Case Preparation and Presentation versus PMS/CMS – Do you know the difference?
Although most law firms have a practice/case management system and a customer relationship management system, or a combination of both, none of the aforementioned tools, that are designed to support practice administration, can perform the functions of a case preparation and presentation system. They are fundamentally designed to do different things. By providing technology driven processes to do the heavy lifting, allowing litigation teams to:
- onboard large volumes of disparate data of multiple file formats,
- use digital tools to review and analyse case documents and domain evidence,
- work collaboratively to prepare a case,
- assess win probability, and
- quickly and easily create compliant court bundles,
investing in a case preparation and presentation system can significantly increase efficiency, deliver enhanced customer service and allow litigators to take on more complex, higher paying instructions.
Unfortunately, because the differences between case/practice/customer relationship management systems and case preparation systems are often misunderstood by people in charge of procurement within law firms, litigation teams often never get to see the power and benefits of the latter. Case analysis, review and preparation followed by presentation are not the same as case administration.
Below is a table which clearly illustrates the difference between a case preparation and presentation system and a case/practice management tool.
| Functionality |
Case/Practice Management System |
Case Preparation and Presentation System |
| Open a case file or matter |
√ |
√ |
| Store case documents such as contracts, emails, client letters |
√ |
√ |
| Track time and costs |
√ |
|
| Invoicing and accounts |
√ |
|
| Import content and build digital case files |
√ |
|
| Seamlessly utilise all the case preparation workflow and conduct proceedings (if required) in a fully remote environment |
√ |
|
| Allow litigators to build a legal case by reviewing and analysing 1000s of documents and files in seconds |
|
√ |
| Automatically generate timelines of events and in particular fact-based chronologies |
√ |
|
| Identify key causes of action and link both supporting and opposing evidence |
√ |
|
| Review, search, annotate, highlight, tag, and redact a unified instance of all case content, as opposed to wading through hard copy or PDF digital documents individually |
|
√ |
| Automatically generate timelines of events and in particular fact-based chronologies |
√ |
|
| Build working papers, advice to clients and instructions to counsel\experts |
√ |
|
| Re-order and hide pages within documents at speed |
Some capacity |
√ |
| Provide all stakeholders in the case with access, including clients, counsel, and expert witnesses. Senior partners can quickly review work completed by junior solicitors |
Some capacity |
√ |
| Create a fully searchable, indexed, paginated, and hyperlinked court compliant electronic bundle, without having to resort to using additional bundling software or PDF editors |
|
√ |
| Utilise sSecure cloud-based platforms without the need for costly implementation overheads |
√ |
√ |
| Automatically generate case specific reminders for key dates and delivery deadlines |
√ |
|
| Utilise technology at Court – advocate, cross examine and record progress – access the whole evidential domain |
√ |
A system designed specifically for litigators
Overlaying all of the above, Hyperlaw is designed especially for lawyers. Case management tools are built to manage many general tasks across an entire law firm. In contrast, case preparation and presentation systems are architected to the needs of legal teams, specifically in terms of efficiently building a robust legal case.
Case preparation requires the ability to read, annotate, and draw conclusions from an enormous range of documents and files. Accuracy is also critical – CPRs must be adhered to, and judges are becoming increasingly frustrated with inaccurate pagination in the electronic bundles. In the recent case of Julie Lalou T/A Dogs Delight v The Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs [2022] UKFTT 00028 (TC), 2022 WL 00294861, Judge David Bedenham commented:
“This was yet another case in which the pagination in the electronic bundle did not match the PDF page number. This was because the index and cover sheets at the beginning of each section of the bundle had not been paginated. It is much easier to navigate and cross reference the bundle during the hearing if the pagination matches the PDF page number. We ask those responsible for preparation of electronic bundles to bear this in mind.”
Hyperlaw will swiftly create an electronic bundle that is automatically indexed, paginated, hyperlinked, and bookmarked in a matter of minutes. Furthermore, it can if required include all your opinions, annotations, tags, and highlights that reflect your review of the case. And unlike other systems, Hyperlaw case bundling does not require data to be transferred to multiple separate software products, instead, Hyperlaw utilises the work undertaken whilst organising and preparing the case, to enable the rapid production of the bundle, without the need to duplicate this work in bundling software or using pdf editors.
Final words
Without a case preparation and presentation system, litigation teams are forced to laboriously read, highlight, and annotate printed copies of disclosed documents. Although PDFs can be created, the functionality, especially with regards to searching and moving documents is limited. More specifically a PDF editor requires PDF input – together with an onerous and time-consuming conversion task, whereas Hyperlaw allows almost any file format to be uploaded directly, including native emails, without the need for prior conversion to PDF. Investing in Hyperlaw will deliver competitive advantage by enabling your lawyers to deliver enhanced customer service, manage costs, significantly improve profitability and take on more complicated work, which in turn will bring in larger fees and increase your firm’s reputation.
To find out how case preparation and presentation software can help your litigation team streamline their workflow, visit hyperlaw.co.uk to arrange a demo or contact HyperLaw on +44 (0)1785 241492 or email sales@axiomtdm.com
