One of the reasons the National Docketing Association was formed was to increase the visibility of the profession of docketing. In a nutshell, that means firms should acknowledge that this group of people is as significant to the firm’s bottom line as are the attorneys, paralegals, and secretaries. In addition to being critical to risk management practices, the support that docketing professionals provide is directly related to the firm’s billable matters which translates into increased billable time. With effective docketing support, attorneys can bill more time and concentrate on the substantive legal issues rather than the routine tasks.
Besides being experts with court rules interpretations, procedural guidelines, and case management, docketing professionals can use their role to drive other firm objectives. Contributing to the firm’s business intelligence and knowledge management is an important and often underestimated benefit of a robust docketing solution. Many firms overlook the docketing system and how much information can be used to help with business development, intelligence, and knowledge in order to be more competitive and increase operational efficiencies.
All kinds of information can be extracted from the records by properly mining the data in a robust and effective docketing solution. Here are some scenarios where a docketing professional can contribute to the firm’s business intelligence and knowledge management efforts.
Scenario #1
An attorney needs to file a motion to be admitted temporarily (pro hac vice) in a court where he is not a member and allowed to practice. The court rules require that the movant provide the names of the firm’s attorneys that were previously admitted to that court as well as the cases handled.
- Problem – the moving attorney sends a broadcast email to all attorneys in the firm asking if they were ever admitted to that court. With attorneys receiving so many emails daily this email gets mostly ignored and the moving attorney does not get enough of the information required.
- Solution – The docketing specialist filters the records in the database searching for cases assigned to that jurisdiction and sends a list to the requesting attorney containing all the names of the attorneys and cases filed in that jurisdiction. Even better, the docketing solution allows the specialist to easily search all the documents attached to the deadlines for the key words “pro hac vice”. Now the requesting attorney only has to contact a few attorneys if necessary and receives a sample motion.
Scenario #2
The firm is drafting an RFP (request for proposal) and competing to get the litigation business of a major company. The proposal requires information specific to the firm’s trial practice with certain kinds of cases such as product liability.
- Problem – The marketing team scrambles to get that information by contacting logical departments such as the library, conflicts, accounting, and new business intake. None of them are able to provide all the information needed. The marketing team sends out a mass email to all litigation attorneys in the firm. That information provided is not enough to satisfy the RFP.
- Solution – The specialist searches the docketing records for trials in cases where the nature of suit is product liability. The list is sent to the marketing team and they contact those attorneys for more contributing information.
Scenario #3
An attorney was served with discovery that reveals the opposing party’s expert witness. The attorney needs to know if this witness ever provided testimony in any other cases the firm handled.
- Problem – The attorney asks the library to search any external resources where this expert provided testimony in any court. He gets the report back with nothing relevant but the expert’s curriculum vitae reveals information supporting otherwise. The attorney resorts to mass emails and gets no response.
- Solution – The specialist searches the database for the expert’s name and provides the attorney with the relevant case information.
Not all docketing solutions are created equal. As a matter of fact, most docketing software that firms use do not have an easy way for the docketing professional to search the data and run reports effectively mining the database. This causes a dilemma in that firms do not rely on their docketing solution to provide business intelligence or knowledge management. The more contributions a docketing professional can make to the firm’s objectives, the more visibility the profession of docketing gets in all firms.
At American LegalNet, our innovative solutions not only help firms mitigate their risks with deadline errors and omissions, but they also take into account the importance of workflow and the value the docketing professional has to the firm. eDockets ™ Critical Dates has a feature called Keyword Search that enables the docketing professional to easily search all trigger dates, deadlines, and the contents of every document stored in the system, right from the home screen. Not only can you search the title or description of the documents, but you can also search the body as well for any key word. So every supporting document attached to the deadlines is searchable.
If you would like more information or to view a demo, please contact cgierymski@alncorp.com or 219-237-2672.
