is to accomplish these tasks, how flexible they are, and how the information is accessed and used once it is created. The easiest program to use may not be the easiest to customize, and vice versa.

For a single specialty practice, a key feature to look for is the ability to customize the main program screens to show information that you use on a daily basis (such as the case number, class of offense, and jurisdiction) quickly and easily, without having to drill through several menus. You have the luxury of not having to "genericize" the main screens to suit several types of practice, so take advantage of it where you can. The time a couple fewer mouse clicks and screen rewrites in every record saves shouldn't be underestimated.

Also, if you share a computer, network, or office space with other lawyers, or if you do confidential juvenile work, you may want to investigate the security features of the programs you like.

Unfortunately, most lawyers never fully learn to use or customize the products they buy, or, worse yet, never get around to making a decision at all. Many would appreciate a recommendation of a specific product, just to get them off high-center; and many would send their staff to group training, even if they would never arrange for it at full-price. Because you have more than 400 attorneys in a relatively compact area, you could take advantage of economies of scale by organizing product comparisons, user training, etc. for all of your members, at far less time and cost than if each firm tried to do it themselves.

If it appears that many members of your group are drawn to one or two programs in particular, it might be worthwhile to create a committee and/or get professional help to design the custom screens, fields and document templates criminal defense attorneys need to practice efficiently in your area. They can also help you prepare step-by-step instructions, so that each attorney need not "re-invent the wheel."

A local consultant could design and sell the setup as a flat-rate package for far less than it would cost to design one from scratch for each attorney (e.g. $200 for the "standard Harris County Criminal Lawyers' setup," versus normal charges of $110 per hour times eight hours for custom screens).

A consultant also might be willing to do product demonstrations or lectures for your group for free, knowing that they will gain business from the attendees.

Most companies will happily provide you with a list of their certified consultants in your area.

communication between DuPont technical staff and its law firms.

In the mid-'90s, DuPont reduced the number of outside counsel firms from about 350 to 40. This past year, members of the technology staffs from those 40 firms met with DuPont technology people for a one and a half day meeting to review existing processes and future plans.

This mini-conference included topics such as trial exhibits, a VPN rollout, litigation support technologies and other applications. This formal technology meeting has allowed DuPont and its outside counsels to work more effectively together as a team.

Keep these key steps in mind when discussing your next technology project. Corporate departments and their law firm counterparts share the same pressures to reduce costs, improve efficiency, deliver service quickly and improve results.

Establishing effective communications among all of the appropriate parties and looking at alternatives will take the pressure off of what can become a pressure-cooker.

Sheryn Bruehl is a managing partner with Bruehhl & Chapman PC, based in Norman, Ok.