Tip: Search For Matters By Contact Name

Search for matters by contact name

Search for matters by contact name

Even the most competent attorney can forget a client name every once in a while. It’s a heck of a lot easier to remember a client’s name than it is to remember a client’s case number or matter number. You’re a lawyer, not a computer.

Searching for matters by contact name renders the matter number virtually useless. For lawyers, that’s a good thing.

Why does the matter number… no pun intended… matter? Lawyers are reactive in their matter/case numbering system. Whether the matter/case number be that of a court, insurance company or opposing counsel’s-mega-firm number, in most cases, lawyers are forced to reference an external matter number and unless you have a piece of paper in front of you with the number in black and white, to locate a file, you have to waste a few minutes to find out a (basically) worthless number. Waste that extra few minutes 5 times a day and you’re up to 15-20 minutes of wasted time every day. That’s an hour a week wasting time on a worthless number.

If you could look through every file in your office any way you could, would it be easier to find matter number 11-blah-blah-blah or would it be easier to find Mr. Johnson’s divorce file? How many times have you barked to a paralegal “Get me matter number 11-72889GV6!”? Isn’t it a lot easier to say “Get the Taylor matter.”?

To search for a matter in GoMatters using the client/contact name:

  • Switch to the Contacts app using the app switcher button
  • Search for the client by name and double click the contact record
  • Click the Matters tab in the Contacts attributes panel
  • Double click the contact matter to show the matter record
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3 New Year’s Resolutions For Your Law Office

Another new year is upon us and you’ve surely already laid down your traditional #1 New Year’s resolution for your law office: Make more money.

Where’s the fun in that resolution? New Year’s resolutions are supposed to be something that make you fight to continue something you really didn’t want to do in the first place… not doing something you’re dying to do like “Make more money”! Its time to make some new resolutions for your law office that will be important to streamlining your law office tasks and improving the overall performance of your law office. And If you stick to these 3 New Year’s resolutions, you’re more likely to succeed with your traditional, boring “Make more money” resolution, too.

#3 – Use Your Copier Less

For some offices, the copier is the cash cow. Billing for copies at more than .50 a page is a fair way to recoup your toner and paper costs, but do you really need to be wasting all that time making copies?

It’s 2011, if you don’t have a scanner, get one. Use your scanner instead of your copier whenever you can. Scanning and uploading documents to GoMatters can save you much more time and money than you ever imagined. Your current copy process goes something like this: walk over to the copier, copy the pages, fight with multiple paper jams during copy, count the pages when finished, type up a cover letter, insert copies with cover letter into an envelope, stamp the envelope, mail the envelope, bill for copies and postage, wait 3-5 days for a response.

Please. It’s 2011 for crying out loud! Scan and upload the documents to GoMatters, make one click to choose an email address from your GoMatters contacts list and email the digitized documents. Save yourself the hassle of your copy machine habits in the new year.

#2 – Use Your Fax Machine Less

There was a time when you couldn’t practice law without a fax machine and after you got your fax machine you wondered “How did I ever practice law without one of these?”.

The fax machine is a dying beast. Let’s kill it in 2011.

Fax machines are like money orders for people without checking accounts. You’ve probably got a checking account by now and you would be lost trying to figure out how to even purchase a money order. Email is your checking account. Write checks, don’t use money orders in 2011.

#1 – Use Less Paper

The holy grail of law office management is the “Paperless Law Office”. And like the holy grail, nobody really knows if the paperless law office exists, or if it exists, where it can found. However, there is no doubt that with a bit of planning you can reduce your paper use in your law office by incredible amounts and become the “Nearly Paperless Law Office” without much effort.

If you keep up with resolution #3 above, “Use Your Copier Less”, thereby scanning and uploading documents to GoMatters, you are already on your way to reducing your law office paper consumption significantly.

If there is one truism about paper, it is that paper begets paper. The more paper you use, the more paper you will use. That may sound like a Yogi Berra quote, but it’s true. If you make the first step and change just one element of your law office management paper trail, the following steps on the trail will be easier to digitize and / or eliminate.

Good luck on your resolutions and Happy New Year from GoMatters!

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Tutorial – How To Add A Contact

To add a contact to your GoMatters contacts list, click the app switcher button in the upper left corner of your screen and select “Contacts” from the button options.

How to Add a Contact - Switch to "Contacts panel

Switch to "Contacts" Panel

Once the “Contacts” panel has loaded, click the “Add” button in the top toolbar to open the “Add Contact” form. Complete the form with the new contact information and then click the “Submit” button to save the contact record.

How to Add a Contact - Complete the "Add contact" form

How to Add a Contact - Complete the "Add contact" form

How to Add a Contact - New contact record

How to Add a Contact - New contact record

To add an image for the contact, hover over the default contact image and click the “Change” link to open the “Upload Contact Image” form.

How to Add a Contact - Upload contact image

How to Add a Contact - Upload contact image

Click the “Browse” button to browse to an image on your computer to use for the contact. After selecting the image from your computer, click the “Submit” button to upload the contact image.

How to Add a Contact - "Upload contact image" form

How to Add a Contact - "Upload contact image" form

How to Add a Contact - Contact with image

How to Add a Contact - Contact with image

Watch a video tutorial on contacts.

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Announcing GoMatters Case Management Version 2.0

We are excited to announce the full release of GoMatters Billing and Case Management Version 2.0 to all of our users. Version 2.0 has a ton of great features that will be explored more in later posts, but here’s a quick overview of some of the enhancements:

  • Completely redesigned UI to show all matters, contacts and tasks in each view
  • Unlimited document upload and retrieval
  • Matter notes
  • Upload contact images
  • Unlimited account storage capacity
  • Full ledger based accounting

Our users on the US West Coast, Europe and the Asian Pacific region will also experience much faster data delivery with near network speeds.

Enjoy the new release! Don’t have an account? Signup for a free trial.

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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

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:

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.

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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.

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Skype Contact Integration For Your Law Office

Law Office SkypeGoMatters 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!

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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.

Docket View

Docket View

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.

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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.

Google Chrome for Mac LawyersMany 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.

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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.

Change default email client for Firefox

Change default email client for Firefox

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.

Change default email client for Safari

Change default email client for Safari

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

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