Whether you need to outsource core functions, simple business functions, or just looking for cost savings, outsourcing business processes and operations can benefit all types of law firms.
Managing client cases for hundreds of plaintiffs can eat up significant human and financial resources. As a result, there are service providers that law firms can outsource to for effective and efficient handling of a large and growing number of cases.
There are many benefits of outsourcing, including reducing operational and labor costs and staying abreast of litigation changes. In addition, outsourcing is an effective way to gain a competitive advantage and provide a better service to a law firm’s clients.
Why is client case management important for lawsuits?
Client case management is a proactive approach characterized by advocacy and cost-effective interventions to assess, plan, implement, coordinate, monitor, and evaluate the options and services needed to meet a client’s legal needs.
Client case management as an outsourced function improves customer satisfaction by ensuring you have the additional resources you need to stay organized and control litigation costs. In addition, this strategic offering allows law firms to foster a better level of predictability from early strategy through resolution.
Using this resource, the client’s needs are made expressly clear since as much information as possible can be gathered to create an accurate picture of the client’s situation. Overall, increasing this level of organization improves the overall customer experience and boosts your economies of scale.
What is outsourcing?
Outsourcing is the practice of hiring a third party to perform given tasks instead of passing them to existing staff or hiring new employees to carry out the necessary duties. You can easily outsource anything from customer service and marketing to IT and tax consultancy.
Outsourcing provides a lot of benefits to a business. Among them, you’re freeing up personnel to focus on core activities while maintaining lower costs. Another example is having a strategic partner to focus on administrative tasks, data entry, or other particularly time-consuming or detailed responsibilities.
The key to outsourcing is figuring out what tasks to delegate to help you save time, money, and energy and ensure you find the right people or service to improve your efficiency so that you can focus on your core business purpose.
For what types of lawsuits can I outsource client case management?
You can use a company to handle your client case management for any lawsuit, including fatal accidents, medical negligence, physical and sexual assault, and subrogated claims. But, most importantly, you can hire a third party for mass tort litigation.
Consumers typically file mass tort litigation claims when pharmaceutical drugs, products, and medical devices injure them. These injuries can result in a wide range of problems. Therefore, mass tort litigation allows an attorney or a group of attorneys to represent several injured parties in individual cases, addressing their specific harm.
With the higher number of individuals involved in essentially one case, law firms need to ensure they can handle all the data, evidence, and processes that go into mass tort litigation adequately and efficiently. Unfortunately, using in-house resources to manage and track medical records can be time-consuming and expensive. The good news is, you can outsource the medical retrieval and management processes to an outside vendor that has relations with healthcare providers and other points of contact to handle operations related to this tedious job and others.
These tasks require a third-party service provider already maintaining established relationships with vendors or individuals or entities that can efficiently work with your existing vendors. Also, you need to ensure your partners have quality control processes in place, expertise, and advanced technology for the highest level of standards, accuracy, productivity, and results.
What are the advantages of outsourcing client case management?
There are many ways law firms who outsource core business activities to create a more efficient and profitable law firm. According to the 2019 Altman Weil Survey, 62.1% of law firms reported that shifting work to turn certain job functions into contracted roles significantly improved firm performance.
Save Time, Money, and Resources
Law firms can access high-level expertise from out-of-office teams and keep it within their budget. Outsourcing reduces long-term expenses often incurred by recruiting permanent employees, and you can also increase your profit margins due to lower overhead costs.
Upon outsourcing, you turn fixed costs on labor into variable costs, meaning you’ll only have to pay for the services you need while maintaining the dependability of a dedicated employee.
It’s More Than Just Telephone Calls
Outsourcing enhances customer service. It allows law firms to build a customer support platform operating around the clock, including responding to your client’s requests. The customer service team can be available 24/7 to attend to your customers’ requests, whether through email, social media, or live chat. It’s necessary as most modern customers won’t wait for “business hours” to get the help they need.
According to a study, customers or prospects are likely to leave a website within 30 seconds of visiting, meaning people are in a hurry. If they don’t find what they’re looking for immediately, they’ll leave. Providing instant customer service to your clients means you’re interacting with them on their schedule.
Also, you’ll boost your bounce rate. You don’t want to miss a prospect just because you didn’t give them the information they hoped to find within a limited time.
No Training for Internal Employees
Law firms don’t have to worry about training employees on complex legal processes. The reason being, outsourcing legal services paves the way for a firm to access high-level legal talent and expertise without the hassle.
Instead, the outsourcing company provides its own internal training for personnel to ensure correct tasks and perform to law firms’ high standards.
Take the Pressure Off Administrative Staff
Your administrative personnel should focus on their specific tasks within the law firm. Assigning secondary tasks involved with client case management to your administrative staff can be cumbersome, leading to inefficiency.
Outsourcing these tasks can help ensure that the firm spends its time focusing on its core competencies.
Increase Efficiency
Outsourcing client case management increases efficiency for your law firm and every case it manages. The key reason for implementing outsourcing solutions is the use of highly skilled legal workers who handle specific tasks as they develop.
You Can Work at All Times
Outsourcing can help your in-house team focus on their respective roles, while the contracted company simultaneously handles everything else you might need for your clients.
Work with Experts
Outsourcing companies take care of your legal needs with their pool of highly skilled resources. Working with specially trained people can ensure the success of your clients’ case management and litigation outcomes.
Prevent Lawsuits
In most scenarios, most companies don’t realize a mistake until it escalates. Case management through outsourcing can give you a consistent investigative process to eliminate errors, keeping every case on track for a timely resolution and preventing backlash related to improper case handling due to avoidable oversights.
Take on More Cases
Knowing that you have a team to outsource as many cases as you can handle allows you to take on more lawsuits. In the long run, you’ll end up making more of a profit since you can sustain a higher number of clients.
Control Cash Flow
Cash flow is a crystal ball that lets you see into the future. Yet, according to a study, 82% of all businesses that failed cited cash flow issues as the foremost reason for stunting growth.
Therefore, understanding your margins, cash flow, and total costs for each type of case over time can be vital in keeping your finances in check. You’ll be able to plan for the future, develop accurate cash forecasting models, and ensure that your law firm prospers.
Crucial Steps for Ensuring Successful Outsourcing Relationships
It’s vital to build a strong relationship with your contracted company to succeed in your client case management efforts. A good outsourcing relationship doesn’t become practical and strategic by itself. You must take a proactive role to increase efficiency and productivity in your contract relationships.
You can do so by:
Adopt a governance model for quick decision-making
Human resources are the key to a successful outsourcing partnership. Thus, it would be best to implement a governance model that promotes seamless collaboration and communication among strategic, tactical, and operational teams.
Practice effective communication
To be effective, partners must endlessly stay in touch. You should have an open line of communication and regular meetings. It’s also vital that you always keep your contract partner up-to-date on any changes regarding your client case management. To make it easier, you can establish a communication channel and schedule between both teams’ leaders.
Strive to be a trusted partner
A lot of pressure can build when trying to ensure success in handling your clients’ case management needs. This success can be in the form of customer service and improved quality, cost and risk reduction, and flexibility.
This urge to succeed can lead to overwhelming pressure. You should avoid becoming too involved as you can easily disrupt progress. Instead, focus on establishing your expectations and documenting advancements. Then, step back to create room for trust.
Allow your partner to succeed
While you should assign tasks and their deadlines, you should give your outsourcing partner space to meet your set expectations. This way, you’ll build a more stable relationship for the future by allowing your partner to showcase their expertise.
Practice flexibility with your outsourcing partner
A good working relationship demands balance. So after establishing your contract with the outsourcing company, you should understand that you’re working together for a win-win situation.
Be willing to compromise on both ends
Any contract or project that doesn’t allow for change leaves no room for improvement. Instead, accommodate one-off requests, expand the scope through which you should do business, and encourage innovation with an emphasis on flexibility.
How do I find the right outsourcing company for my client case management needs?
Finding an excellent outsourcing company can be a daunting task. There are tons of outsourcing companies out there. So, how do you sift through all of them to make sure you find the most suitable outsourcing company for your needs?
There are certain characteristics that you need to consider when you’re looking for like-minded partners, including:
High Quality Work
When you’re shopping for an outsourcing company to partner with, you’ll find a lot of them promise to provide you with excellent work for half the price. But, of course, very few of these companies possess the resources or expertise needed to back up their words.
You should, therefore, begin by establishing the level of service fulfillment you want from your partner, document it, and review it for proper evaluation. Then, as you sift through your options, point out the things you agree on and to what level.
Greater Customer Service
One reason to work with an outsourcing company is to improve your customer service. Therefore, you want a company that can give you exactly that by transferring your excellent customer service expectations and standards to your clients. A good outsourcing company should be able to offer approachable customer personnel with an understanding of your needs.
Positive Testimonials from Prior Clients
It would be best to check the company’s reviews from their previous clients to get a clear picture of what level of professionalism and expertise you can expect.
Passion
Look for a company that loves what they do and passionately supports you as you seek justice for your clients.
Strong Leadership
Strength in leadership is evident through team motivation, inspiration, and how a company advances through its challenges. It brings a team together for a common goal and builds relationships within the workplace to allow for effective communication, creativity, and better problem-solving skills.
It’s helpful if you look for an outsourcing partner that’ll increase your productivity, build trust and confidence in your relationships, and be able to thrive through adversities.
Use of Solid Analytics
Analytical skills, including creativity, critical thinking, data analysis, and research, are essential. An outsourcing company with strong analytical skills always finds solutions to problems and makes concrete decisions. You should ensure that your company of choice pays good attention to detail.
Making the strategic decision to outsource case and project management tasks to a third-party provider is an incredible way to increase your law firm’s bottom line. To learn more about outsourcing your client case management needs, contact Case Works today!
