Outsourced transcription specialist, Voicepath, has demonstrated its commitment to providing legal firms with high quality and reliable outsourcing services by becoming one of the first companies in the country and perhaps the first in the legal technology and services sector to be registered to the new Quality Standard ISO 9001:2008.

The internationally recognised Standard, which ensures that registered firms follow a formal framework for monitoring and evaluating their internal processes, was upgraded in November 2008 as part of the International Standards Organisation’s periodic review and introduces a number of changes to the requirements of the Standard based on user experience. The requirements are similar to those that law firms have developed in order to gain Lexcel accreditation – the Law society’s practice management standard.

Voicepath’s outsourced transcription service, the success of which depends upon Voicepath securely transcribing high volumes of confidential client documents on behalf of a rapidly growing number of law firms, first gained ISO 9001 accreditation in 2007. Recognising that client firms need absolute confidence in their choice of transcription service partner Voicepath have chosen to stay at the forefront of general and industry specific standards..

Richard Bate, general manager of Voicepath, comments: “We are delighted to have received such early recognition of the enhanced quality processes and procedures we follow at Voicepath. When we first gained the ISO 9001 certification in 2007, we committed ourselves to driving standards as high as possible. This upgrade is formal recognition of this commitment. With many law firms looking at restructuring their support services to use outsourced transcription it is vital their users have well founded confidence in the service if firms are to realise full benefit. We have heard a number of stories where individuals have been let down by other service providers which stem from poor procedures in terms of technical set-up, transcription quality and customer service. The internationally recognised ISO 9000 certification means clients can be assured of a consistently high quality from Voicepath.”

Toller Beattie LLP, a progressive 6-partner firm in Barnstaple is in the process of rolling out SOS Connect to its staff for integrated practice and case management/workflow. The first phase is live with a further roll-out by department to continue across the firm.

Two new specialist law firms, Heaney Watson in Liverpool and Cooke Young Keidan in central London are also installing SOS Connect as their preferred first systems, in order to provide the ideal platform on which to develop and expand their operations.

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AO Hall has today announced completion of its project to implement the BigHand Digital Dictation workflow system. The Guernsey based firm has enabled digital dictation for all its lawyers and secretaries, replacing outdated tape recording equipment which was increasingly expensive to run.

AO Hall has also increased its provision for remote and flexible working by providing all lawyers with BigHand’s BlackBerry® Edition. AO Hall’s lawyers regularly travel abroad, and are therefore now able to record and submit dictation back to the office instantly via their BlackBerry® smartphones, increasing the efficiency with which secretaries are able to action instructions or complete documentation.

Elaine Gray, Group Partner at AO Hall, had previously used the BigHand system at another Channel Islands firm and so was familiar with the efficiency benefits attributed to the leading workflow technology. Elaine commented on the specific day to day drivers that led AO Hall to replace its tape equipment with the digital dictation system:

‘’We had found that tapes and tape equipment were becoming increasingly difficult and expensive to obtain. Additionally, lots of time was wasted finding tapes, erasing tapes and delivering these back to the lawyers for use again. The higher sound quality, ease of use, speed of process and security of BigHand digital dictation has enabled the firm to significantly increase efficiency and therefore better service our clients. Although our lawyers have dedicated secretaries, they are now able to share work where needed, which was simply not possible using tapes. It is now much easier to manage and share workflow- now even our receptionist picks up and works on dictations in her quiet moments to help out.

Our lawyers regularly travel abroad and therefore the ability to dictate and instantly submit work back to the office via BlackBerry is incredibly useful. Flexibility to work from home is becoming increasingly important for firms and we have found BigHand’s remote access invaluable. I am extremely happy with the way in which the project has been delivered and managed by BigHand and in terms of our return, the results have been a real boost. I would have no hesitation in recommending BigHand to anyone looking to make the swap to digital dictation.’’

BigHand have announced that Howells, a Top 250 firm and one of the largest suppliers of Legal Aid in the country, has implemented the BigHand digital dictation workflow system to streamline dictation and transcription for 138 users across its Sheffield and Rotherham sites. As a result of the implementation, Howells now also provides administrative support via terminal services for two local Community Legal Advice Centres, in line with the recent announcement of legal aid ‘Route Maps’.

Howells suffered extensive flood damage late 2007, wiping out much of its tape dictation equipment. John Ellis, IT Technician at Howells had been considering the switch to digital dictation for some time in line with the firm’s expansion plans, and therefore approached BigHand for a rapid response and implementation schedule that would minimise downtime as much as possible. With the largest digital dictation implementations team in the UK, BigHand was able to deliver the project in line with the firm’s timescales, whilst retaining a first class level of service. John commented:

‘’The cost of sourcing old tapes and dictation machines has ballooned over the past year or so as the equipment starts to go out of production, plus as we experienced first-hand, mechanical equipment does not provide any provision for business continuity. The life of tape equipment is short and therefore with regard to the long term cost implication of maintaining it, moving to digital dictation makes financial sense.

Since implementing the BigHand workflow system we have been able to support both our staff and additional advice centres in a way which was simply not possible using tapes. Document production backlogs have been significantly reduced and our productivity improved.

I have been very impressed with BigHand, and would certainly recommend them to other firms looking to streamline processes and cut costs.’’

During 2008 legal aid firms Venters and Glaisyers announced return on investment as a result of implementing BigHand digital dictation. Venters reported saving £3,000 per lawyer within 12 months of implementing the system, and Glaisyers an increase in fee earning capacity with zero growth in its support team.

Law³ from Acuo Consulting is an add-on solution to Pilgrim’s LawSoft practice management system. 

Law³ is an OLAP-based solution which uses Microsoft Excel® to analyse, construct and view management reports.  The familiar Microsoft environment negates both the requirement for extensive user training and additional software– meaning your return on investment can begin immediately. 

Pinpointing underperforming areas of business and maximising resources across departments are more crucial now than ever before and Law³ allows you to obtain this information instantaneously.  Additionally It enables tighter control of invoicing and client analysis to provide increased cash flow and strategic decision making.

Acuo Consulting are offering this solution to other Pilgrim users at a fixed monthly cost to avoid the capital expenditure that would otherwise be incurred in implementing this type of solution.

Scottish firm Blackadders has implemented the Executry/Probate function within its Private Client department by implementing a FloSuite IT solution which automates and manages its day-to-day operations.

Since going live with the FloSuite Executry Solution the firm’s own ROI study has recorded a range of clear business benefits, including efficiency gains of, on average, around 50% in the processing of Executries.

The solution, which governs procedures using best-practice business rules, has also helped generate improvements to the ratio of fee earners to support staff, and enabled reallocation of resources from other departmental areas, cutting operating costs.

Other business benefits include:

· Ability to easily manage legal and regulatory compliance requirements

· Access to a full audit trail for due diligence

· Improved services to clients due to reduced cycle times and increased transparency

· Greater management control and visibility of processes and case loads

· Ability to easily alter and extend the solution using a Microsoft Visio-based development environment – therefore not tied to fixed functions

· Elimination of data input errors and duplicated entries/effort across multiple systems

Blackadders Partner and Head of Private Client Donald Gordon said:

“In association with FloSuite, the Private Client partners, Director of Executry Services, our Executry specialists and our IT team, we have recently developed a complete and flexible case management system for Executry administration. This system has already proved its worth in the efficient running of individual cases, and the management of the Executry section as a whole – and this is in addition to a quicker throughput of fees for the work that we do.”

The new FloSuite solution manages the complete Executry/Probate process (testate and intestate) after matter creation, including the key milestones of Investigation, Exhibition, Realisation and Finalisation, ensuring a standardised process is followed for each case. It automatically produces relevant forms and documents that are pre-populated with the correct information, manages/enforces deadlines, produces management reports and integrates with the firm’s practice management solution.

The FloSuite Executry/Probate solution is now being used to manage all Executry processes across the firm. Such is the success of the initiative that the project to deploy the FloSuite solution formed the basis of Blackadders’ recent submission for the prestigious 2009 Legal Awards. Blackadders has been shortlisted for a place in the final, the winner of which will be announced at an awards ceremony in Edinburgh on 27 March.

Blackadders is one of Scotland’s leading law firms and provides a range of legal services to business and private individuals from its three offices in Dundee, and additional locations in Forfar and Arbroath.

FloSuite Ltd. is specialised in providing Business Process and Case Management solutions to the global professional services sector, with customers in the UK, Europe, US and Australia.

FTI Consulting today announced that its FTI Technology segment is launching a new version of Ringtail Legal that provides significant advancements in the speed, flexibility and cost-effectiveness of e-discovery and document review. Less than a year after the acquisition of Attenex, the company has integrated two market-leading and award-winning applications to deliver a single e-discovery system of record, combining the visual analysis and rapid review capabilities of Attenex with the enterprise-class case management, redaction and production features of Ringtail Legal.

"The launch of this new version of Ringtail Legal demonstrates FTI's in-depth knowledge of the e-discovery process, and signals that it is serious about serving the most pressing needs of corporations," said Vivian Tero, Program Manager, Compliance Infrastructure, with IDC.

The fully integrated review, analysis, redaction and production capabilities of Ringtail Legal enable an enhanced and streamlined workflow, all on one platform. Using the software, e-discovery teams at corporations, law firms or service providers can take very large data sets, run sophisticated search queries, and then create secure, focused assignments or "batches" for reviewers. Assignments, which can consist of hundreds or thousands of documents, can be quickly reviewed using patented Attenex clustering and visualization software. Legal review is the most expensive portion of e-discovery, comprising up to 80% of the e-discovery costs. The addition of Attenex software speeds review by using content analytics to assess the data's subject matter, and then clusters the information in visual representations based on the semantic, social and time relationships of the content. This allows legal teams to quickly and thoroughly parse through mountains of data to find the relevant documents and quickly mark and tag them for relevance and/or privilege without relying solely on keyword searches. Markings can be preserved for future matters, or used to help orient reviewers to incoming documents as matters grow in size and complexity. Reviewers can highlight and redact documents in preparation for future document productions. E-discovery project managers can then lock and manage productions for legal counsel.

"Combining the advanced analysis and rapid review capabilities of Attenex with the enterprise-class case management capabilities of Ringtail Legal completely changes the game in e-discovery and document review," said David Remnitz, senior managing director and segment leader of FTI Technology. "Our clients will immediately benefit from the integration of two proven and market-leading products, resulting in greater efficiencies from processing through production. We're extremely proud of this offering and of our team's ability to deliver it so quickly after the acquisition of Attenex."

Since FTI began offering Attenex Patterns software to its clients as a complement to Ringtail in 2004, the Attenex and Ringtail software suites have been used together on numerous high-profile and critical e-discovery projects -- including internal investigations, case assessment, regulatory investigations, litigation and joint defense, as well as antitrust and competition investigations, including Hart Scott Rodino (HSR) "second requests." The latest release of Ringtail Legal delivers the rapid review capabilities of Attenex with the enterprise-grade scale and security of Ringtail Legal without the need to move critical data between applications during legal review. Additionally, the latest release provides:

• Fully integrated visual analysis, review, redaction and production capabilities: Data can be hosted for review and managed easily in one application;
• Security: Ringtail Legal restricts document and field access based on reviewers' user group memberships, providing project managers with the fine-grain control needed for sensitive investigations and complex litigation;
• Flexibility: Users have unlimited flexibility in how and where they review data. Ringtail Legal is available as an on-demand tool through FTI and FTI partners as well as an on-premise software suite, providing budget-minded corporate legal departments with the choice of how and where the system is maintained, while enabling in-house or outsourced teams to review document assignments in a single, secure application;
• Rapid understanding of data: Ringtail Legal combines advanced and multi-faceted search capabilities with Attenex visual analytics so that reviewers can more rapidly get a deeper understanding of the data. Legal teams can visualize document relationships both pre- and post-assignment creation to jump-start investigations as well as subsequent phases of review. Additionally, once the data is reviewed and tagged, the markings can be re-used in future matters, saving additional time and costs;
• Smarter assignment creation: The software provides more than 20 types of search criteria as well as batch assignment creation so that project managers can more easily delegate and oversee review;
• Increased confidence in the completeness of the review: Ringtail Legal allows review teams to quickly explore documents left unmarked or marked irrelevant, ensuring that no vital documents are left out of the matter;
• Customizable for each phase of review: Whether using Ringtail Legal for an early case assessment, first pass review, privileged materials review or a custom project review workflow, the software can be configured to meet client's changing requirements. Each phase of review can be streamlined for maximum flexibility and optimal understanding of the document set;
• Scalability: The Ringtail Legal database is massively scalable and can support matters involving multiple terabytes (TBs) of data.

Unified brand for Software, Consulting and Services to Meet Growing Market Need

Recent surveys show that Fortune 1000 corporations are managing, on average, over 500 legal and regulatory matters at any one time. The scope of these matters can range from smaller investigations involving a few gigabytes of data to large-scale "bet-the-company" types of cases in which hundreds of terabytes of data are collected for review as possible evidence. Often, companies are simply trying to find the easiest, most cost-effective and defensible processes and tools in which to secure the best possible outcome without disrupting the companies' core businesses.

To help companies and their law firms meet these challenges, FTI has assembled its leading e-discovery software, services and consulting under one unified brand of FTI Technology. The FTI Technology segment, consisting of over 600 employees around the globe, offers on-premise and on-demand e-discovery software as well as complementary services and consulting to give customers unprecedented flexibility to address e-discovery challenges at any stage of the process. The legacy knowledge and unparalleled R&D investment that FTI Technology has focused on e-discovery uniquely positions the company to capture a large share of the e-discovery software market, which Gartner Research estimates will grow between 25% and 35% per year until 2012. Gartner Research recently named FTI Technology as a "strong positive" in the 2008 MarketScope for E-Discovery Vendors report, one of only four vendors named in the highest category and the only one to offer software, consulting and services that span the entire e-discovery process.

The new Ringtail Legal software will be available for Ringtail on-demand customers in Q2 and for on-premise customers in Q3. For more information on Ringtail Legal and our other Ringtail software products, and how FTI Technology can help corporations and law firms address today's e-discovery challenges, please visit www.fticonsulting.com/technology.

Start-up JBS Solicitors has turned to Virtual Practices, the on-line software and outsourced legal cashiering division of Solicitors Own Software (SOS), for the provision of accounts, document and case management software delivered as a service.

Operations director Paul Barrett said: “Virtual Practices provided the ideal solution for our IT needs when we spun-out of a firm to set up our specialist personal injury operation, last year.”

Virtual Practices not only offers SOS Connect software as a service, but also the provision of outsourced legal cashiering, which is ideal for helping new firms to contain their start-up costs, but also be able to add users and expand the system on demand.

Keen to operate an integrated accounting, case and time management system for maximum efficiency, JBS Solicitors faced the inevitable dilemma of how to achieve high levels of sophistication within the IT budget available to the start-up.

Operations director Paul Barrett had previously encountered Bath-based Solicitors Own Software:  “I liked both the people and the software so got in touch. As a start-up we were worried about the investment required upfront to run our own integrated practice and case management system in-house. However, SOS  presented an alternative way of licensing the software through their Virtual Practices software as a service and legal outsourced legal cashiering division. This meant we could avoid a heavy capital outlay in IT by subscribing to a pay-as-you go model and also avoid the need for employing our own legal cashier. That had a massive appeal.”

The service has helped JBS Solicitors to evolve into a team of 17 personal injury specialists handling around 250 cases a month. Like most PI specialists, JBS relies on the accident management intermediaries to furnish cases and from its strong London presence is now providing a nationwide service dealing with claims for compensation for injuries and losses caused by all types of accidents. “The Virtual Practices service has helped us to become efficient and profitable,“ Paul Barrett comments, “ without the upfront capital costs of running IT in-house and without the red tape we have experienced in the past.”

Stephen Parry, business development director of Virtual Practices: “As well as offering software as a service, it is our outsourced legal cashiering service which distinguishes Virtual Practices and helps spin-outs and new firms get started secure in the knowledge that they are fully compliant with Law Society regulations.”