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Automation can transform your intake process from one filled with tedious, manual tasks to a well-oiled machine that requires little to no human intervention. What could be better than creating a templated workflow once, knowing that it will run on autopilot and facilitate the same experience for every new lead?Lawmatics has simplified the automation process by creating an easy to use, plug and play Automation builder. Simply select a trigger, add in an assortment of action items, give it an exit condition when needed, and you’re off to the races. While the Lawmatics Automation builder is intuitive, there are a number of tricks and tips that can help you optimize your Automations for maximum efficiency.Though the benefits of Automation are plentiful, if set up improperly there can be pitfalls. You want to make a good impression with all incoming leads and clients, and an Automation misfire sending out an incorrect message is absolutely not the way to do that. The good news is that these kinds of misfires are one hundred percent avoidable. With the following tips you’ll become an Automation pro in time. Read on to learn the secrets of making your Automations work for you, instead of the other way around!

Entry Conditions

When creating a new Automation in Lawmatics, you will be prompted to make several selections right off the bat.

First, select the type of Automation from the options of Trigger, Event, or Date Field. The majority of Automations are trigger-based, meaning that they begin when a specified action occurs. The other two types of Automations are both triggered around the date of either an event on the calendar or populated into a custom date field.Next, you will also need to select the type of your Automation. Most often, the type will be Matter, meaning that the Automation applies to any potential clients or clients. You may sometimes create Automations that are contact type, meaning they could run on plain old contacts like friends, family, colleagues, etc as opposed to only for matters.Last but not least, when the Automation is matter type, you must also select the status that is viable to run in this workflow. If the Automation is purely intake-related, the status will be PNC. Select Hired, Lost, or some combination of the three accordingly.

Pro Tip: Making improper selections at this point can throw your Automation off course, so be sure to pick the proper options or email the Lawmatics support team if you get stuck.

Once you have created your Automation and are in the Automation builder, you will then select your specific entry condition(s). This will be the kickoff or initiator of the workflow. Some of the most common triggers used for intake-related Automations are ‘filled a form’, ‘event created’, ‘match on fields’, and ‘signed a document’.You can also create Automations with more than one entry condition, and choose to give the conditions an “and” or an “or” relationship. In the example below, you see that this Automation will trigger either if the intake form is filled out, or the consultation event is created.

Pro Tip: There are certain entry conditions where it would not make sense to use an “and” relationship, so paying extra attention to the entry condition relationship will help make sure to avoid Automation mishaps. For example, a matter can never be multiple practice areas simultaneously or in different pipeline stages at the same time. For that reason, having an Automation triggered if “practice area = X” AND “practice area = Y” would not be a logical entry condition.

The match on fields entry condition option is a very powerful one, and also one that can cause some confusion and errors when not used properly. This trigger refers to the value of any data field being populated, so the Automation triggers when the specified value is matched.

For example, this Automation (above) will trigger when a matter enters the Missed Consult stage (AKA the stage field is populated as Missed Consult). Remember, Automations that use the match on fields entry condition will trigger as soon as the data is matched.

Pro Tip: Know your triggers! A common cause for Automation misfire is populating a field internally without realizing that this field is in use as an Automation trigger. If you are not familiar with your triggers then you may think you are just populating a field and unbeknownst to you have triggered an Automation. This problem can be easily avoided by keeping tabs on (or documenting) which fields you have selected as triggers throughout your workflow, and by being intentional when populating those fields knowing that they are an Automation trigger.

Action Items

Once you have selected an entry condition for your Automation you are ready to begin adding action items. While this step is overall a straightforward one, with the plug and play colorful interface, there are still several best practices to be aware of that can level up your Automation.One action item that you will undoubtedly use in plenty of your Automations is the time delay. As you may guess, this action creates a pause in your workflow for the duration of your choosing. This is particularly useful for drip campaigns, reminders, etc.

Pro Tip: When using multiple delay action items in an Automation, such as for a drip campaign, the time delays add on from the previous step. In the example below, the second email is sent after a one day time delay, and is then followed by a two day delay. When the next action occurs after that two day delay, it will be three days from the start of the Automation, since it stacks on to that initial one-day delay.

When it comes to the other options for automated actions, most are self explanatory but a few could cause you to slip up. Let’s review some other common mistakes and misconceptions when adding action items.

Create Appointment vs. Request Appointment

These two options may seem the same or similar at a glance, but they are actually very different. The Create Appointment action will book an event on your calendar with the target matter. This action is typically used for webinars or other events, since the event will be scheduled for a static date and time. This action books the appointment for the date that you have selected in the Automation, with no input from the client. Request Appointment on the other hand will send a link to the target and allow them to select their own appointment based on the host’s availability. This is a more commonly used action item in Automations.

Send Documents vs. Request Signature

E-signatures are collected from documents, so the send document action item may seem tempting as the correct one to use, but in actuality it is not the action you would use for e-signature. The Send Document action simply merges the target’s information into the document and sends it as an email attachment, with no e-signature involved. The Request Signature action is what you will use to send a document to someone for collecting an e-signature.

Sending Email to Recipient (Other Than the Automation Target)

By default, an email used in an Automation will be sent to the Automation target (AKA whichever matter is running through the Automation). If you select a recipient other than the target, such as a related contact or internal user, then you must specify whose data fields should be merged into the email, the Automation target or the recipient.

Pro Tip: Make sure you select appropriately so that any fields, such as first name, display the proper values. If you are addressing the email “Dear [first-name]”, then make sure you select the email recipient in the Merge Data From box, so that the recipient’s name will be merged in as opposed to the matter running through the Automation. If you need to reference the matter’s name in the email, for example if you are sending their info to another attorney as a referral, then you would select the Automation Target option for merge data from.

You cannot have some fields in the email template show the target’s info, and others display the recipient’s, so make sure you keep that in mind when building fields into an email template.

Matter Conversion

Use this action item to change a matter’s status from PNC to Hired once they have completed your intake process and hired the firm.

Pro Tip: This action item can only be used at the very end of an Automation, so you will only see it available to select when there are no steps following.

Sharing Items via Portal

The client portal is a useful tool for keeping clients engaged with their forms, documents, and other deliverables. Use an Automation to share any of these items to the client portal.

Pro Tip: You must first invite the matter or related contact to have access to the portal before any items, such as forms, can be shared. This can be done via Automation as well, just make sure to use the Invite.

Delivery Windows

As an Automation best practice, we recommend setting delivery windows on most, if not all, of your automated deliverables. Especially if you frequently find yourself burning the midnight oil, delivery windows make sure that your Automations don’t send something out at an off time.It's great to send emails, forms, and documents via Automation, but sending them during business hours can be even more useful to help increase your open rates. This is especially important for documents or other items that require prompt attention from the client or prospect.Delivery windows can be selected for any automated action items that are sent to a target, either via email or SMS. To set up a delivery window, click on the action item, and then select the window as shown below.

Pro Tip: You may choose the Wait Until option, to make sure the deliverable gets sent at a specific time, or the Time Window, which will allow it to send any time during the window of your choosing.

Conditional Logic

One of the biggest power features within Automations is conditional logic. This feature also has the potential to cause problems when not set up properly. When adding action items to an Automation, you will see the option to Add If Condition.If conditions work similarly to entry conditions in that they check if a particular condition is met, and trigger the appropriate action (side of the branch) when met or not met. When you select the If Condition action, you will see a menu on the right side of the screen to select which conditions should be checked for this branch.

Once you select your condition and click save, you will see a branch created in your Automation. When the condition is met on a target in the Automation, they will flow down the "yes" (green check mark) side of the branch. When the condition is not met, they will head down the "no" side.

Pro Tip: It is very important to note that branches should only be used for conditions that are already determined at the time the Automation triggers, such as practice area, pipeline stage, marital status, etc. You should not use if conditions for sending reminders to fill a form/sign a document/book an appointment etc.

Once the condition is checked at the branch, the matter will flow down one of the two sides. At that point, the condition will never be re-checked (unless you have another if condition further on in the Automation). In other words, once a matter flows down one side of the branch, it will never go back to the other side.

Pro Tip: When editing an Automation, if you delete the if condition then all action items underneath it will also be deleted. For that reason, take caution when deleting a branch!

Exit Conditions

Exit conditions, although sometimes easily overlooked, are a surefire way to level up your Automations. Adding proper exit conditions to a workflow is the best way to ensure that matters only stay in a workflow that is still relevant to them.Let’s say you have an Automation that sends out a series of reminders for a potential client to reschedule their consultation after a no-show. This Automation would likely span over days, weeks, or even months, and would include a cadence of emails and/or text messages prompting them to reschedule. Now at any point if that PNC does in fact reschedule their consultation, you do NOT want them to continue receiving reminders from this workflow. Cue exit conditions.In this example, an exit condition of Event Created would be necessary to make sure that they exit once that appointment is booked. When you add exit conditions into an Automation, these conditions will be checked at each action item, and if the conditions are met, the matter will immediately exit the Automation and no future action items will run on them from that workflow.

Pro Tip: Exit conditions are not continuously checked 24/7, rather they are checked each time a matter hits the next action item. So let’s say you have a 3 day time delay in your Automation, and the matter meets the exit condition on the 2nd day of that time delay, they will not actually exit until the full time delay has run and the next action item is hit.

For that reason, it is crucial to think through your exit conditions carefully. Many users want to use a pipeline stage as an exit condition, but this can sometimes be problematic because the matter may already progress past that stage before the exit conditions are checked.With that in mind, the best exit conditions are ones that are “permanent”, meaning not a temporary status or a pipeline stage. Picklist fields or true/false fields make great exit conditions, since you will typically make a selection for those fields, and it will not change frequently like a pipeline stage would.

Conclusion

When done right, Automations are one of the best tools for saving time while also providing optimum communication with your clients. The best practices laid out here help you avoid any pesky issues that can cause your Automations to become troublesome.While building your Automations, keep in mind all of the various components, from entry conditions to action items to conditional logic to exit conditions, this will allow your Automations to work for you, instead of the other way around.Add these tips to your toolbox for creating your next Automation, and see how Automation can make your life much easier.

The Americans with Disabilities Act was enacted in 1990 to ensure public accommodations were accessible to everyone. But how does the ADA affect the public accommodations that have developed so robustly on the internet in the decades since the law was passed? Is your law firm’s website at risk of violating the ADA?In this webinar, Lawmatics CEO Matt Spiegel welcomes Jeff Lantz and Desire’e Martinelli of Esquire Interactive to explore these questions and more. Here are some of the highlights:

Who may be affected by website accessibility matters?

A broad range of disabilities or impairments may affect a person’s experience of a website. A person with one of the following disabilities or impairments may use assistive technology, such as screen readers or closed captioning, to navigate a website and its contents:.

• Visually impaired (legally or completely blind)
• Colorblind
• Deaf
• Physically impaired (motor/dexterity disabilities)
• Other disabilities (such as those affected by flashing technologies)

Significant uncertainty remains about what exactly must be done for websites to comply with the ADA, however website owners have broad discretion in implementing best practices for website accessibility.

What’s the case history on website accessibility and ADA compliance?

Two recent court cases have given some insight into how websites are to comply with the ADA:

• Robles v. Domino’s Pizza, LLC, No. 17-55504 (9th Cir. 2019) — If you sell goods and services directly on your website, it is critical that customers with different disabilities can understand and purchase the goods and services available.
• Gil v. Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc., No. 17-13467 (11th Cir. 2021) — While it was initially thought that Gil would formalize a distinction between sales and non-sales websites in terms of ADA compliance, a later appellate decision voided such a distinction.

While there are still no compliance standards, the Department of Justice provided guidance in March of 2022 on the flexibility businesses have in making their websites accessible. Businesses should consider the following matters regarding accessibility:

• Color contrast
• Color text cues
• Alternative text
• Video captions
• Online forms
• Text size/zoom
• Keyboard navigation

What are common ways websites violate the ADA?

The lack of specific requirements to make a website comply with the ADA did not stop the DoJ from initiating actions. Common areas of concern are:

• Images, buttons, and form fields are unlabeled or have inaccurate alt text
• Pop-ups are not reported to screen readers
• Tables are missing header information
• Missing or incorrect captions

Are there any guidelines for making my website accessible?

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) developed the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to explain how to make web content more accessible for individuals with disabilities. WCAG covers webpages, applications, and other digital content in the form of “Success Guidelines.”The guidelines cover a wide range of matters, such as text size, contrast, navigation, website structure, alt tags, movement, and more. The guidelines are organized under the following four principles:

• Perceivable (captions, contrast)
• Operable (organization and navigation)
• Understandable (labels, user input matters)
• Robust (coding tags)

An accessibility compliance checker is a handy tool to scan your website for potential gaps in compliance, like missing alternative text or empty links. and should consider adding a way to report accessibility problems to the website owner.

Should I use an accessibility plugin for my website?

An accessibility plugin allows users to modify website features such as text size and color contrast to optimize accessibility. Although such a tool can help users understand how their information is presented, it may interfere with screen readers, ultimately making a website less accessible for some users.

Final notes and takeaways

The first step in evaluating your website’s accessibility is determining what level of compliance will be the standard for your website. This may follow existing guidelines, like WCAG, or you may choose to develop your own standards. Then, decide which of your website’s most frequently visited pages you’ll audit first. After an audit is completed, determine the process you’ll use to remediate any aspects of your website that may be noncompliant with the ADA.Although compliance flexibility gives website owners more choices in how they make their website accessible, some of the resulting ambiguity can make it hard to know where to start. Before you commit to a costly audit or remediation process, understand your risk of noncompliance, and make a strategic decision about your firm’s approach.To learn more about best practices for making your website ADA compliant, and to see more frequently asked questions answered, watch a recording of the full webinar.

Webinar slide deck

We’re delighted to announce that Lawmatics has been recognized by TechnoLawyer as a ‘Hot Product’ in their 2022 Buyer’s Guide. The TechnoLawyer publication reports on the latest in legal technology, law office management, and law firm management.“We’re extremely proud to be identified as a premier tool for helping law firms grow,” said Matt Spiegel, CEO of Lawmatics. “Our software empowers law firms to spend less of their time on administering the business of their practice, and more time focusing on the clients they serve. We know that firms thrive when they can prioritize people rather than paperwork.”This honor is just the latest acknowledgement of how our client relationship management (CRM) software is revolutionizing law firms’ approaches to marketing, lead management, client intake, client reengagement, timekeeping, and billing.TechnoLawyer cited Lawmatics’ powerful and versatile automations as our ‘killer feature.’ Together with the workflow pipeline, Lawmatics automations seamlessly guide firms and clients through every stage of the intake process.

“You can build an unlimited number of automations in Lawmatics, each of which starts with one or more triggers. Triggers include events, completing a task, a form submission from your website, receiving or sending an email message, requesting files, and various client actions such as signing a document or paying an invoice.”

Other features highlighted in the buyer’s guide

• Unlimited custom fields
• Document building
• Email templates to communicate with prospective clients
• Time and expense tracking

Check out the full TechnoLawyer Buyer’s Guide review here. To see these features in action, book a free demo.

An effective legal intake software both accelerates and simplifies the intake process for you and your prospective clients, ultimately leading to a higher close rate. You may be asking yourself how to go about building an approachable yet all-encompassing intake form for all practice areas and matter types in Lawmatics. In this product deep-dive we will examine all the various elements of custom forms that will allow you to accomplish this goal.As you begin to create your one-stop-shop intake form, it is first important to understand the basics of the Lawmatics Custom Form Builder. You will then be able to progress to more advanced options such as relationships and appointments, as well as using conditional logic within the form for branching pathways. Take your process to the next level by using this form to trigger helpful automations based on intake form responses, and finally weave the data collected from the form into your entire intake process like documents and email templates.Here we will walk through each of these elements of creating an intake form to handle every possible intake scenario within your firm.

Form Basics

There are several key aspects of forms that you must be familiar with as you begin creating your intake form. Let’s start with fields. Fields are used to capture the written response to each question on your intake form; the data populated into each field is stored within your CRM.

View all available fields and other form elements on the left sidebar of the form.

There are three different types of fields that can be added to a form:

• Standard fields
• Custom fields
• General fields

Standard Fields

When adding a new question to your form, always check the standard fields section first to see if the field already exists as a default; these are the built-in fields that come standard with your Lawmatics account. In the standard fields section you will find common contact information such as first name, last name, phone, email, address, birthdate, etc.

Custom Fields

As you are building your form you will also need to add fields that are more specific to your firm and/or to your practice areas. These fields will be created as custom fields. When creating a custom field, give your field a name, select the type of field, and select the field visibility.

You will see these options when creating a new custom field within your form.

Once you have created your custom field, simply drag and drop it into the form canvas wherever you would like to place that question in the form.

General Fields

General fields are unique in that they do not save data into your CRM, they are only populated within the context of the form itself. Do not use this type of field for any data that you will need to save and use later in the matter, such as merging into a document, triggering an automation, or using in a report. For the purpose of creating your master conditional intake form, you likely will choose not to use any general fields on that form.When creating a new custom form, you have the option to make it internal or external. If you plan to use this form only internally, meaning that it will never be shared with a PNC directly, only an internal staff member will be filling it out, then feel free to make your form internal.

Relationship Blocks

You may want to utilize relationship blocks in your form, especially if you commonly work with married couples or matters concerning multiple clients. A relationship block allows you to create a separate contact related to the matter. This is a great tool for keeping all contacts in your CRM organized. These blocks can also be made repeatable, which is useful in the instance of more than one contact in a particular relationship, such as children or siblings.

Create custom relationship blocks for your various relationship types, and drag them into the form.

Once you have added fields and blocks to your form, remember that you can click on the field to view additional options in the right side menu. Here you have the option to make fields required or not, as well as add conditional logic (discussed further below). You will also see the option to make a field hidden.

Click on a field to view additional options on the right side, including the option to make a field hidden.

There are several scenarios in which to hide a field:

• You may wish to have a default value populated into a certain field, and you don't want the lead/client to have the opportunity to enter something other than the field default
• You may be triggering something an automation internally with a hidden field, such as assigning a certain practice area or moving the lead to a certain stage on your pipeline
• You may want certain client data to appear in the form submission PDF for your reference, but you don't need the client to re-enter or view that information on multiple forms

Advanced Options

When you expand the Advanced section on the left sidebar of the form builder you will find a number of additional components that can be useful to customize and streamline your intake form. For starters, you can use the Instructions field to add headings, script dialogue, or even insert images into your form. Simply drag over the instructions field and then click on it to add your content.

Drag and drop an instructions block, then click in it to add a section header such as “Case Information” or other instructions.

Another advanced element that you will likely find useful in your intake form is the Note field. This note field is different from a custom or standard field, as opposed to populated data in your CRM the note field will save a note item to the matter’s profile.

Consultation Booking

Since this intake form is often used when a new lead initially calls into your firm, you may wish to book a consultation directly from the form. There are two ways to easily accomplish this:

• Method 1: Drag and drop an Appointment field into your form. This will allow you to book an appointment on the calendar of any of your firm’s Lawmatics users, selecting any date and time that you wish. With this option, you will want to reference the host’s calendar before selecting and booking a time on the calendar widget in the form.
• Method 2: Alternatively, you can use the Booking Request advanced option to add a scheduling widget - this will only reveal time slots that correspond with the host’s availability. This is a great tool for high volume firms, where time is of the essence to get leads booked in your system ASAP without taking the time to reference the consulting attorney’s calendar.

After adding a booking request field into the form, click on it to open the options for this request. Make sure to select the booking options, as shown below, to determine what type of event this will be, who will be the host(s), and what the location of the event will be.

Use a booking request field to allow easy scheduling based on the host’s availability.

It is also important to make sure that all Lawmatics users have synced their calendar in their user settings, so that the system can pull their availability accurately. When an appointment is booked via the scheduling widget, it will automatically appear on that user’s synced calendar.

Conditional Logic

Before you start diving into conditional logic and its many uses, it is first important to understand the mechanics behind it. In its simplest form, conditional logic is simply an “if, then” statement. If a certain condition holds true, then the desired outcome will take place.While conditional logic looks a little different in each different area where it can be used in Lawmatics, the basic concept is the same. Let’s consider the example shown below from an automation.

Rule #1 - Conditional Fields

Above you will see that our “if” statement is “if the Practice Area is Estate Planning”. When this condition is found to be true, then the outcome will be that of the affirmative side of the branch. If the if statement is not found to be true, then the outcome will be that of the negative branch.In this particular example, the affirmative outcome is to deliver the Estate Planning Questionnaire to the target matter whereas on the negative side of the branch, nothing will occur — the automation simply ends there.There are also certain instances where multiple conditions can be used as your “if” statement. When this is the case, it is important to give those conditions an “AND” or OR” relationship accordingly.Notice in the image below how we have not added a second condition to our “if” statement but rather have given it an “OR” relationship to our initial condition.

The same concept applies to using conditional logic in your intake form. When setting conditional logic in custom forms, remember that you will set the logic on the field that is conditional, as opposed to the field that sets the condition.Let’s break down how you can go about using this on your intake form. When discussing next steps with the PNC, you may ask the question “Would you like to schedule a consultation?”. This will likely be a boolean (true/false) field or a picklist field with options of Yes and No. If the answer is Yes, then you may want to have a field appear to enter in the consultation fee for that matter.To set up conditional logic in this example, click on the second field, the consultation fee, and turn on conditional logic there. You will then select which field sets the logic for this field, which in this case is the field “Schedule consultation?” being TRUE.

In short, rule number one of using conditional logic in custom forms is to set the logic on the field that is conditional.

Rule #2 - Defined Value Fields

That brings us to rule number two. Conditional logic can only be set using fields that have defined values, such as true/false fields, picklist, or multi picklist fields. You cannot set conditional logic using fields that are open text fields, since these are open-ended and do not have defined responses.To clarify further, this rule pertains to the field that is setting the condition, not the field that is conditional. Returning to our example from earlier, you’ll notice that the conditional field “Consultation Fee Amount” is a currency type field, allowing the user to enter any dollar amount. This is perfectly acceptable, since this is not the field that is setting the condition. The field setting the condition is “Schedule consultation?”, which was created as a true/false field. A picklist field would also suffice in this example.As long as you keep these two rules in mind for using conditional logic in your custom forms, you are sure to create a better customer experience for clients filling out your forms.

What to Include in Your Form

With the baseline knowledge of the various intake form components you’ve acquired, you are ready to start building. Please note that we are merely suggesting what you may wish to include in your form; some of these items may or may not be needed for your practice, and you may also have other elements not mentioned here that make sense for you to include. Use these suggestions as you see fit.

Standard Fields

Begin by determining what standard fields you need to capture initially during your intake. This is typically the person’s first and last name, email address, and phone number. Depending on the type of law you practice, you may also need to know their marital status, citizenship, etc.Locate these fields in the standard fields section, and drag and drop them over to your form. You may also want to use an instructions block to make a section heading, as shown below.

Use an instructions block to make a heading for your basic contact information section.

Relationship Blocks

This is also a good place to include a relationship block in your form. Notice the field Marital Status in the bottom right of the image above. Here we have a great opportunity to implement some conditional logic in your form. Create a relationship block for your Spouse relationship, containing whatever fields you wish to capture for the spouse, and then set that block to only appear if the marital status is married.

Create and drag over a Spouse relationship block, then add conditional logic so it only appears when marital status is married.

Dividers & More

As you move on to the next section of your form, you may find it helpful to add dividers or another instructions field to help with the organization and structure of your form. Additionally, we suggest including the Source and Campaign fields, both found in the standard fields section. These fields allow you to save data on how each lead found your firm, which is critical for capturing valuable marketing data. Additionally, a Note field comes in handy here to collect any other information shared by the PNC that should be saved to their matter.

Use dividers or instructions to separate sections of your form.

Case-specific Fields

Next, you’ll want to start getting into some case-specific information for this PNC. Make sure to include the practice area field to label which type of case this is right off the bat. In our form we have also included our pipeline stage field which allows you to select exactly which stage of your intake pipeline this lead should land in.

Conditional Logic

Conditional logic will come in handy here to pose questions that align with the type of practice area that is selected. In our example, we added a follow up question asking about witnesses which will only appear when “criminal defense” is selected as the practice area. We also added a field to ask the lead how many children they have, and this field is conditional on the practice area being family law.

Add practice area specific follow up questions with conditional logic.

The ultimate goal of this form is to automate all possible intake scenarios, the best way to accomplish this is by adding a Next Steps section to your form. This tells the system whether or not this lead is qualified, which automation(s) to trigger, which conditions apply for this particular lead, and anything else that is needed for your process. While there are many different ways to use custom fields to capture this data, you’ll see some suggestions from our team in the image below.

The first question we ask here is whether or not to disqualify the lead. Our additional follow-up questions are conditional on that field being False, meaning that if the lead is disqualified, none of the other questions are relevant so they will not appear in the form.We have also added a possible option for nurturing this lead. This can be useful to trigger an automated nurture sequence spanning over weeks, months, or even years to keep working that lead. Typically, you would select this option if a lead is interested, but not ready to move forward with next steps right at that moment.We have also included the standard Sub Status field in our form. In the scenario of a lost/disqualified lead, this field is particularly useful to capture the reason the lead was lost. As opposed to just labeling a lead as Lost, this field allows you to select a custom reason, such as disqualified, which is useful for future reporting.Last but not least, at the bottom of the image above, you will also see three conditional fields. Depending on your process, these may be slightly different at your firm, but these fields show an example of what some potential next steps for a qualified lead may be. Each of these options will be used to trigger an automation taking the appropriate action, as explained in the following section.

Utilize Data from Your Form in the Rest of Your Process

Now that you have automated your intake form, it’s time to automate the next steps of each possible scenario. Again, these examples may differ from your firm’s actual process, but they are meant to be used as a guideline for creating your own automations.

New Lead Automation

Let’s break down our three possible outcomes for a qualified lead as described in the section above. First, we have the option to Run on New Lead Automation. As you may guess, when this option is selected in the intake form we will use it to trigger our new lead automation. Depending on your clientele and your sales cycle, this automation may vary slightly for you, but for ours we have decided to include an alternating sequence of emails and text messages, with the call to action for the lead being to book their consultation.

Trigger your new lead automation when the corresponding field is True, and then build out a sequence of automated actions.

Feel free to continue this sequence for as long as you would like, there is no limit to how many action items you can add or how much time this workflow can span. We have also included exit conditions in this automation so that once they book their consultation, they will no longer continue getting outreach from this automation. This is a key step to make sure all communication is relevant to where they are at in the process.

Send Engagement Agreement Automation

When filling out the intake for a new PNC, you may have someone who is ready to sign up on the spot and sign their engagement agreement immediately. When this is the case, you will select the Send EA option in your intake form. We now have an automation that triggers when that field is selected, and we have implemented conditional logic in the automation to check the matter’s practice area, and send the appropriate engagement agreement for e-signature accordingly.

Use if/else condition branches to send the appropriate document for signature depending on the practice area.

In the example above you see just two if branch statements, but feel free to continue adding as many as you need to account for all of your firm’s different practice areas or engagement agreement variations.

Scheduling Consultation Automation

In our intake form we have also built in an option for leads who want to move forward with your intake process, but still need to schedule their consultation. This is a very straightforward scenario to automate using our booking request feature. Simply trigger the automation when the needs to schedule option is selected in your form, and then send out an appointment request action item, making sure to select the appropriate firm user as the host.

Alternate appointment request action items with time delays to create a cadence of reminders to book their consultation.

Just as mentioned earlier, feel free to include as many reminders to schedule as you would like, sending them at a cadence that makes sense for your clientele. Once again, make sure to include exit conditions so that once the lead books their consultation using the appointment request, they will not continue getting the automated reminders.While these are just a few examples of scenarios that can be automated in Lawmatics based on the intake possibilities from your form, keep in mind that the possibilities are absolutely endless. With the use of conditional logic and our powerful trigger options, you have the ability to create automations for every possibility.

Reporting

In addition to automating your process, the intake form is also useful to capture data that can be tracked in a custom report. For example, in the intake form we have added the option to mark a lead as disqualified, and apply the appropriate sub status. You may find it useful to create a report of all disqualified leads, along with the marketing source they came from, so that you can hopefully work to eliminate getting an influx of unqualified leads from that source.

Create a custom report filtered by sub status to easily view disqualified leads from a given time period.

Remember that you will create a report under the Insights tab in Lawmatics. Once you have created it once, by setting your filters and columns as shown above, you can simply save the report and come back to view it any time. You could also set a custom date range so that you can easily check the report weekly or monthly and see only relevant data from that time period.All of this will lead to better insight into your firm’s performance, and help guide you on which marketing sources to invest more highly in.

Conclusion

In summary, there are many benefits to using a conditional intake form to automate your process. Accounting for all of your firm’s potential intake scenarios in a single form will save valuable time for you and your team. It also creates a much smoother experience for both your staff, as well as for your clients. At the end of the day, improving the client journey will always help improve your firm overall.Keeping the future of your firm in mind, your conditional intake form will also help set you up for insightful reporting and analytics down the road. Unlock statistics that you never had access to before, such as rate of leads lost before vs. after a consult, conversion rates by practice area, and of course marketing source performance. Once you have access to all of this data you will be able to easily adapt and adjust your processes to maximize profitability as your firm grows and changes over time.Finally, your all-encompassing intake form, in conjunction with automations, reports, etc. will enable your firm to convert more leads into clients. Use the form to bring in more business while spending less time and effort on your intake process.Ready to unlock the full potential of your firm's client intake process? Learn how Lawmatics legal intake software can revolutionize your firm's efficiency and client experience today!

What is your role at Lawmatics, and what does your job entail?

I am a full-stack engineer. I am responsible for creating the building blocks that form the Lawmatics app as well as bug fixes, feature improvement in all its forms, and managing the user interfaces. Currently, I'm on the Time & Billing team, responsible for managing time tracking, invoices, and payments related to the lawyers' work.

How did you end up working for Lawmatics?

One day I saw the Lawmatics engineer position posted in a developers' Slack group I'm part of. It was posted by our very talented lead engineer, Fred. I filled out the application and soon was contacted to have an interview.

What’s the best part of your job?

When I know someone used the feature I created. Even better is when the feature receives a compliment. My ultimate goal is to create useful features that make the user spend less time on their work.

What opportunities or new hobbies have you uncovered working remotely during COVID-19?

Drinking more… kidding! As many parents with children attending classes digitally at the time, I needed to find a way to be a better teacher to my daughter, explaining the disciplines and homework. And while all the gyms were closed, I made a habit of jogging outside.

Where are you originally from, and how did you end up where you are today?

I am originally from Goiânia, Brazil and have lived here all my life. It's awesome to work with other people and know different cultures, even remotely. In addition to working with a US-based team, I’ve worked with other companies based in the UK and Germany with employees from India, Macau, Russia, Mexico and others.

What do you like to do when you aren’t working?

I like to do weight training during the week; it helps me feel better, reduce stress and anxiety, and exert energy so I can drink and eat junk food at the weekends :D Other than that I like to play video games on my PC and watch movies and TV shows.

What is a fun fact most people may not know about you?

When I was a child there were many stray cats in my neighborhood. I don't remember why, but I convinced my mother to let me raise a mother cat and its 6 kittens from a cardboard box. I don't remember what happened to them, but it’s possible they returned to the streets they came from.

Tell us about one of your craziest or wildest (SFW) experiences.

On one of my vacation travels to the northeast coast of Brazil, I was with my spouse, daughter and siblings and left them to take a walk along the beach, alone. It was so relaxing that before I knew it, an hour had passed. When I returned, I was greeted by police and lifeguards who thought I had possibly drowned. I had completely forgotten to communicate where I was going before I left. 🙈

What is the one thing you can’t live without and why?

I don't have many friends and don’t make new friends easily, but I couldn’t live without the ones I do have. Whether they're from a former job, from college, or close members of my family, I look forward to our hangouts, having drinks and sharing milestones in our lives. My circle of friends from my graduating class meets at least once a year — and those are the most fulfilling (and hilarious) moments.

Do you have a favorite saying, quote, or personal mantra and if so, what is it and why?

"A vingança nunca é plena; mata a alma e envenena." This is a quote from a character named Mr. Madruga on a Mexican family TV show called El Chavo del Ocho, that’s popular in Brazil. It translates into "revenge is never full; it kills the soul and poisons it". It may seem puerile, but after watching this episode as a child countless times, it’s a constant reminder that steering away from revenge is the best way to heal after being wronged. We can only heal if we try to understand why it happened. It will set you free.

What do you love most about being a member of the Lawmatics team?

Everyone is so accessible and eager to help one another, and very polite about 99% of the time. This makes the environment very comfortable, even in difficult situations (like fixing bugs in production, or working on new features). And I'm lucky that we have awesome guidance from our CTO Roey and our tech lead Fred.

What do you love most about the Lawmatics Platform?

The automation part is what makes my eyes light up, and on top of that, I think our interface is very beautiful and smooth, I think the most beautiful software I worked with.

Based on your experience, what words of wisdom or advice do you have for legal professionals looking to help their law firms win more business, impress clients, and be more efficient?

Automate everything you can to spend less time on your work. But simultaneously, make an effort to let your touch in emails, forms and other assets by customizing them and turning you into that unique firm in the market. Gain an advantage by using our many integrations and payment solutions without having to recreate your matters database or cancel the subscription with your helper app.

If your intake process isn’t systemized, odds are you’re losing potential clients to competitors. In 2020 alone, lawyers using intake technology earned nearly 40% more revenue per lawyer compared to firms not using these technologies. And though you can only do so much to influence a prospect’s hiring decision, fine-tuning your intake process with the help of powerful automation tools can significantly increase your close rate while saving more time. In our latest webinar, Lawmatics CEO and co-founder Matt Spiegel teamed up with Jordan Ostroff of LegalEase Marketing to share breakthrough methods of converting more prospects into paying clients that any attorney can implement right away.Some of the key highlights include:

1 Use reporting to identify and maximize your marketing

Actively tracking the performance of your marketing efforts enables you to pinpoint which calls to action, content, and marketing emails are generating the most consultations and close rates, reducing overhead on client acquisition. Furthermore, A/B testing will help you identify your most effective:

• Ad copy & creative
• Ad channels
• Ad placements
• Referral sources

2 Create a frictionless web page that generates results

Strategically design your website or landing pages with all of the key engagement elements that you can in turn track  — from your headline, design, and special offer. Even the smallest adjustment can result in a dramatic increase in traffic and conversion.

3 Pre-sell your firm with automated marketing

From social proof to awards and recognitions, sending automated marketing emails (or texts) prior to the consultation can substantially improve the likelihood of a client acquisition. Once a potential client signs up for a consultation, a triggered email confirmation helps to reduce the risk of no-shows or confusion.

4 Pre-screen your clients

Screening your clients with a thorough and automatically delivered digital intake form can spare your firm the hassle of scheduling a consultation with an unqualified or unfit prospect. From geographical area to finances, getting the information you need upfront equates to less hours spent on consultations that don’t yield retained clients.

5 Selling doesn’t stop post-hire

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking the selling stops once onboarding begins. Continue to deliver messages to reinforce your client’s choice to hire you throughout the entire lifecycle of your relationship, particularly post matter resolution.

Webinar slide deck

After two consecutive recognitions in Above The Law— first in 2021 as the most intuitive and robust CRM and client intake platform, and once again in the 2022 Legal Practice Management Buyer’s Guide, Lawmatics is thrilled and honored to announce we’ve made the list yet again, this time in their CRM, Business Development, Virtual Receptionist, Chat & Text Messaging Buyers Guide 2022 Edition .The list of outstanding legal technology solutions and latest developments which Lawmatics offers was determined by gathering reputable supporting articles and product reviews of software in our space.Our goal has always been and continues to be offering you the most comprehensive all in one solution to enrich your workflow and enhance your client relationships. By participating in the Legal Tech Publishing eBook series, we stand with our community of fellow providers. Together we can offer law practices a vetted selection of legal technology solutions for their consideration.Here are some of the highlights from the latest buyers guide that features Lawmatics.

“Lawmatics Enriches Your Workflow Processes and Manages Your Client Relationships From Beginning to End With Automation”

Why legal tech publishing recommends Lawmatics:

• Lawmatics provides a thorough method of managing all client contacts thanks to powerful automation, allowing a law firm to build workflows that take a user through firm-defined processes ensuring no missed steps.
• The custom forms in Lawmatics are highly configurable so that a firm can gather information based on the needs of each client. Fields are highly customizable and can be conditional.
• Lawmatics legal document automation features pulls information from a contact directly into an agreement, eliminating errors and providing a workflow for approvals and signature Collection.
• Lawmatics provides an easily digestible view of visuals that track what's important to a firm in real time.

Check out the full Lawmatics review in Legal Tech Publishing’s CRM, Business Development, Virtual Receptionist, Chat & Text Messaging Buyers Guide 2022 Edition here.

In case summer time wasn’t already hot enough, the latest new features from Lawmatics are sure to fire up your day! We are thrilled to share the new features and improvements that are now live in the platform.

Custom Invoice Reminders

An exciting addition to Lawmatics Payments, you now have the option to send automated invoice reminders to clients with an outstanding balance. Avoid the frustration of seeing past due invoices go unpaid by notifying clients of an impending due date or past due balance. Reminders can be sent relative to the invoice due date, such as the week before or the day before, or anytime after. Customize each invoice reminder by using merge fields in your email reminder template and even create different templates for your different invoice types. Who doesn’t love a feature that helps you get paid more consistently with no extra effort?

To learn more about Invoice Reminders, click here.

Recovery Bin

We are thrilled to announce the new Recovery Bin feature, allowing you to restore recently deleted data. Anytime a contact, matter, and/or company in Lawmatics is deleted — erroneously or otherwise — it will be moved to the all-new Data Recovery Bin rather than deleted permanently. Simply hover your mouse over the settings gear and select Recovery Bin to view your deleted records and restore as needed. No more stressing over an accidental slip of the mouse on the delete button!

To learn more about Data Recovery Bin, click here.

Trust Balance Transfer

For any matters that have a remaining trust balance after resolution, our new Trust Balance Transfer feature allows you to transfer that balance to another matter. Whereas for some matters you may simply need to refund the trust balance, others that concern clients with more than one ongoing matter can be reconciled with the transfer balance option, where you are able to allocate the remaining balance to the appropriate place.

To learn more about Trust Accounting in Lawmatics click here.

Rename Files Upon Upload

You already know and love the Lawmatics file management system, which enables you to automate the process of collecting and saving critical case documents from your clients. For improved case organization and professionalism when it comes to your file storage, you can now rename any files that are uploaded with an informal or nonsensical name. This applies to both files uploaded by clients to their matters as well as internal files saved by members of your firm.

To learn more about how you can manage your files with Lawmatics, click here.

Internal Form Enhancement - Create Matter for Existing Contact/Company

Internal forms have long been a user-preferred way to create new matters for new contacts in Lawmatics. A new dropdown menu option in our internal forms feature now lets you create a new matter for an existing contact or company when filling out a form. Simply select the contact for which you wish to create a new matter and Lawmatics will pre-fill the form with their existing contact information. Upon form submission, a new matter will be created for said contact.

Not yet familiar with internal vs. external forms? Read up on them here.

Flat Fee Duration

We love giving Lawmatics users new customization options when it comes to billing transparency with your clients. With this new feature you can now choose whether or not your flat-fee invoices show the time duration of each time entry. Alternatively, toggle this setting off to show only the amount billed for all time entries while hiding the number of hours.

For a rundown of all time & billing settings options and customizations, click here.—Thanks for checking out our latest updates! We hope you’ll enjoy each of these new features. As always, stay tuned for what else is coming this Summer in Lawmatics!

We are thrilled to announce that G2 has once again ranked Lawmatics as a high performer for the 4th quarter in a row for their Summer 2022 Grid®️ Report for Legal Practice Management Software. After working so hard to deliver the best possible product to our customers, it goes without saying that the recognition is an honor!

What is G2?

G2, formally known as G2 Crowd, is a peer-to-peer review site that collects user reviews of all types of business software. G2 is a trusted third-party source for reviews when researching software solutions.

How are companies selected for the G2 Summer 2022 Grid^®️ report for legal practice management software?

G2 defines legal practice management software as software designed to assist legal professionals with their day-to-day law firm operations. It is a bit of an umbrella term as the products can include features like legal intake software, appointment scheduling, document storage and sharing, contact databases, and reporting.To qualify for the quarterly G2 Grid^®️ Report in the Legal Practice Management category, a product must:

• Manage law firm client information
• Store relevant legal documents
• Integrate with or provide functionality similar to legal case management solutions
• Be designed for independent law firm use

All of the companies featured in the report received a minimum of 10 G2 reviews within the qualifying time frame. Customer satisfaction scores and market presence determine the grid rankings. Our customer reviews have landed us in the coveted High Performer quadrant of the grid.To our delight, Lawmatics has been named among other outstanding legal management solutions like Clio, Smokeball, and Practice Panther—all of which we have extremely robust integrations with! Our goal is not only to deliver a unique product that elevates and streamlines your law practice but that also seamlessly integrates with all of your other favorite tech applications.

Highlights from the Summer 2022 Grid^® report

In addition to a high overall satisfaction rating, other highlights from the grid® report include:

• 100% of Lawmatics customers rated us 4 or 5 stars
• 92% of Lawmatics customers are likely to recommend Lawmatics to their peers
• 90% of Lawmatics customers believe our quality of support goes above and beyond

What our customers are saying about Lawmatics on G2

“Lawmatics has allowed me to become more efficient. I am able to create tasks and workflow to a high level of details - including communications, and follow up with clients and internally for processing a case.”

“Lawmatics offers a creative, out of the box way to conquer the daily tasks that legal work demands.”

“Anytime we have ever had questions or concerns we have had extremely prompt responses from the Lawmatics Customer Support team or Johnny directly. This type of care and concern we wish we had from all vendors.”

“Lawmatics is an incredibly powerful tool that's constantly getting better.”

“We have 10 people at our firm, and could easily have 14-15 to do the same work without Lawmatics.”

“Lawmatics has been key to automating my law practice.”

“The Lawmatics customer support we've received throughout the onboarding process has been professional and top notch as well.”

“Lawmatics is the best law firm software around!”

“Lawmatics is magic for your law firm because it automates everything so that you save so much time and effort on routine tasks, and it allows you to track data for your firm so that you can maximize your marketing efforts, spending, and case screening.”

“Lawmatics is focused squarely on client service, which we love because we love our clients.”

“Lawmatics is a well-organized platform that is attractive and easy to use. Excellent support staff who provide Zoom meetings to help you build out a custom system and video tutorials to answer your questions.”

“Lawmatics is a great way to increase efficiency with your law firm and reduce costs!”

“Lawmatics has changed the way we do intake drastically.”

“I can’t imagine my practice without Lawmatics.”

The tech industry embodies innovation, creativity, and revolution. And while “tech” can be seen as a broad term that comes with many sub-sectors, all of them come down to the same goal: to make humans stronger, wiser, faster, and more agile than they would be in the absence of these tools. So, isn’t it wild to think that in our journey towards humanity as a whole through technology, there is predominantly one gender leading the show? After all, how can we hope to develop and design technology that represents all walks of life if it’s not being created by all types of people who will use these products? In the male-dominated industry of tech, women are more important than ever—not only to represent a larger user base of tech products but also to provide fresh ideas and greater diversity that can help shape richer ideas.Because if you develop a product that only consists of one type of person, you run the risk of missing the mark. That’s why we at Lawmatics are proud to be a diverse team, breaking the mold of technical positions, and in turn developing products that are represented by all kinds of people with varying perspectives — with the goal of creating a product that works for everyone.We want to do our part in representing the women in tech. So, we’ve asked our own women team members to share their thoughts on what being a woman in tech means to them.

I love being part of a market that creates innovation for people. I also love interacting with so many intelligent, creative and fun individuals. Being a woman in tech means I can participate in this solution-oriented world, learn and contribute with what I am. This environment is becoming more inclusive and more diverse, so everyone benefits and grows from this opportunity.

— Erika Beaudette, Customer Success Specialist

Being a woman in tech is a learning experience. Not only do you learn so much about tech and the industry itself, but you learn so much about yourself as well. There are challenges women face when coming into a male dominated industry, such as being overlooked due to biases based on gender, race, age, and even appearance. We also have internal challenges we struggle with like confidence or feeling like we need to be more masculine in order to be taken seriously. Although I struggled with some of these internal challenges, I feel stronger now that I have overcome them. This is also why I'm so grateful to be a woman in tech, because I was lucky to find a company that supported me and let me be who I am.

— Val Kirsch, Implementation Team Lead

It's empowering to be a woman in tech, especially in sales. We're flipping the script and showing that we can come into an organization that's predominantly male and provide a fresh outlook, boost productivity, and be successful.

— Rachel Koscil, Sales Development Representative

To be a woman in tech in 2022 means to be mindful of the struggle of women of past generations to make space in all workplaces for future generations of women, while at the same time having confidence in our ability and never losing sight of the fact that our space in these places is well deserved. This also means embodying the ideals of diversity and inclusion that have allowed us our place in these spaces; to be an advocate of other groups who may not be represented fully, not just in the workplace but in all aspects of our lives.

— Mahnoor Mian, Customer Success Team Lead

Being a woman in tech to me means having a positive and diverse impact on the company and industry and empowering other women professionally. I love offering a different perspective and encouraging others to do the same.

— Sarah Bottorff, Senior Vice President

Being a woman in tech means being able to share a different perspective and come up with more solutions to problems. There's no one size fits all approach to problem solving and the solution could be a combination of input that comes from multiple people, regardless of gender!

— Anonymous

B.D.E. = Boss Diva Energy

— Kaia Dobbs, Account Executive

Being a woman in tech in 2022 means working to create a collaborative, diverse and inclusive workplace for everyone. At Lawmatics I love having the ability to work with my team on building a strong network of professionals who support one another, learn and grow together. Everyone working together towards the same common goal while striving to make a positive impact on the organization and tech industry. My hope is that this means working towards a future in which this no longer has to be a question that is asked.

— Monique Padilla, Talent & People Ops Leader

What is your role at Lawmatics, and what does your job entail?

I’m an Implementation Specialist here at Lawmatics. After a law firm signs up with our software, I’m responsible for setting up their new account with them and familiarizing myself with their intake process. With that knowledge, we create automations within Lawmatics based on their unique business needs and objectives.

How did you end up working for Lawmatics?

I’ve always worked in customer service and was eager to branch out into technology, so I started looking for a customer success position in my area. When I saw the description for the position at Lawmatics, it seemed like a perfect fit. I applied and spoke to Sarah Bottorff, our SVP of Growth, after which I knew I would love it!

What’s the best part of your job?

The best part of my job is the amazing team I work with and the incredible culture fostered by our company. Everyone does a great job of making sure each employee feels welcome and cared for, and heard; I have never felt more at home being in an office!

What new thing did you discover about yourself during the pandemic?

During the pandemic, I discovered that I am the type of person who will stay up until 4 AM to finish a puzzle they had no intention of starting, while watching a show about a corrupt tiger zoo.

Where are you originally from, and how did you end up in San Diego?

I’m originally from Niskayuna, which is a small town in Upstate New York. I went to school at the University of Delaware and graduated with a degree in Hospitality Business Management. Obviously, the pandemic hit that industry hard, so I figured it was a perfect time to explore a new place! My best friend, who was currently living in San Diego, flew back East and we took my trusty Camry across the country together in September 2020.

What do you like to do when you aren’t working?

Outside working hours I love spending time with friends, trying new restaurants, hiking, and going to the beach. I also love to draw and paint, so I teach “paint and sip” classes on the side. It was my first job in San Diego, but now I just do it for fun, when I can.

What is a fun fact most people may not know about you?

I played the violin for 10 years when I was younger. I always played by ear, and didn’t learn how to read sheet music until 5 years in.

Tell us about one of your craziest SFW experiences.

My friends, family and I fully believe that the house I grew up in is haunted - so I have quite a few crazy experiences with that!

What is the one thing you can’t live without and why?

I could not live without music! It can be so powerful in affecting your mood and creating a perfect environment for validating your feelings. I listen whenever I can and love finding new songs, going to concerts, and dancing (poorly)!

Do you have a favorite saying, quote, or personal mantra and if so, what is it and why?

There’s a long quote I love by Anthony Hopkins, “None of us are getting out of here alive, so stop treating yourself like an afterthought. Eat the delicious food. Walk in the sunshine. Jump in the ocean. Say the truth that you’re carrying in your heart like hidden treasure. Be silly. Be kind. Be weird. There’s no time for anything else.”

Can you walk us through your "Aha" moment - the moment when you realized how powerful the Lawmatics platform is for lawyers and law firms?

I absolutely love getting on a call and going over functionality that the firm didn’t know the platform was capable of. Seeing them come to the realization that they’re going to save so much time never gets old! They are so appreciative, and it really shows how much an automated process can change some people's lives.

Based on your experience, what words of wisdom or advice do you have for legal professionals looking to help their law firms win more business, impress clients, and be more efficient?

I believe that following up with a client is very important. Making sure they know you care can truly build rapport and keep clients coming back - not to mention that if they have a good experience, they are likely to recommend your firm to someone they know!

Summer is heating up and so is the latest batch of feature releases from Lawmatics! You’ll be delighted to see these new additions and improvements from our team to yours.

Date Field-Based Automations

We are thrilled to announce that you can now create time-relative automations (one hour before, two days after, etc.) for any date type field in Lawmatics. Our new Date Field-Based Automations take the existing concept of event-based automations and apply it to date fields. This new functionality allows you to trigger automated reminders or check-ins relative to a client’s court date, filing date, anniversary, or any other custom date field you may use in your practice — all from simply populating the date into a date type field.When creating a new automation you’ll select the Date Field option, then select from any of your firm’s date type fields as your target field to create a Date Field-Based Automation. You can then add your time-relative automations by clicking on the yellow label at the top of your page (highlighted below).To learn more about Date-Field Based Automations, click here.

Custom User Permissions for Viewing Email Communications

Confidentiality and discretion are paramount when dealing with sensitive client information. While logging your external emails in Lawmatics can be helpful, you may not want the entirety of your staff to have view access to these emails on a matter’s timeline. With our new External Email Role Permission you can now easily limit any user’s access to view email communications, without limiting their access to the matter all together. To use this new permission, go to the User Management page in your Admin Settings, Click Manage Roles, edit the role you wish to apply this restriction to, and then uncheck the All Emails option, as shown below.

Not yet using custom user roles? Learn all about that option here.

Set Default Tax Adjustment

With this latest update to Lawmatics Payments, you can now set a default percentage or flat amount for tax adjustments. While the default can be overridden when creating an invoice if necessary, setting a default will save you the time of entering a tax amount on each invoice if your firm does have a standard rate or amount. This adjustment can be applied to the invoice subtotal, expenses, or time entries, as shown in the example below.

Find this option on your firm’s Invoices settings page. If you are not yet using the Time & Billing feature in Lawmatics, email us at support@lawmatics.com to add it to your account.As always, we hope you enjoy these latest updates from Lawmatics and stay tuned for another round of releases in August.

Happy summer to all! We’ve been cranking here at Lawmatics and it’s about to get hot in here. Our engineering team has doubled over the last couple of months and because of that our pace has drastically increased. This is one of our largest releases to date and encompasses many different areas of the platform. Check it out!

Conflict Check Automation

With the recent addition of Conflict Checking in Lawmatics, we have made it easy to streamline this important step by automating your conflict check process. You can now use the results of that conflict check to trigger an automation, initiating the next step in your process. Depending on whether or not a conflict check passes, you are able to trigger a particular sequence of automations for each outcome. Each of these next steps can now be automated accordingly. We have also added the ability to exclude any targets who did not pass a conflict check from your automations, simply use the “Skip Conflicts” toggle at the top of your automations.To learn more about how to use our brand new Conflict Checking feature, click here.

Conflict Check Notifications

Adding to the conflict check capabilities in Lawmatics, users can now opt to receive notifications for approved, denied, and/or undecided conflict checks. These email notifications provide yet another way to stay up to date on your firm’s PNCs without needing to be sitting in front of your computer screen. Each user can customize their unique notification options with the ability to toggle both account-wide and user-specific notifications on and off.

Multi-pick List in Custom Form Conditionals

A highly requested feature, you can now use multi-picklist fields to set conditional logic within your Lawmatics Custom Forms. Previously, this ability was limited to true/false fields and generic picklist fields. This addition allows for even more customization and automation to the custom forms feature that you already know and love. To learn more about how to use conditional logic in Lawmatics Custom Forms, click here.

Change Main Contact/Company on a Matter

If your firm often works with matters that have more than one contact, such as a married couple, you may prefer one contact or the other to be listed as the primary name on the matter in your CRM. To that end, you can now easily swap the main contact on a matter from within Lawmatics. Simply click the arrow icon adjacent to a contact's name in their profile, and then select an alternate contact from within your CRM. The same functionality is applicable to company matters. This new feature helps you keep your CRM organized and accurate so that you can always find your matters with ease.

Hours Billed Report

Our new Hours Billed Report provides a real-time snapshot of billable hours based on criteria of your choice, so you can make business decisions accordingly. Get as granular as you need with your report by selecting one or more of the following search criteria: date range, user, and practice area. Once you’ve made your selection, the Hours Billed Report will display the total amount of hours billed per user.To learn more about using this report, click here. If you are not yet using the Time & Billing feature in Lawmatics, email us at support@lawmatics.com to learn more or to add it to your account.

Lawmatics Payments - Successful Notifications

Collecting payment is an essential step in the client lifecycle. Consequently, you can now receive an email or in-app notification when a client payment is submitted and successfully processed via Lawmatics Payments. Each user can select their notification preferences as they see fit, so that all parties responsible for client payment stay in the loop.

Log Trust Balance Refund

Lawmatics Billing is your firm’s one-stop-shop for all things payment-related, including your firm’s trust accounting. In the event of a remaining trust balance or an accidental overpayment, you can now manually log a refund of a client’s trust balance from within the client’s contact record, their matter or in the Trust Account tab.To learn more about managing trust account activity in Lawmatics, click here

In-app File Preview

You can now easily view a preview of files saved to a matter, including .docx and .xls file types. This improvement to our file storage system makes it much more convenient to locate and view files without any extra tedious steps or waiting for a download.

This release also includes many bug fixes and behind the scenes improvements to optimize your Lawmatics experience. We hope that you enjoy these new features and put them to good use. See you back here with more new features and enhancements very soon :wink: 👋 ! P.S. Not using Lawmatics yet? Book a personalized demo to learn how we can help you grow your law firm!

There’s no reason why it should be a hassle to get paid for every hour of work your attorneys have put in. So why do so many law firms struggle to close the billing gap? Odds are, any contention around your billing process didn’t begin when you sent your invoice, it was in place long before the client signed your fee or retainer agreement.For this presentation, Host of Financially Legal Podcast, Dan Lear, and Lawmatics CEO Matt Spiegel joined forces to reveal the six essential rules towards creating a seamless and frictionless billing process for both you and your clients.

Webinar slide deck

What is your role at Lawmatics, and what does your job entail?

I am an implementation specialist at Lawmatics! Once the sale closes I am assigned a customer to help them throughout the onboarding process. I guide them through setting up their account to fit the needs of their firm and help them realize how powerful and amazing Lawmatics is.

How did you end up working for Lawmatics?

I was scrolling on LinkedIn one day and a customer success position for Lawmatics popped up on my feed. I submitted an application and not long after that I got a message from our very own Sarah — and the rest is history!

What’s the best part of your job?

The best part of my job is at the end of onboarding a customer when they are truly excited about getting their account live because they see how much the product is going to help their firm and how much potential Lawmatics has for them.

What new thing did you discover about yourself during the pandemic?

One new thing that I discovered about myself during the pandemic is that I needed a puppy. Because of that realization, I now have my corgi puppy, Stitch!

Where are you originally from, and how did you end up in San Diego?

I was born and raised in Seattle, Washington (Go Seahawks)! I visited my friend who was going to school at San Diego State one weekend and decided that I needed to move to San Diego ASAP. I ended up going to and graduating from San Diego State University and then just ended up staying here because what’s not to like about San Diego.

What do you like to do when you aren’t working?

I LOVE going out to restaurants and finding new spots to eat, whether they are hole in the wall spots or higher-end places. Food is something I am always okay with spending money on. I also love cooking meals, when I feel like I have the time. Taking that first bite of a meal that you’re really looking forward to is so rewarding.

What is a fun fact most people may not know about you?

I once went to Chris Cornell’s house when I was a kid for a family friend's birthday party. If you know you know.

Tell us about one of your craziest SFW experiences.

A few years ago I went to a “The Weeknd” concert and my friends and I were invited to go down to the VIP section. On top of that, after the concert was over we got to go backstage and to the afterparty where I got to meet another musical artist. It was also sponsored by Grey Goose so we got unlimited free drinks (Cheers!).

What is the one thing you can’t live without and why?

Cheeseburgers. I feel like I don’t even need to explain why.

Do you have a favorite saying, quote, or personal mantra and if so, what is it and why?

One of my favorite quotes is from Audrey Hepburn because she is one of my favorite actresses ever. The quote is “For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.”

Can you walk us through your "Aha" moment - the moment when you realized how powerful the Lawmatics platform is for lawyers and law firms?

My “Aha” moment was probably on my third day of working at the company. I was blown away with the infinite amount of possibilities that a firm could benefit from Lawmatics. I had never seen a software so powerful.

Based on your experience, what words of wisdom or advice do you have for legal professionals looking to help their law firms win more business, impress clients, and be more efficient?

It’s all about the drip campaigns. What seems to be a real pain point for firms is having to worry about the manual follow-up to close a lead. Why should you add one more thing to your plate when you can have a software do it for you?