Conflict Checking For Lawyers

Conflict checks can be simplified with proper contact management. Managing contacts for a law firm is not just about keeping up to date addresses, emails and phone numbers for clients. The successful lawyer needs to manage as much information about the client as possible including the matters in which a contact has had a role. Conflict checking is easier than it sounds when you think about multiplying the contact-matter relationship across hundreds or thousands of contacts for a law firm over the course of the life of the law practice.

Conflict checking for lawyers can be a cumbersome task in the day to day law office routine. Ethical conflicts are a pitfall for lawyers governed by Rule 1.7 of the ABA Model Rules Professional Conduct which states the general rule: “a lawyer shall not represent a client if the representation involves a conflict of interest.” Rule 1.9 further prohibits a lawyer who has formerly represented a client in a matter from thereafter representing another person in the same or substantially related matter in which that person’s interests are materially adverse to the interests of the former client unless the former client gives informed consent, confirmed in writing.

Conflict checking for lawyers

GoMatters simplifies conflict checking for lawyers by keeping track of contact-matter relationships for every matter you create. Every matter to which a contact has been assigned is viewed easily under the “Contacts->Matters” tab. To view the matters to which a contact has been assigned, view the contact and then click the contact’s “Matters” tab to show the list of matters in which the contact is a party. The list of contact matters gives you a quick view of import information about a contact’s role in a particular matter.

It is always best to maintain a consistent set of role descriptions for your law firm contact management so other members of your law office and legal staff will be able to understand notations made in your contact management database. Abbreviations for contact roles are fine if everyone in the law firm is familiar with the role abbreviations and understands their meaning. GoMatters allows full flexibility for you to name your law firm contact roles in a way in which you are most comfortable. Full text contact role descriptions like “defendant” and “plaintiff” are supported or you can decide to use your own system of abbreviations or notations like “opp” (opposing party), “opcl” (opposing counsel), “pcl” (plaintiff’s counsel) or “dcl” (defendant’s counsel).

Be sure to check out the following contact management video tutorials:

• How to add matter contacts
• How to search contacts

The best tip for managing your contact roles is a simple one, just do it. Add every party to every case as a part of your initial case intake. Add contacts as parties to the case as they become available during the pendency of the proceedings. As a general rule for practicing law, the more information you have, the better off you will be. Contact matter management for your law firm is no different.

By having access to the information about the role of a contact in a matter, lawyers can perform an initial conflict check. No legal software system can determine whether or not a true ethical conflict exists in the lawyer’s representation of a client, but managing contact information successfully is the first step to avoiding a serious conflict issue in your representation.

Exporting Your Data

One of the most important features to look for in any SaaS (Software As A Service) product is the ability to export your data. Storing your law office data in the cloud is the way of the future, but law offices need to be able to move their data from an application should they decide to stop using the SaaS product.

Not being able to remove data from an application is sometimes called “vendor lock-in”. Holding data hostage without the option to export makes customers reluctant to leave a cloud app for fear of losing data and is a tactic used by some vendors to keep customers.

We don’t work like that. In fact, GoMatters is so confident you will love our service, we’ve made it as painless as possible to leave at any time and take your data with you.

GoMatters allows users to export data any time. To export data from GoMatters, click the “Export” link in the left navigation sidebar to open the “Export” tab. From the “Export” tab, click any of the export buttons to export your data to your local hard drive in any of the available formats. That’s it, one click and your data is exported.

All data is available in XML (.xml) format. Some data is available in data formats convenient for that type of data, i.e. your contacts can be exported in vCard (.vcf) format. XML is a file format used in interchanging data over the Internet and your GoMatters data as an XML file can be imported and used by other applications easily.

Your data is your data, not ours.

File And Case Numbering Systems For Your Law Office

Most law firms use an inefficient file and case numbering system. File and case numbering systems vary from office to office and usually have the year the file was opened as a sensible starting point. Law offices tend to use the year as a starting point because it is an easy, logical starting point, but also because lawyers have the ability to expunge files after a certain date which is usually set as an ethical standard by the lawyer’s controlling bar. For example, lawyers might be permitted to destroy client files after 7 or 10 years depending on jurisdiction.

Tracking files by year fits perfectly with the idea that after a certain year, files of a certain vintage can be destroyed to make room for new files that will inevitably clog the file cabinets for another 10 years or so.

Year based file numbering systems for law offices also correlate loosely to numbering systems set by courts that traditionally number new cases with some form of date notation. For example, cases started in 2010 may have a case number like 2010-XX-XXXX.

As lawyers move toward digital files and the paperless law office, the idea of expunging files to make room for new files becomes unimportant. SaaS solutions for lawyers like GoMatters are helping to obviate the need for physical storage space and offer the possibility of limitless data storage accessible in a few clicks.

Most lawyers find themselves unnecessarily duplicating the work of numbering files or cases because law offices, for the most part, are reactionary, meaning the law office reacts to cases that have actually been generated in other places like the court. Ask yourself, if the court already has an elaborate case number assigned to a matter, why are you worried about how you are going to number the same case for your office? Why not just use the case number assigned by the court for your own internal office number?

Don’t you hate the “Our file number:”, “Your file number:” in all those RE: clauses of letters? Isn’t it time to stop that? Do it now, it is a new year after all.

GoMatters allows you to enter any matter number you like and will even automatically assign a matter number for you. But if you just use the case number assigned by the court for matter numbers, it will help you track your cases faster and more efficiently by reducing your need to duplicate lookups of other case numbers. It can also increase your law office efficiency by cutting out the “Our file number:”, “Your file number:” dance.

But what happens when you open a case in GoMatters and have no case number from a court yet? The best practice when opening a new matter that has yet to be assigned a case number by a court would be to use the client name as the matter number or choose the “Auto Assign” checkbox when adding the matter so that GoMatters will create a matter number for you. Once you file the case with the court, double click the Matter Number cell in the Matters Tab and change the old matter number to the new matter number assigned by the court. By synchronizing your internal law office file and case numbers with the court file and case numbers, you can streamline your file numbering system and make your law office more efficient in the new year.

Skype Contact Integration For Your Law Office

GoMatters is excited to announce full Skype integration for all of your GoMatters contacts. Now save even more time using GoMatters for your law firm’s contact management by one clicking contact numbers to dial out on Skype. That’s right, don’t pick up the phone. Just click contact numbers and let Skype do the rest.

All you need to call landlines and mobile numbers from GoMatters is a Skype account. When you click your GoMatters’ contact phone numbers, GoMatters will automatically launch a Skype call from your Skype account. Skype calls are also a great way for your law firm to track time on calls. Skype keeps a running log of time spent on calls and with one or two more clicks, you can convert your Skype calls to billable tasks in GoMatters.

Don’t have a Skype account? Skype is very easy to use and free to download. Skype can help the large firm or the solo practitioner in so many ways. Need voice mail? Skype has it. Need to make and take calls from anywhere? Skype can do it. And it can probably do it for a lot less than your current business phone system. Learn more about how Skype can help your law office.

To use GoMatters Skype integrated contact phone numbers, single click any contact phone number in GoMatters. As always, double clicking the contact phone number cell will open the GoMatters cell editor so you can quickly edit and update your contact information. If you don’t have Skype, don’t worry, the Skype integration feature doesn’t affect you.

With GoMatters Skype integration for your law office, you can also add Skype names for contacts. The difference between calling a Skype name and calling any phone number via Skype is that you pay no Skype connection charge when calling a Skype name.

Enjoy!

Docket View

Gomatters Docket View shows all of your events and tasks in one quick look. Click an event or task title to open event or task editor. Choose from the selection ofoptions in the event edit or task edit panel to manage the item.

View the docket for any member of your law firm by selecting their user name from the “User” button above the docket calendar selector.

Docket View is only available to those users who have a minimum “View Events” and “View Tasks” privileges enabled so you may need to update privileges for your office staff to enable Docket View. Learn more about how to update user privileges.

Docket View allows you to add events or tasks on a user privilege basis. To add events or tasks to your docket, click the respective “Add” buttons for each.

Google Chrome For Mac And Linux Certified

GoMatters is happy to officially add certification and support for Google Chrome for Mac or Linux to our list of compliant browsers.

Many of our users are Mac happy lawyers and it will be interesting to see how many of those users begin to use Google Chrome. It seems most Mac users are content with Safari and our logs show the biggest browser variance among GoMatters PC users. Anecdotally, Mac user loyalty to Safari appears to be much greater than PC loyalty to Internet Explorer.

Platform and browser independence is one of the most enjoyable aspects of using GoMatters SaaS case management and billing system. Because GoMatters runs on any computer in any browser, law offices are no longer forced to have the same operating system or browser installations throughout the law office. GoMatters users can bounce from computer to computer in as many different locations as needed and secure access to office data is always available without software or hardware conflicts.

How To Change The Default Email Client For Your Browser

GoMatters provides clickable contact email addresses that will open your default mail application with a blank email form. Users using Gmail or some other web based email should set their browsers to open the email address links in Gmail instead of their desktop email client.

Firefox

To set Firefox to open email address links in Gmail or other webmail app like Yahoo! Mail, open Firefox and go to the Tools->Options->Applications (Mac: Preferences->Applications) and type “mailto” in the search box to find the Firefox dropdown mail app selector. Choose your webmail from the options and save your settings.

Safari

To set Safari to open email address links in Gmail, you need to download Google Notifier for the Mac. Once Google Notifier is installed on your Mac, open your Mac Mail application and go to Preferences->General and select the Google Notifier from the Default Email Reader drop-down list.

Once your browser is set to open your new default mail application, any GoMatters contact email links will open in your preferred mail application.

Text Message New Tasks To Users

GoMatters has added SMS capability for sending tasks via text message to users. To use the new service, login and update your user information by clicking on the “Users” link in the main app sidebar. Add text messaging numbers for users in their “SMS” cell (double click cells to open). Make sure text messaging numbers are in the email format for the particular cell carrier. Some of the most popular US cell carrier text messaging by email address formats are:

• ATT: [mobile-number]@txt.att.net
• Verzion: [mobile-number]@vtxt.com
• Sprint: [mobile-number]@messaging.sprintpcs.com
• T-Mobile: [mobile-number]@tmomail.net
• AIM: 1+[mobile-number]

When adding a new task, check the “Send SMS” box to send a text message to the user’s mobile phone.

Sending tasks by text message works great when secretaries or paralegals need to get quick messages to you when you are out of the office or stuck in court. With GoMatters new task SMS service, “return call to client” messages can be entered once, sent via text, and acted upon that much quicker.

Cloud Computing for Lawyers

“Cloud Computing” is the buzzword du jour for technophiles, but what does it mean to you as a lawyer and how will it help your law office in the future?

First things first… what is cloud computing? To understand cloud computing, you first need to know about “the Cloud”. Breaking it down as simply as possibly means “the Cloud” is the internet and the internet, as every two year old knows nowadays, is an endless array of computers linked together. Cloud computing takes advantage of that endless array of computer power and storage capacity and moves data storage and the applications to manipulate the data off of your local computer and onto remote computers that are part of “the Cloud”. By removing the data from your computer and storing it in a secure environment, you reduce the likelihood of drive failure or data loss while increasing data accessibility and convenience.

Think email.

Chances are your law firm is using a web based email service like Gmail. Gmail is cloud computing. The Gmail application to read your email is not stored on your local law office computer, but is accessed through the web browser on your computer. The data that comprises your email is not stored on your local hard drive, but is saved on Google’s Gmail servers. Storing the data in that secure setting allows you to access your data from wherever and whenever you want.

Cloud computing is not “remote computing” that some people are already familiar with. “Remote computing” is the process of logging into a computer at another location and accessing that computer alone. VPN’s and services like GoToMyPC are “remote computing” solutions. “Remote computing” does not share many of the advantages of cloud applications like GoMatters. “Remote computing” does not prevent against data loss through hardware failure. VPN’s can also be difficult to setup correctly.

GoMatters is cloud computing for lawyers. GoMatters stores your data on secure servers across the globe. Because your law firm data is stored in “the Cloud”, you can access your law firm data securely and conveniently anywhere, anytime.

Email Event Notices to Matter Contacts

Have you ever wanted to shoot a quick email to a client or opposing counsel telling them about an upcoming court date? Would your clients like an automatic email notice of an upcoming event in their case?

We’ve added automatic event notice emails to GoMatters so you can email an event notice to any matter contact with the press of a button. Login into your GoMatters case mangement account and you will notice the “Email Notice” option on the “Add Event” dialog. Selecting the “Yes” option for emailing notices allows you to customize the email addresses to which GoMatters will send a short event notice. You can also pull up a quick list of all matter contact email addresses by selecting the “All Matter Contacts” option. Add any additional email addresses for the event notice separated by a comma.

Recipients of the event notice will receive a short email notice of the event details of date, time and place that they can easily add to their own calendars. The GoMatters event email also contains a Google Maps link to the event place.

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