AUTOMATING THE FAMILY LAW PRACTICE
by
KENNETH G. RAGGIO(1)
LAW OFFICES OF RAGGIO & RAGGIO,
P.L.L.C.
3316 Oak Grove
Dallas, Texas 75204
©1998-2008 All rights reserved
| Precis | A New Marketplace |Prodoc
Document Assembly | Producing
Persuasion | Effective Trial Preparation
| Research on Internet | Practice
Management Software | Document Assembly Software
| Spreadsheets and Support Calculators | Other Automation Nuances | Conclusion
| Footnotes |
If you are looking for Information on
Texas Divorce or Collaborative Divorce, click
here.
This is the hyperlinked (and updated) version of article
originally published
by the American Bar Association for the 1998 ABA TechShow held in Chicago, March
26-28. It has more vendor options
and details and the changes that preparing for the live
presentation suggested. Graphics(screens of programs
demonstrated, and the Slide Show) are omitted to save bandwidth.
Return to Articles
Precis of article
The family law practitioner, whether in a solo or small firm
environment, must utilize the technologies that until recently
have only been available to large firms or at great expense. With
the cost of equipping a full hardware and software suite being in
four figures, efficiencies not previously available are now
thrust upon the family lawyer who must(2) utilize such to compete.
The answers to whether such efficiency leads to a higher quality
of life for the attorney, a higher level of service to clients,
or a decrease in revenues, depend upon implementation. Some
specific software and hardware solutions are discussed, with
special emphasis on practice management and assembly processes
that streamline the Matrimonial practice.
Start Footnotes 1& 2
1. Kenneth G. Raggio is a past Chairman
of
the American Bar Association's Family Law Section, the largest
organization of family lawyers in the world. Raggio authored
the "Tools of the Trade" column of the Family
Advocate, focusing on applying technology to lawyers'
practices. He served on the ABA's Special Committee on Project
2000, responsible for the multimillion dollar infrastructure
migration at the ABA. A past member of the Council of the State Bar of
Texas' Computer Section, he also servesd on the Technology
Committee of the Family Law Section of the State Bar and as Chair
of the Dallas Bar's Communications and Technology Committee. He was selected as
a Texas SuperLawyer for 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006,and 2007.
Raggio is a certified Mediator for Family Law Problems. The
certification is by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.
A Certified Specialist in Family Law as well as a Fellow of the
American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, Raggio practices in the
Dallas Family Law specialty firm of the Law Offices of Raggio & Raggio, P.L.L.C.
Raggio handles cases involving significant quantities of documents, tracing,
and characterization, and has
authored articles and lectured on subjects dealing with those
topics as well as both evidence and application of technology to
the practice of law.
2. Although strict hourly prepping for
trial and trial is probably the most profitable part of the
family law attorney's practice, the efficiencies of producing
work and utilizing technology is not lost on clients who are
becoming more sophisticated in their selective choice of legal
services.
End Footnotes 1& 2
I. A NEW MARKETPLACE
Technology has made it possible for small law firms--even sole
practitioners--to have many of the tools formerly available at
great expense to large firms available to help manage cases,
conduct trial, catalog discovery cases, prepare for litigation,
and to resolve cases either by settlement or by trial. Of
particular interest to the family lawyer are three particular
areas:
1. Facilitating team approach to cases or other projects;
2. Taking it all with you to court, to mediation, or other
place;
3. Staying in touch from wherever you may be (What would we
do without PDAs?)
A lawyer's competency can only be enhanced by the office
systems that support the lawyer. The first level is staff, second
is organization, third is effective communication, and fourth is
effective data manipulation. The unsaid but always present desire
is that lawyer's revenues greatly exceed expenditures and direct
costs so that the lawyer can make a living. Technology should
enhance this effort, not hinder it.
Competent staff is the single most valuable factor
in the
system's mix. The other systems become as important as staff when
volume of business or complexity of cases increases. Once systems
have been established, it is usually much easier to ramp up
capacity to handle either the "big" case or an increase
in volume of cases.
Efficient back-office systems (billing, accounting,
charge-back for costs such as copying, long-distance phone,
FAXing system, scanning solutions,etc.) can make a difference in the bottom line.
Management can alert the lawyer (or the lawyer's delegatee) of
potential problems or concerns with enough lead time to remedy
them.
As technology prices have dropped and power has increased,
efficient lawyers have been able to produce their "product"(3) at
less
cost, and competitive factors have tended to limit hourly rates
attorneys can charge for services. Technology allows what used to
be "customized services" in the Family Law area to now
be programmed and formalized generally at less cost to the client(4). The attorney who furnishes
similar services at a lower cost finds that market forces will
apply.
As other technologies mature (such as voice recognition
software), many of the functions of lawyer/paralegal/secretary
will become blended. As with many things in our business, results
and unit billing may be an appropriate way of billing. As these
technologies become more compliant and user friendly, the reality
of an automated Family Law Practice is achievable.
II. SOME ESSENTIAL TOOLS FOR THE FAMILY LAW
LAWYER'S FUNCTIONING
A. Back Office.
Telephone, copier, fax, general ledger, legal timekeeping,
tracking expenses (such as courier, overnight deliveries, charge
for long distance, etc.) are all examples of vital functions,
where the lack of a "plan" will greatly increase the
cost of servicing these back office functions. However,
discussions of such management issues are more for a pure law
practice management seminar and are not further discussed
hereafter, except as such directly affects the rest of the Family
Lawyer's technology arsenal. David Yavitz' demonstration of the
seamless linking of billing with accounting is an excellent
example of generic automation having tremendous benefit in a
family law practice.
B. Communication--E-Mail--Colloboration & Sharing
Information.
In all but the very smallest offices, computer E-Mail (as well
as telephone or computer voice mail) can enhance service to
clients as an attorney and attorney's staff can be more
responsive to client needs. Clients obviously demand it in most instances.
But beware of security issues.
E-Mail-GroupWare serves as a valuable way of tracking
projects, tasks, cases, people and other resources. Most E-Mail
systems are adaptable to keep a running log of activity in a case
so that employees who are asked can figure out how and where the
ball is at a given time. While such a system will not approach
the sophistication of a Lotus Notes data base system, it is
generally more useful than a manual or word processing document
based system. Groupware is the backbone of any effective
automation of a family law practice.
Many clients--who are operating in the corporate world--are
now demanding that communications be through E-Mail in their
native E-Mail system.
C. Producing Persuasion
We lawyers are wordsmiths, producing persuasion. Most
of what
we produce either to our clients, to opposing counsel, or to the
Courts, is in writing. In the past few years, we have begun to
utilize demonstrative evidence, as we realize that combining
sight and sound has more impact and remembrance than words alone.
Just as the word processors of the 1980's transformed the legal
world by allowing variable insertions in long documents, saw the
rise of intelligent document generators, etc., in the 1990's sees
the integration of graphics, math, and other functions into basic
word processing. And Windows' DDLs (dynamic data links) allows updating of one
data field to update all derivative documents that are linked to that particular
data field, even if contained in another document. The software tools are more
powerful and have more features than the lawyer will probably even need. Even
though the Word Office Suite is more tightly integrated and has more of
corporate America than Corel Perfect Office, Word Perfect still seems to more
features targeted for the lawyers, such as sophisticated document-wide commands
and the unique "reveal codes" option. But synching with divorce
clients who want editable documents generally demand them inWord when a PDF
won't do.
1. Persuasive Negotiations/Mediation
The days of appearing at a settlement conference or
mediation
with only a thin paper notebook and a hopeful disposition are
ending. Just as in trial, these settlement efforts mandate that
the lawyer combine sight and sound and use "demonstrative
evidence" to make the point. Appropriate graphics can show
the differences in proposals, variances in valuation, and effect
and the setting of levels of support.(5)
High end cases now justify burning CD-ROM with selected and quite
persuasive evidence that may help produce settlement. For
instance, scanning a naked picture of the husband's girlfriend
along with a video clip of the husband's deposition saying that
he has never been with other women can help show what trial may
be like to hard-headed litigants.(6)
Spreadsheets that can be updated instantly as offers and
counteroffers and exchanged are becoming much more of the rule
than the exception.
2. Effective Trial Preparation
Please see the 2006-7 article about trial and pretrial
computer tools here.
Effective trial presentation demands that the attorney
combine
sight and sound to lift the trier of fact out of the doldrums of
proceeding that the case before it is "same old, same
old". A poster board with a chronology (time line) enlarged
to poster size is effective. The same type of financial charts
that were used in mediation can help distinguish your case before
the trier of fact. Instantaneous retrieval of data (such as
depositions, deposition testimony and document retrieval) is
paramount to make timely impeachment of a straying witness.(7) However, the practitioner must be
aware that there are certain rules in using technology in a trial
situation that may differ from other uses:
a. Be sure your depiction is accurate and fair. Watch out for
the use of misleading baselines or scales in charts.
b. Don't use color or glitch just because it can be done.
Simple, clear charts are generally always better than complicated
charts.
c. Be aware of the chance of a direct computer presentation "blowing up", and either be real sure of your ability
to pull it off (generally with a computer provider responsible
for same) AND have a "back up system" in place,
generally a paper based rendition of the demonstrative evidence.(8)
d. Final argument is a place where high tech can truly make a
difference. The trier of fact and everyone else is usually tired
and ready to get the case over with. Using high tech to capture
the trier of facts' attention one last time may be the
persuading element in the case. More than one case has been won with an
effective Opening Statement. See the separate article originally
presented to the American Bar Association and to the American Academy of
Matrimonial Lawyers here.
D. The New World of Research
On line services--such as Westlaw and Lexis--are dropping in
prices. The availability and cost of research CD-ROMS--and the
usefulness of the search engines on same--is increasing in power
and usability as costs drop. What is relatively new is the
ability of the lawyer to drop the lawyer's entire knowledge in
the family law area onto one CD-ROM disk, and take it to wherever
the knowledge is necessary, whether settlement, mediation,
discovery, or trial. Similarly, virtually all information in most
cases (save and except video depositions, and extensive images)
can generally be placed on one CD-ROM that contains the
equivalent of boxes of documents.
The new research tool is the "Internet".
Can you say "Google"http://www.versuslaw.com. Major law libraries have become jump
sites for searches that can produce sometimes startling
information. The Net is changing daily but the trend of its use
is expanding exponentially.
IV. SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS TO BE DISCUSSED
A. Practice Management software
1. Most leading practice management packages are "bigger" than
a family law practice, i.e., were designed for larger practice situations
than the average 1-4
attorney, 3-7 computer typical FL practice. But many of the
packages are very well suited for the practice.
2. Some packages are designed to make you work pretty much the
way the software works. While this severely limits customization,
it also gives the lawyer a polished paradigm with which to aspire
and adapt the practice to the level of organization and features
of the system. Some will nag you to do things on your lists.
3. Some other packages are designed to give the user great
flexibility in setting up how the system will work;
unfortunately, many times at the cost of a steep learning curve
and partial paralysis in deciding what features to implement in
what fashion.
4. Most packages have features that you will probably never
use, unless you dramatically change your method of practice.
Maybe that's the point...
5. Some of the products available include:
Perfect Practice, ADC Legal Systems http://www.adclegal.com
Perfect Lawyer, http://www.perfectlaw.com
PC Law; Alumni computer group, http://www.pclaw.com
Summit, Computer Law Systems, http://www.clswin.com
ProLaw, http://www.prolaw.com
Time Matters, http://www.timematters.com
Abacus Law, http://www.abacuslaw.com
Amicus Attorney, http://www.amicus.ca
CaseMaster III Software Technology http://www.stilegal.com
ProDoc SOS www.prodoc.com
C. Document Assembly Software.
1. Description of the market
Everyone seems to be in the document assembly market just as
practice management software seems to become more refined than
the general purpose personal information managers (PIM's). The
trend is for forms in specialty areas of practice to be packaged
with the assembly engine, so much of the work of setting up a
document assembly system has already been performed. While no
slight is meant to other packages,the package demonstrated here
is an example of a specific system that is highly tuned to help
automate the family law practice, and in an example of what is
the general trend in the market place.
2. Vendors are numerous and many have state-specific products.
Check for vendors in your jurisdiction that may have great
products for your state. Some vendors include:
West Fast Forms (Texas) http://www.westpub.com
ProDocs, Automated Legal Systems http://www.prodoc.com
Lawgic (California) http://www.lawgic.com
HotDocs http://www.capsoft.com
D. ProDoc.
ProDoc is a highly developed document assembly system that originated
for Texas divorce practice. There are also a few modules available for
other states like Florida and now California Prodoc got its start using semi-official
forms promulgated by the Family Law Section of the State Bar for family law
pleadings, and grafted such forms, which they licensed, into a complete document
assembly package that goes far beyond a fill in the blank or answer question of
system. They have now expanded into some twelve areas of the law in Texas, in
areas where repetition may be key, such as wills, estates, landlord tenant,
corporations, and limited liability companies. They are relentless in
making sure that a user has the latest updates; they get changes made in
their forms often before the lawyers are aware that the statute or rule change
that caused the change in the form. It now has a nifty child support
calculator in the Family Law module that automatically powers through the myriad
of changes in calculating interest on child support arrearages that has been
legislated over the years.
Their product is so good that it it almost a "law practice in a box" (nee,
CD-rom). I have infrequent occasion to venture outside of family law, but
when I do, I find quality forms and sometimes pretty high level questioning (to
fill in the form's blanks) that pretty well walks me through what I probably
need to know. A young lawyer would do well to arm themselves with a
complete legal forms library like this that is actually useful.
Prodoc is clearly a leader in document assembly and
customer service.
They may spread to other states soon besides Florida and California.
2006 Comment. ProDoc is the "800 pound Gorilla" of the automated law
practice in Texas. They publish updates regularly, and put changes in the
pleadings for changes in the law that you are probably not aware of unless you
follow the law quite closely. In family law, they use the State Bar’s Family
Law Practice Manual as the backbone; use of such semi-standardized and accepted
forms prevents disputes when drafting final decrees and the like.
But the real beauty of ProDoc is its quality and scope
in other areas where the questions asked (and the explanations behind the
questions) give the lawyer
a running chance of getting a quick, efficient, and most importantly,
workmanlike pleading in an area or subarea of law where they don’t usually
practice. For instance, I recently had to do an Application for Probate during a
holiday period without staff backup. ProDoc led me through an interview and
created, with my minimal input, a workmanlike pleading that was filed "as is" after
review by a lawyer, who actually knew something about the area.
"Law Office Paperwork in a Box" is the term
that comes to mind for ProDoc as the quality seems to be high across all
the numerous practice areas of ProDoc,
whether it be corporate formation, wills and trust, probate, family law or any
of the other modules.
Prodoc is one of the state-qualified providers for e-filing
in the courts, an area that will continue to grow in importance and usefulness.
When a lawyer - - of whatever experience - - is opening
a new office, after putting in the furniture, telephone, and computer equipment,
the first item to
get running in that office is ProDoc. The office is now "open".
ProDoc can be accessed
here.
E. Spreadsheet/ Support calculators.
A significant portion of a family law practice deals with
financial calculations. In fact the first family law specific
software were the calculation packages from years ago is use to
calculate alimony, child support, and taxes. These products have
continued to grow in sophistication and easy of use and have
increased their penetration in the practice. In fact, in some
courts calculation software is become the defacto standard in
court proceedings where financial matters are involved,
especially in states such as California.
1. Tax Ramifications for Division of Property/Tax effect of
Alimony.
Financial software has become irreplaceable in doing the analysis
of the after taxes basis of assets where the recognition of the
tax gain is certain enough as to not be speculative and therefore
in properly considered in the final evaluation. Specialty
software packages such as The Divorce Planner by Finplan
(800/877-2108) (now taken over I believe by Lexis) have been around for years and have evolved as the
need's of divorce lawyers have also changed.
F. "Low Tech" Spreadsheets.
One can easily use the spreadsheet that comes with the
OfficeSuite or the math function of the wordprocessor to
construct useful and easy to produce financial documents and
exhibits, if one does not wish to utilizes the power of the
commercially available templates or specialty software packages.
The demonstration will show the easy of constructing such as a
settlement sheet in Word Perfect or Word in just a few minutes. Whether
the utility of using such simply made homemade spreadsheets and
templates diminishes with the complexity of the case is an open
question.
But t is still probably easier and more efficient to do it
in Excel.
G. Other useful Automation Nuances.
Automation is not just a " box" if you buy and put into
the office. In addition to the major components discussed earlier
in this paper, there are little things that can be done to
increase the efficiency the family law practice.
1. Certified mail printer.
If you add up the cost of your staff's preparing and sending
certified mail manually you will see that the sending just a few
pieces of such mail in a week justifies setting up dedicated
printer using prepaid certified mail forms. The costs are not
great, as worth the effort in the experience to set up to
acknowledge the forms have been perfected by our brethren in
collection, bankruptcy, and foreclosure practices. There is even
competition amongst stationery publishers in both the impact
printer laser printer portions of the market. Clearly one can set up a bin in a
laser printer to do this, but it probably makes sense to have a dedicated
printer if cert mail is a regular deal in your office. Now many vendors offer
software solutions, some integrated with their practice mangement systems.
2. Management of Client information/Client Directories.
We utilizes a directory on our server for each client, and
further have sub-directories for pleadings, and correspondence in
the more complex cases. Keeping all of the client information and
documents in one place is quite handy when porting a case to a
trial notebook or in closing out of the case to electronic
archive. Although practice management software, document assembly
packages, and document management software all want to fight over
where such documents reside, word processing macros can automate
and insure the client documents end up in the correct place.
3. Backup.
Consider a removable hard disk drive such as a Jaz (in
addition to tapes) for daily and for incremental backups, as well
as client archives. A whole bunch of closed client files can fit
on a Jaz disk with very fast access. If a client's file is truly
closed, it can be also be moved easily along with many others to
a CD ROM that you record with your CD ROM recorder. Now with CD and DVD writers
being so plentiful, backups are easy.
4. A Backup Server.
Besides having backups of the data on your server, you might
wish to have a backup server that replicates functions and
mappings of your production server. Our backup has a license for
fewer users than our production server, but would be useful if
the production server went down. You need to have A-B switches
for the printer cables coming out of both servers, so that the
effort to switchover from one server to the next becomes turning
on the server and flipping the printer switches, and then perhaps
retrieving the latest incremental data backup.
Some have setup a backup server as part of the real server
by having removable drives that mirror the server driver, and a workstation with
a port that can take the removed drive. Since the drive is swapped out of
the server daily, the worst crash should lose only a day of work.
G. Caveats
1. How do you know if it works?
Unfortunately, a user must try one or more of the various
programs to really decide which is more appropriate for use. Many
manufacturers offer demo disks; some computer stores such as Comp
USA, have fully functioning demos of software (generally mass
market software) at their showrooms. Internet-distributed,
full-version software calls for payment only if you use it after
the stated trial period. Finally, full factory versions are
available that die if you don't license them.
2. Time v. Money
One can spend time practicing law, or setting up systems to
automate the system of practicing law. Some systems that may be
worthwhile to automate for a large "wholesale "
practice may not be as useful in a "boutique" practice
and vise versa, one must recognize what ones practice is (or will
become) to choose the appropriate tools to help automate that
practice. One also wants automation to help lead to higher
quality of life.
VII. CONCLUSION
Technology is here and must be used. It is not something
as
static as it was even a decade ago. One should plan for a planned
obsolescence of systems within a three-year period, but making
sure that the backbone (data format) used are upwardly compatible
with the next generation of hardware and software is important.
Even though the family law practice is more "face-to-face" than most
other areas of law, the era of the virtual lawyer with the virtual office-(where
most
information is transmitted and stored electronically) with fewer
in-person contacts, becomes more of the reality. The tools
described in this article all help make the practice more
efficient.
We will all continue to seek the Holy Grail of "Write
Few[times]-Use Many[times]" (or continue the quest for the paper-less
office where we cab take our whole case and practice with us in our cellphone)in our quest to automate the Family Law practice.
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FOOTNOTES BEGIN HERE:
3. Our product varies tremendously. If
our main product is advice and trial work, it is quite similar to product in
past years, and is most likely the most profitable part of a family lawyer's
practice. But if your main product is "paper work," efficiencies have decreased
the costs of production and by extension the cost to our clients.
4. How does a specialist justify 2.5 hours
to produce a pleading that a document assembly program
(such as Hot Docs) can produce in far less time? How much "cost recovery" is reasonable to charge back to a given
client for a highly developed merge document, or even all the
equipment and software necessary to produce it? Can "unit
billing" be sustained in a prove up of attorneys fees in a
contested matter where the standard is the vague "reasonable
and customary?"
5. In some jurisdictions such as
California, the use of computer programs to calculate support has
become so ubiquitous that it is now uncommon for both
lawyers and the Judge not to have laptop computers and make
simultaneous calculations to check where they come out with the
same result. The American Law Institute's Principles of Family Dissolution
uses a marginal expense analysis for support; it's complicated, but, who cares
when the computer is doing the math.
6. While most of this "action" is
still limited to plaintiff's side of personal injury cases, where
the lawyers have a direct financial interest in getting a case to
resolution as efficiently and quickly as possible, the family law
attorney cannot ignore these powerful persuasive tools to resolve
the parties' conflict, where most often, the parties are
negotiating only the terms of their future relationship, not the
termination of same.
7. With the ability to receive any
deposition on a disk, and the power of deposition search and
retrieval software, the days of extensive summarizing of
depositions is drawing to a close.
8. One will usually want to have a paper
copy of the projected image admitted into evidence for record
purposes.
03/15/08
http://www.raggiolaw.com/techshox.htm
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