What’s new in the practice management technology zone? Here are a few quick links to new products and updates — some debuting this week — plus a few applications to help you prepare for trial.
Clio announced two new major features yesterday at the Clio Cloud Conference in Chicago: Campaign Tracker and Clio Payments, along with eight new integrations. Clio Payments is a fully integrated credit card processing platform, and Campaign Tracker lets you track leads acquired through your various marketing campaigns, whether phone calls or online form submissions — meaning you can tie billings back to the originating marketing campaign and assess where your marketing budget is getting results.
New Clio integrations include Microsoft Office 365 Business; CloudMask client-side encryption and data protection; CourtTrax — searchable federal and district court filings; DCS — digital asset management for trusts and estates; Docket Alarm — access to more than 20 million documents from courts and other bodies; LegalNature Pro; My Legal Receptionist; and Ruby Receptionist, which allows for messages and voice-mail notifications to be automatically sent into Clio user accounts. Clio offers a free trial here.
Zola Suite has added a number of updates. In addition to full double-entry accounting, Zola now offers more accounting reports with insight into key financial data. It also introduced Email to Task functionality and a business card scanner on the Android and iOS native apps. Zola’s Notes feature was given a new look too, along with a folder hierarchy and drag-and-drop capability. The practice resource planning (PRP) application, launched this spring, and a free demo is available here.
Smokeball case management software has added Tasks and Workflow features. The Tasks feature can be used to manage your firmwide to-do lists, while Smokeball Workflow (below) helps automate common task lists and action items, saving time and energy.
MyCase recently launched the legal practice management software industry’s first free, built-in eCheck payment service. Approved MyCase customers can now accept online payments from client checking accounts (also known as eCheck or Automated Clearing House payments) seamlessly through their MyCase account, with no additional fees or third-party integrations required. MyCase offers a free 30-day trial.
Veritext has launched LawStudio, an all-in-one collaborative online platform that brings together the tools litigators and support staff need to manage case information and build their cases. Documents, exhibits, depositions, videos, images and more are located in one place and are simple to access. A monthly license includes unlimited file storage and anytime, anywhere access. LawStudio offers a free 45-day trial.
Keluro’s KBilling and KAssistant are Microsoft Outlook add-ons that help you manage your email, schedule and time and billing from within your favorite email dashboard.
LegalNature, an online repository of customizable legal documents and business forms, has launched LegalNature Pro — a subscription-based document assembly service designed for law firms and small businesses. Subscribers enter client information, assemble customized documents, and download forms as often as necessary for a monthly, per-user subscription cost of $59. This week LegalNature announced the new service will integrate with Clio (see above) to “allow firms to quickly produce, access and store client documents” and a free seven-day trial.
Amicus Attorney’s new release of Amicus Cloud includes the ability to open multiple records at once and to easily switch between them in the same browser window. In addition to multitasking support, new features include the ability to add New Notes records on files and documents; expanded batch billing; and automatic client and matter numbering with the ability to add unique client prefixes or automatic sequential numbers and calendar print options. Gavel and Gown offers a free 21-day trial of Amicus Cloud.
LexisNexis CaseMap 12 includes three new features to assist with document review and production in smaller cases — or “light e-discovery tasks.” First, you can now redact text or areas on a page while reviewing a document for privilege — meaning you don’t need third-party tools like Acrobat for redactions. Also, you can code file metadata from within the DocManager coding sidebar tool, and a new document production wizard guides you through selecting documents, applying Bates numbers and choosing preferences for standardizing the format used during document production. You can download a 30-day trial of CaseMap here.
QuickLook is a new online jury research tool from Vinson Resolution Management, aimed at helping to assess the risks of litigation and prepare for trial. Designed to be an “inexpensive, quick and reliable alternative to mock trials and large-scale telephone surveys,” users get access to large samples of reliable data that provide information on the strengths and weakness of a case, reactions to the parties, verdict orientations, range of damages and the characteristics of plaintiff and defense jurors.
Joan Feldman is Partner/Editorial at Attorney at Work. Follow her on Twitter @JoanHFeldman.
Have a new product launch or news to share on the practice management technology front? Send a message to joan@attorneyatwork.com.
