Divorce Attorney Billing Software

Now that we are in the 21st century with sophisticated computers and advanced software, there have been a number of advances in practice management and billing software. One of the primary rationale’s to purchase software to aid yourself as a divorce attorney is economic: because you have a relatively large hourly wage, it is crucial that your time spent be as efficient as possible so that you do not become too expensive for your clients to be able to afford you.

The most important aspect then, for a divorce attorney, is to make absolutely sure that the law practice management and billing software are easy to use and actually result in your time being spent more efficiently than otherwise. If this is not the case, then it may not be logical for you to spend money on these 21st century office management advances.

One of the main problems of such software is that they sometimes seem to be made for the use of full time, professional secretaries who must go through an extensive training in order to be proficient with them. In other words, they are not always ‘plug and play.’ The reason for this likely has to do with the fact that not all of them are specifically designed for a small firm or solo divorce attorney. Rather, many seem to try to reach as broad a market as possible.

Knowing that it may be the case that this software is not as easy and intuitive to use as one might imagine, it is important to understand exactly what it is that you need out of such a legal assistance tool. One of the primary things needed is a conflict checker. This helps to make sure that you do not accept cases which would cause you to have a conflict of interest. But software is generally only as good as the person inputting the data. If you are able to find another mechanism, such as using a word processing program on your computer, you could potentially obviate the need for this particular function.

The next function that one of these services can provide that is particularly useful to a divorce attorney is the ability to accurately keep track of the time that you spend on a case and debit that against the amount that the client has deposited with you. Here, though, shouldn’t it be possible to keep track of this using a simple spreadsheet, instead of complicated legal support software? Clients would probably appreciate more and find more credible a hand written list of times when you have worked on their case instead of a computer print out.

In sum, it may be possible for a divorce attorney that has a simple law office operation to avoid sometimes complicated and costly software to manage your firm.

The above material is intended for information purposes only. It is not intended as professional legal advice and should not be construed as such. Will Beaumont practices law in New Orleans, LA, and Metairie, LA.