The 101 on Legal Timeline Software
With the steadily increasing workload that comes with practicing law comes the constant need to find new methods of increasing efficiency without sacrificing attention to detail. From search engines and cloud storage to task managers, lawyers are finding they need to leverage technology more than ever to not only service existing clients but to also find new business. Legal timeline software has proven to be an essential part of the legal technology suite, helping lawyers and staff streamline their work and stay on budget and on schedule.
Legal timeline software is a program that helps lawyers and legal staff create visual timelines of events to easily present key facts and information in sequential order. It can help make complex information easier to understand in a simple format. A legal case is often comprised of dozens of facts that need to be presented in a way that is easy for a judge, jury, or witnesses to comprehend. Not every case requires a timeline , but in many cases, timelines help convey complex information to all parties involved.
In addition to being a powerful visual tool, legal timelines can also include details such as calls made, emails sent, meetings held and much more. In many cases, timelines are created in chronological order based on the discovery stage of the case. Being able to view all the major events of a case visually can help you identify gaps or missing facts in the timeline that could be significant to the trial.
Lawyers and legal assistants across the country are quickly discovering the impact legal timeline software can have on their practice. Getting started with legal timeline software is easy and results in courtroom-ready timelines that effectively present complex information clearly. Many lawyers rely on legal timeline solutions to help them better manage their cases, helping them to work faster, smarter and in a more efficient manner.
Notable Features of Legal Timeline Software
Typically, legal timeline software comes with a host of features tailored to the needs of legal professionals. Here are some of the key components you can expect to find:
Evidence Management
Legal timeline software allows users to import different types of evidence seamlessly so that information and images from multiple sources can be added to a case file for court or litigation. Data can include medical records, emails, photographs, and even video surveillance, among other things. Rather than overlooking key pieces of evidence, your case is more likely to be airtight with this level of detail and inter-connectedness.
Collaboration Tools
Not only can legal teams collaborate on cases, they can also communicate with clients, witnesses, and other parties involved on any evidence and changes to the case. Electronic communication is also conducted through a secure, encrypted loop within the software so that every party involved remains aware of any updates regarding the case. Some programs even have a progress page or activity feed that all involved can access via the Internet.
Ease of Use
Though each legal team member has a different need for case management, user-friendly legal timeline software makes it easy for any case worker to find what they need quickly. Just having a good search tool or simple-to-navigate interface streamlines the process of managing timelines—even across multiple cases—is beneficial to all members of a legal team.
Advantages of Legal Timeline Software
Using legal timeline software brings a multitude of advantages. For starters, it can improve the management of cases. In a recent survey done by Legal Trends Report, 20% of lawyers said that they spend 34-50% of their time on admin tasks. Automating practice management by utilizing Microsoft Word templates is a great way to give people within your firm access to all of your documents. Typing once, you can create the event templates for trial preparation, trial dates, legal research deadlines, discovery deadlines, witness interviews, or any other recurring event that may come up across multiple cases. Then, for each case, you can determine when you would like the due date to be and the software will do the rest. You can find a free trial of this software to help you with your practice management here.
These management tools also bring about an increase in productivity. The firm Law360 Generation Group saw a 23% boost in productivity since using the software. One attorney mentioned within the report that the templates made the process of organizing information much faster. For example, with a simple click of a button, paralegals could create a PowerPoint presentation based on template question slides to be filled in with information on a specific case. In the same situation, a lawyer might take hours to prepare their slides for a trial so this is a huge benefit for their team.
Another benefit of legal timeline software is the ability to collaborate with other lawyers. This means real-time collaboration within legal teams through a cloud-based platform. This is a large benefit for lawyers who may work long hours in the office or travel frequently.
This cloud-based access along with practice management software can increase productivity with the ability to access this software out of the office.
This may even boost work-life balance for your law firm. According to the American Bar Association, under 25% of lawyers are satisfied with their work-life balance. 46% of these lawyers reported working over fifty hours per week.
Leading Legal Timeline Software Packages
As the capabilities and versatility of legal technology continue to expand, so have the choices for legal professionals. Today’s legal timeline software can be integrated with case management and docketing systems, making it easier than ever to produce colorful, compelling timelines directly from information already present in your firm’s records.
Everlaw
A relatively new entrant to the marketplace, Everlaw has a feature-rich timeline capability that is easy to master. An interactive demo is available to let you see for yourself the drag-and-drop capabilities. A quick tour is also provided.
TrialDirector
Trial director has long been a standard bearer for court presentation and trial evidence management. Their timeline software is well known but not cost effective for the average lawyer. The timeline feature is included with their Pro version. Individual licenses start at $700.
Excel
Under widespread development since the 1980s, Excel has a pro-level pricing hierarchy. Email lists, spreadsheets, and graphics are all viable uses for this venerable application. It is a matter of how detailed your timeline is to be. This is certainly a labor-intensive method for producing a timeline however.
CaseGuard
In practice since 1997, with only five full time employees, CaseGuard is another good investment for a law firm that has a constant need for timelines. It is not as user-friendly as many newer competitors but does feature a free demo. With an annual price tag of $600, it might be a good candidate for a central practice or trial resource.
PerfectLaw
PerfectLaw offers their case and evidence management package with a free trial and a subscription to their Innovator program. The current pricing info for this package was not available.
Trial Director
Trial director has long been a standard bearer for court presentation and trial evidence management. Their timeline software is well known but not cost effective for the average lawyer. The timeline feature is included with their Pro version. Individual licenses start at $700.
The Legal Lion
Legal Lion is a browser-based legal timeline software that features an intuitive dashboard. You may export data to Excel or use the cloud-based archive. A $30 monthly subscription fee also includes full integration with the larger law practice management suite offered by Legal Lion.
Trialworks
An older player in the market, Trialworks has recently upgraded its platform. It integrates with the single firm practice management system and is available in a free trial version.
Timelines are flexible and versatile, but they do not fit all situations. While legal timeline software is a basic office utility it needs must be used judiciously.
Selecting the Right Legal Timeline Software
When it comes to software, the legal market is no different from any other: the choices are endless. There are a multitude of factors to consider before making a purchase, but when it comes to timeline software, the process is relatively straightforward. Here we break down four basic requirements that your software should have:
Ease of Use: The more time you spend learning how to use the software, the longer it will take to complete a project. Look for software that is simple enough to operate relatively intuitively. Make sure it is easy to create a timeline from a blank project, or from a spreadsheet, a database or other document. If the software is too difficult to master or requires too much training time, you probably won’t use it.
Integration Opportunities: No matter how great a tool is , using it will still mean adding one more thing to your firm’s technology portfolio. Look for software that is compatible with the programs you already have. In particular, check whether it will work with Excel, either importing or exporting data.
Customer Support: Software that requires that you figure everything out on your own is a waste of time. At some point, you will run into questions that have no immediate answer. Choose a provider that will walk you through the problems as they arise.
Cost Considerations: Above all else firms need to watch their budgets, so before making a purchase, know what you need (remember the ease of use requirement) and how much you are willing to spend. Remember that the cheapest software often does not offer the benefits you require.
Adopting Legal Timeline Software in Your Law Firm
Implementing legal timeline software in your practice is as easy as 1-2-3. All it takes is a willingness to adopt the technology required for the chosen software solution, an investment of modest time to train, cross-train and test staff, and a program to upload existing cases into the timeline software.
1) Work with your word processing or document production vendor to get MS Word linked up with the case management spreadsheets or databases.
If the software solution you choose will work with MS Word, either directly or through a plug-in, integrating the software can be a very simple matter of having your document production services person add a few macros or other automation processes to MS Word, which is critical to automating documents. This does require some basic technical skills, not unlike what is needed to convert to PDF or upload files or images to a website. For firms without central document production, these improvements might also fall to IT staff if you have IT staff, or to the person responsible for setting up computers and networking if you do not.
If the software solution you choose does not directly link to MS Word, but instead provides a way for you to upload documents, a slightly higher level of skill will be required to extract the current records in an electronically-friendly format, such as text or CSV files, for upload into the software solution. Your options for this task include:
2) Set up a track time system and convert existing records to the new format.
Setting up a track time system typically involves getting the software installed on firm computers, logging in, and training old and new staff on how to use the system. If you are converting from a competing case management/timeline solution, this step should be a relatively simple matter of importing the data file and confirming that the import was successful. If you do not have any existing data records, you will need to establish the process for entering new matters into your system.
3) Test track time migration and implementation of timelines.
Testing your conversion of existing records to the new format involves checking test records against the file output to confirm successful conversion. Step three for a competing timeline solution should be a side-by-side matching of records to confirm comprehensive conversion. If you do not have any existing data records, then you must test your process for entering new matters.
Most of the time spent on implementation of legal timeline software is taken up in the decision process. Each step of implementation is a pretty short process. If you break down each of these steps into smaller tasks, such as getting MS Word linked up with the case management spreadsheets or databases, you should be able to accomplish each task in a dedicated 4-hour block of time. The time investment is relatively low, which brings us back to step one – the decision should be carefully considered.
The Evolution of Legal Timeline Software
Both the legal timeline and the world in which it has operated are going to have to evolve together if they want to remain an essential part of the legal process. Even more than 10 years ago, legal process outsourcing companies began offering services that could help with cost savings by providing legal services to law firms at significantly reduced rates. And courts began to offer e-filing systems and digital dockets. In short, time, which had previously been a constant and immutable part of the legal process as it concerned evidence and witnesses, has started to speed up and spread out.
As the pace of life in the courtroom continues to quicken, legal timeline software will need to adapt to meet new demands. We’ve mentioned before that cloud-based legal timeline software such as SmartDraw offers some advantages over desktop versions, mostly due to the way they update and allow groups to work on the timeline simultaneously. The future of legal timeline software will likely add new technologies such as artificial intelligence. As we discussed in "Automate Your Civil Litigation Practice," we now have access to real-time court data thanks to software that lets us make sense of it. If we take a moment to consider how important that ability is , it’s not difficult to predict how the timeline software will adapt to meet the future needs of lawyers.
Similarly, with the current revolution in technology that allows lawyers the ability to file documents outside of the courtroom: how much longer will the disembodied narrative of the traditional timeline be able to keep up with our fast-paced modern world? Timeline software will be expected to provide more than just visuals to accompany the text. The information in the timeline will need to be living data. In modern litigation, new challenges arise every day, and attorneys will need comprehensive timelines that reflect the evolving story of the case.
For example, imagine being able to look at a timeline that evolves with the case, displaying all the new information being revealed not just externally, but from within the company itself. With the right software, this is already within our grasp. It simply requires another leap of process. That will mean that the timeline will need to be able to incorporate data from multiple sources at once, and this will probably be one of the next big things to watch from the makers of legal timeline software.