Types of Legal Tech for Litigation

Types of Legal Technologies for Litigation

The legal tech industry solves hundreds of problems for law firms, which span across multiple aspects of the legal profession, including litigation. Here are types of legal tech that are particularly useful for law firms that focus on litigation, as well as arbitration or mediation:

Discovery Document Generation

Most law firms agree that the most tedious part of litigation is the discovery process. When done entirely manually, it can take hours to draft even the simplest discovery documents.

Legal tech companies like Briefpoint.ai are helping get rid of this roadblock by using generative artificial intelligence to help legal professionals draft discovery response and request documents in minutes. 

For example, Briefpoint uses AI and machine learning to process discovery request .pdfs to generate response documents rapidly. This eliminates the need for users to have to recreate each request in a new Word document, type or copy-and-paste each objection to the requests, and insert the client’s response. 

Case Management Software

This type of software provides a centralized platform for managing case files, documents, contacts, calendars, and communications. It helps lawyers keep track of deadlines, court dates, and client information to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks.

Case management software is essential in all types of legal work, but especially for litigation that involves hundreds (if not thousands) of tasks, documents, and communications. 

Legal professionals can use this platform to stay on top of their cases and seamlessly collaborate with the rest of their team.

Legal Research Platforms

Gone are the days of poring over physical law reporters and legal tomes. Today’s legal research tools offer powerful databases and AI-driven search features to help lawyers find relevant case laws, statutes, regulations, and legal articles quickly.

They often include features like citation tracking, analysis of legal trends, and predictive insights on case outcomes.

Communication and Collaboration Platforms

Effective communication is vital in litigation, not just within the legal team but also with clients and other stakeholders.

Modern communication tools for legal departments offer secure messaging, video conferencing, and collaboration features. These features are must-haves for seamless interactions regardless of physical location.

Trial Presentation Software

This type of technology allows lawyers to organize, manage, and present evidence and arguments in a compelling way during trials. 

Most trial presentation tools support a variety of media types, including documents, photos, videos, and audio recordings, and allow for real-time presentation of evidence to the courtroom.

Litigation Analytics

Litigation analytics tools provide clear, data-driven insights that can significantly impact a case’s strategy and outcome. 

These tools sift through vast amounts of data from past court decisions, judge rulings, and litigation histories to give litigation attorneys a strategic edge in the courtroom that they would have to spend more time achieving otherwise.

How Can Legal Tech Help Litigation?

The legal industry is becoming more and more accepting of technology as it continues to evolve–and for all the right reasons. From a wider point of view, legal technology makes workflows easier, faster, and overall more efficient. 

But if we look closer, the benefits of legal technology for litigation are clearer:

Maximizing Operational Efficiency

Legal technology introduces automation in various facets of litigation, including document management, billing, and case tracking. 

This automation reduces the time legal professionals spend on administrative tasks, which allows them to allocate more resources toward critical thinking and case strategy development.

The result? Law firms can handle cases more effectively, reduce delays, and improve the overall quality of their legal services.

Improving Accuracy and Risk Mitigation

Legal tech tools minimize the potential for human error by reducing the reliance on manual processes. 

Automated document generation, for example, ensures consistency and accuracy in legal filings, reducing the risk of mistakes that could lead to delays or negative legal outcomes.

Plus, litigation analytics can help identify potential risks and outcomes based on historical data, allowing for better-informed decision-making.

Refining Discovery and Evidence Management

Automated discovery tools are designed to handle vast amounts of electronic data and allow legal teams to efficiently identify, collect, and analyze relevant information.

This feature is an absolute must in a digital age where evidence often resides in electronic formats. Advanced search algorithms and analytics can uncover crucial pieces of evidence that might be overlooked manually, which can offer a strategic advantage in litigation.

Reducing Costs

While the initial investment in legal tech may be significant, the long-term savings are substantial. Law firms can reduce overhead costs just by simply automating routine tasks and improving efficiency.

Additionally, the precision and speed of legal tech tools can decrease the duration of litigation, which further cuts down expenses that often come with prolonged or delayed cases.

Upgrading Client Satisfaction

When you consider the benefits of legal technology, you can see that using legal technology contributes to higher levels of client satisfaction.

Clients benefit from quicker responses, more transparent communication, and potentially faster resolutions to their cases. More importantly, the ability to provide detailed insights and data-driven strategies can reinforce clients’ confidence in their legal representation.

Increasing Law Firm Profitability

Positive case outcomes almost always result in better law firm profitability, and that’s what both lawyers and clients want. Software solutions can increase the chances of a positive verdict via better legal research, stronger evidence, or even the absence of errors.

In turn, lawyers get their win, and happy clients are likely to bring in more potential clients to the law firm through word-of-mouth. Either way, the winning law firm will see a positive effect on their bottom line.

Best Legal Tech Litigation Tools Every Law Firm Should Have

While legal tech in general can yield positive results for a law firm, not all legal tech products are made equal. Legal practitioners still have to be selective when choosing the right stack of tools, especially when it comes to something as crucial as litigation.

Here’s a list of some of the best litigation tools to help you narrow down your search:

1. Briefpoint.ai

Briefpoint.ai is a document automation tool that helps lawyers and other legal professionals prepare discovery response and request documents. 

Unlike manual preparation, users can generate legal documents with both speed and accuracy, which cuts hours or even days off the discovery phase.

Briefpoint.ai can help you draft responses to and propounding sets of the following documents:

• Requests for Production
• Requests for Admission
• Interrogatories

In addition, the process is simple, so you won’t have to worry about a steep learning curve. You just have to upload your discovery request, plug in your responses or objections, and then export the document to Word to finish up there.

2. Clio

Clio is always going to be the go-to for case and practice management. It offers features that cover everything from document management and time tracking to billing and client communication. 

Plus, everything is on a cloud-based system, which allows easy access to case files and information from anywhere.

It has excellent time tracking and billing capabilities. The platform’s intuitive time-tracking functionality allows legal professionals to accurately log billable hours directly into the system, which helps reduce the risk of lost revenue due to unrecorded time.

Coupled with its advanced billing system, Clio lets users create detailed, customizable invoices that reflect all billable activities and expenses associated with a case.

3. Lex Machina

Lex Machina is known for transforming raw legal data into strategic insights. This platform mines litigation data from a vast array of sources and applies sophisticated analytics to unearth patterns and trends that are not immediately apparent.

By offering a detailed examination of judges’ rulings, litigation histories, and even the tactics employed by opposing counsel, Lex Machina gives legal professionals a deeper understanding of the legal battlefield.

4. MyCase

MyCase bridges the communication gap between lawyers and their clients and fosters an environment of trust and transparency.

One of the standout features of MyCase is the ability for clients to have real-time access to their case files and information. This means that at any moment, they can log in to the portal to review documents, see the latest updates, and track the progress of their case. 

Such access demystifies the legal process for clients and helps them feel more involved and informed about the proceedings of their cases.

Plus, the portal offers secure messaging features that allow for quick questions, updates, and discussions without the need for traditional, time-consuming communication methods like phone calls or physical meetings.

Best Practices for Using Legal Technology

Implementing legal technology effectively goes beyond selecting the right tools; to truly enhance the practice of law, you also need a strategic approach to integration, usage, and ongoing management.

Here are some best practices for law firms looking to make the most of legal technology:

• Prioritize Training and Education

Every legal professional needs to know how to use your chosen tools correctly. This requires a commitment to ongoing education, including initial comprehensive training, regular updates on new features, and access to resources for self-learning.

• Implement Strong Security Measures

Implementing robust security measures such as encryption, regular software updates, and periodic security audits protects both the firm and its clients from data breaches.

• Focus on Client Data Protection

Protecting client data is an important aspect of legal practice. Firms must adhere to the highest standards of confidentiality, educate clients on secure communication practices, and make sure that all technology complies with privacy laws and ethical guidelines.

• Embrace Flexibility and Scalability

The legal technology landscape is continually evolving. Selecting flexible and scalable solutions allows firms to adapt to changing needs and technologies without disrupting existing workflows.

• Optimize for Collaboration and Accessibility

Cloud-based solutions and tools accessible across different devices facilitate seamless teamwork and information sharing, regardless of location. This ensures that team members can work efficiently and remain connected to colleagues and clients no matter where they are.

• Monitor and Analyze Technology Performance

Firms should regularly evaluate the impact of these tools on productivity and case outcomes to make sure that investments in legal technology are delivering the value that they want.

Incorporating Technology in Your Practice Doesn’t Have to Be Difficult

The legal world is always rife with competition, and that won’t change any time soon. Stay ahead of your competitors by integrating new systems into your practice areas, starting with automation tools that can make work easier.

Use the power of artificial intelligence to get rid of the bottlenecks in litigation. With Briefpoint, you can take out hours upon hours of work spent on just drafting discovery documents. Save your brain power for more value-adding tasks and let Briefpoint do the work.

Automate Your Discovery Phase With Briefpoint

Discovery responses cost firms $23,240, per year, per attorney. $23,240 estimate assumes an associate attorney salary of $150,000 (including benefits – or $83 an hour), 20 cases per year/per associate, 4 discovery sets per case, 30 questions per set, 3.5 hours spent responding to each set, and 1800 hours of billable hours per year.

Under these assumptions, you save $20,477 using Briefpoint, per year, per attorney.

Test Briefpoint yourself by scheduling a demo here.