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Case Management For Mass Litigation Case Management software has come a long way in the last 15 years. Most of the higher-end, litigation-oriented case management software packages can generate a document in a matter of seconds, then automatically save it, diary it, make a time entry, and even make a cost entry for postage. That's all well and good if you're dealing with a single case and a single document. But if your practice happens to include mass litigation, you'll want to consider a multi-dimensional software system. Virtually every case management application on the market today utilizes the single case, single document model of document generation. If you're handling one case at a time, this makes perfect sense because its exactly how your mind works: You decide what case you're going to work on, then you pull up that case and generate the document you want to create for that specific case. Your computer dutifully inserts the case-specific information into your pre-defined form document and leaves you in your word processor with a perfectly-formatted document that's ready to print and mail. It's a beautiful thing! Unfortunately, this single-dimensional model falls rather flat for mass litigation. To efficiently manage a mass litigation practice you need to turn that model upside-down. Fortunately, Prevail case management software allows you to do just that. You decide the document you want to create, then you let Prevail go find all cases for which that document is appropriate and generate it automatically for EACH of those cases. All in a single step. Here's how it works: Prevail has a unique "query" feature that temporarily limits your universe of visible cases to some subset of your entire caseload. You define the query according to any field (or fields) you desire. For example, if you turn on the query for PROPULSID cases, all other cases (that is, those that are NOT Propulsid cases) would temporarily disappear from view. As you scroll or search through your cases with the query turned on, only Propulsid cases would show up. All other cases would be hidden until the query was turned off. The query function is where the real power of Prevail's document merge engine emerges. Once that query is turned on, you have an option (activated by a single mouse click) to instantly generate any of your normal merge documents for ALL cases that match that query. Let's say you want to send a status letter to all of your Propulsid clients. Once you turn on the query which identifies your Propulsid cases, you simply click on the MERGE DOC button just as you would if you wanted to merge a document in a single case. The only thing you do differently is to select the option to merge document across the current matter query. Then the magic begins. Let's say your merge document is a one-page letter addressed to the client. If 300 clients match your query, what you'll end up with is a 300-page document, each page being the same letter addressed to a different client. Simply hit the print button and you've got a stack of letters on your printer ready to be folded and mailed. That's only half the story, though. The other half is that generating a document in Prevail can trigger all sorts of other events. You decide what those events are, and when you merge the document they happen automatically whether you're working with one client at a time or 300. Let's assume that you set up your form so that whenever you merge it, it automatically generates:
Going back to our earlier example, you'd end up with all of those things times 300 - that is, 300 diary entries, 300 cost entries for 37 cents each, as well as entries on the document history page in each of those 300 cases. If you were to then go look at the case status of any of those 300 cases, you'd notice that it had also been updated automatically. The bottom line is that with Prevail, you can merge a document across 300 cases (or 3,000 cases for that matter) in exactly the same number of steps as it takes to merge a single document in a single case. If you think you need to have a mass litigation practice to take advantage of this feature, think again. It's also an incredibly powerful marketing tool. Remember you can merge across ANY kind of matter query. Virtually any field or combination of fields can be used to define that query. Let's say you want to send an informational letter to all your auto accident clients whose cases are at the demand level. No problem -- simply turn on that query and merge the document. Prevail will find all matching cases and generate the document for each of them. What if you want to send a letter to all your workers' compensation clients reminding them that you also do personal injury? Simply turn on the appropriate query and let Prevail do the rest. It's no secret that the more often your clients hear from you, the happier they are. With Prevail there's not much work involved in keeping those informational and status update letters rolling out on a regular basis. Happy clients tend to make excellent referral sources, so everybody wins - especially you. If you haven't seen Prevail yet, download a demo now and see for yourself what it can do to make your practice more efficient and more profitable.
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