The Lawmatics Blog

On average, lawyers perform just two-and-a-half hours of billable work in an average eight-hour workday. Although most attorneys put in significantly more than 40 hours during the typical work week, unfortunately only a fraction of these hours are billable and generate revenue. Many lawyers waste time performing non-billable administrative, financial, or marketing tasks instead of working on their cases. How can busy lawyers serve their current clients and keep new ones coming in? By utilizing law firm marketing automation.

What is legal automation?

Legal automation involves using software to automate the manual or routine tasks that many lawyers perform as part of their jobs. No lawyer would say they worked hard, took out student loans, and sacrificed for years to put themselves through law school, only to fill their days performing manual data entry, copying and pasting to create documents, and developing marketing campaigns. Legal automation software performs low-value legal work, enabling lawyers to focus on more strategic tasks. Law firm automation can:

• Reduce the risk of human error due to duplicate data entry
• Improve the client experience by automating specific processes or making offering self-service options for filling out forms and scheduling appointments
• Enable attorneys to spend more time on billable work and other revenue-producing activities, increasing work satisfaction
• Improve communication and transparency between law firm staff and clients
• Reduce the overhead costs related to staffing associated with a traditional law office
• Levels the playing field by enabling small or mid-sized firms to stay competitive on a lesser budget

Legal automation can vary according to the setting. For example, some law firms automate the document review process to allow lawyers to avoid manually searching through emails. In contrast, others choose to automate their marketing efforts with an efficient yet personalized approach. But regardless of the setting, most lawyers can automate a large portion of their work with current technology.

What legal processes can be automated?

With legal workflow automation, law firms can automate a myriad of tasks – from billing to document management – while eliminating errors and reducing overhead.

Types of automation

Some of the types of legal work that can be successfully automated include:

• Document creation. Merge the data you need from your custom fields and auto-fill directly into boilerplate legal forms to generate documents – with the click of a mouse.
• Document execution. Introducing secure, universally-recognized electronic signature for law firms allows attorneys to streamline their operations and win more business.
• Legal workflows. Automation helps legal teams and law firms to string together various manual processes, such as client intake, to make everyday workflows more scalable.
• Time and expense tracking. Legal time tracking software offers the most efficient way to track time, whether your law firm bills hourly, fixed fee, or on contingency.
• Billing management. Law firm billing software automates every step in the billing process, from invoice creation to billing, collection, and payment status.
• Online payments. Payment processing software makes it easy for your clients to securely pay their invoices online, meaning you get paid faster.
• Appointment scheduling. Automated scheduling software takes the hassle out of appointment setting by allowing legal clients to schedule their own appointments.
• Lead management. With automated pipeline management, firms can manage, prioritize and nurture prospective clients from initial inquiries to paying clients.
• Marketing campaigns. Build repeatable processes with email marketing drip campaigns that initiate a response as you move a lead from one stage to the next.

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“Lawmatics lets me do what much bigger firms spend a whole lot more money doing - and I can do it much faster and much better.”

— Taylor Darcy, Attorney, Founder, CEO of Think Legal, P.C.

Benefits of automation in law

The main benefits of legal automation are 1) a dramatic increase in productivity and 2) substantial time savings. Here are some of the most common benefits of automation in law:

• More time for higher-value work. By avoiding repetitive administrative tasks, lawyers have more time to perform the strategic, substantive legal work they are trained to do.
• Less duplication of work. Once a process is automated, it’s off an attorney’s plate. No more reinventing the wheel – once a task is automated, it can be generated instantly from a template.
• Superior client experience. When low-value work is automated, the cost savings can be passed on to the client, giving them a better, more cost-effective experience.
• Greater access to data. Manual processes, like due diligence reviews or wet signatures, usually capture no data - making it hard to integrate them with something else. Automated processes can capture data, provide analytics, and enable better workflows.
• No more blown budgets. Automating a process can mean a team can cut costs, avoid hiring additional staff, and scale productivity without scaling overhead.

These and other benefits encourage more and more lawyers to consider automating some of their processes.

Can automation replace lawyers?

With the emergence of revolutionary AI software like ChatGPT, legal professionals have found themselves asking: “will lawyers be replaced by robots?”. Law office automation and technology will not take away the human element of the practice. Instead, it allows attorneys to spend less time on time-intensive, tedious tasks and more time on activities requiring their unique skills and expertise.

A "robot" lawyer powered by artificial intelligence was set to be the first of its kind to help a defendant contest a traffic ticket in court last month. However, the experiment was scrapped after Joshua Browder, the CEO of the company that created the chatbot, was threatened with prison time.

Joshua Browder, CEO of DoNotPay, tweeted that his company "is postponing our court case and sticking to consumer rights." Browder said he would not send the company's robot lawyer to court. According to Browder, his company’s AI creation that operates on a smartphone, considers legal arguments, and formulates responses for the defendant, was designed to tell the defendant (through headphones) what to say in real-time. However, Browder decided that the prospect of bringing the first robot lawyer into the courtroom wasn't worth the risk of spending six months in jail.Criticism from attorneys against Browder's robot lawyer suggests that many have concerns over AI-powered chatbots taking their jobs. But according to Browder, the ultimate goal of a robot lawyer is to “democratize legal representation by making it free for those who can't afford it, in some cases eliminating the need for pricey attorneys.”However, given that the technology is illegal in many courtrooms, Browder doesn't expect to be able to launch the robot lawyer any time soon. As he told CBS MoneyWatch, when Browder originally revealed that DoNotPay's robot lawyer would appear in court, lawyers threatened him with jail time.

"There are a lot of lawyers and bar associations that would not support this," Browder said. "ChatGPT is very good at holding conversations, but it's terrible at knowing the law. We've had to retrain these AIs to know the law," Browder said. "AI is a high school student, and we're sending it to law school."

According to an American Bar Association (ABA) report, lawyers don’t need to worry about robots taking their jobs . . . yet. The types of automation currently being deployed are tools like document automation and chatbots:

Document automation

Document automation is like having a personal assistant that helps you create legal documents faster and with less room for error. You know how tedious it can be to create contracts or legal agreements from scratch every time? With automation, you can streamline that process, and even personalize documents to suit your clients' specific needs. In addition, it saves money by reducing the costs of creating and storing documents. But how exactly does it work?Document automation technology employs logic to combine preexisting text, user input, and data to create new documents. Document automation solutions typically guide users through the document creation process with a series of questions. Then, based on the user’s answers, the system automatically uses that information to generate a document. Document automation is much more complex than mail merge because it allows users to draft documents using complex reasoning that humans instinctively use when creating documents. Although the legacy platforms of the past required users to learn code, the new generation of user-friendly automation tools visually representing logical connections has replaced these cumbersome systems. As a result, users or subject-matter experts can complete document automation projects faster and easier than ever before.

Chatbots

A chatbot is a computer program designed to maintain conversations with human users over the Internet, using natural language and replying based on preset rules and data. They have become a widespread, practical, and helpful way to encourage clients to provide the data required to create documents and provide relevant and valuable information. Most people have become comfortable with Chatbots’ conversational user interface through texting on mobile phones.According to The State of Chatbots Report, a survey of more than 1,000 adults ages 18 to 64, consumers observed many benefits to using chatbots, the most common potential benefit being the ability to get 24-hour service (64 percent), followed by receiving immediate responses to inquiries (55 percent), and getting answers to simple questions (55 percent). In addition, some users prefer chatbots because they want to avoid judgment by others and feel safer communicating with a machine. Chatbots also provide a more accessible interface by allowing those who are hearing or physically or visually impaired to communicate by voice or text. So will automation replace lawyers?Automation won’t replace legal expertise. Instead, it will allow lawyers to spend more time practicing law instead of performing the duties of a business owner or manager. In the past, law firms looked at document review, legal memos, and research projects as easy ways for young lawyers to get up to speed, but some modern law firms are looking at document automation and chatbots as a way to train the next generation of lawyers. According to the ABA, the future will likely reflect the past, and junior associates will continue to learn about the law and its application through research and consultation with more senior lawyers. However, the tools they use to get educated will be different. For example, chatbots and document automation might be a new way for associates to integrate what they’ve learned to make it worthwhile for others. In other words, robots won’t replace lawyers but may make them better lawyers.

Which legal document management system is the best?

Legal document management software allows lawyers to store, organize, and access documents from one central repository. These platforms enable lawyers to work more collaboratively and efficiently – from anywhere – and prevent the unauthorized access of client documents, enhancing security. Lawyers have many options when choosing legal document management software. Here are some potential legal document management solutions.

Lawmatics

Lawmatics document automation software syncs the right data into the right places instantly, saving users time and minimizing errors. Lawmatics instantly generates documents in the preferred template using Microsoft Word, PDFs, or an online text editor app to reduce mistakes and save time.

Clio

Clio introduced the first cloud-based practice management software to law firms in 2008 and is still widely considered one of the top legal document management solutions. Clio is trusted by over 150,000 legal professionals, with high ratings on G2 Crowd, Lawyerist, Capterra, and SoftwareAdvice.com.

PracticePanther

Practice Panther is one of the market’s leading and fastest-growing practice management platforms. With an incredibly robust set of tools designed to make managing and billing cases a breeze, PracticePanther allows law firms to track, organize, and manage their documents in a centralized location.

Filevine

Filevine, a cloud-based document management program intended for personal injury firms, aims to help legal teams simplify processes, organize documents, and work more collaboratively.

MyCase

One of the leading case management platforms, MyCase provides solid features for document management, client communication, and billing. MyCase makes it easy for lawyers to adopt and implement the latest legal software and focus on practicing law.

Rocket Matter

Rocket Matter is a cloud-based legal billing and management solution for small and midsize law practices that includes time and billing management, calendaring, document management, and payments and collaboration management modules to help law firms boost revenue and provide an improved client experience.

What software do most law firms use?

The software a law firm uses generally depends on the size and needs of the firm. Lawmatics is the #1 legal software for growing law firms, offering law practice CRM, marketing automation, legal billing, document management, and much more in one easy-to-use system.

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“Lawmatics is the best legal technology software I have seen in ten years. When I evaluate software, I question whether our lives would be easier if a program could execute or manage a specific task. The team has gone a long way to make our wants and wishes a reality.”

— Christopher Gaddy, Nice Law Firm

Not only is it extremely easy to create documents with Lawmatics, but you can just as quickly review, send and receive with e-sign pdf software, all in our simplified automation platform. To learn more about how the Lawmatics platform will transform your law firm, request a demo today.

Successful marketing enables an organization to connect with its target audience in the right place at the right time. Research indicates that the average U.S. consumer spends over seven hours each day looking at a screen, which makes the internet the best place to meet them. Businesses worldwide are taking advantage of this reality by employing effective digital marketing strategies. In doing so, they help ensure their marketing efforts are more likely to reach prospective clients actively in the market for their products and services. Digital marketing includes all marketing strategies that utilize the internet. When used in conjunction with law firm marketing automation, digital channels such as search engines, email, websites, and social media can be used to connect with current and prospective legal clients. Unlike traditional strategies, digital marketing enables firms specifically target leads more apt to retain their services. In addition, digital marketing is generally more cost effective than traditional marketing and allows businesses to measure success and make changes based on legal data analytics.

What are the 5 benefits of digital marketing?

There are many benefits of digital marketing for lawyers. Five of them include:

1Widen reach

Digital marketing allows organizations to target a broader audience than traditional efforts – after all, virtually the entire planet has access to the internet. This broad reach allows firms to communicate easily with their target audience as opposed to traditional marketing, which limits businesses by only enabling them to target leads in their geographical location.

2Increase engagement

With so many new brands out there, finding the right clients is getting more and more challenging. Therefore, knowing what your customers are saying about your brand. You can engage with them by listening to what they are saying about your brand on social media.

3Monitor competitors

Digital marketing, particularly via social media, doesn’t just enable you to engage your clients. It also allows you to monitor what your competitors are doing online. For example, you can review the marketing campaigns of other firms in your area and see how they connect with their clients to improve your current strategies and stay ahead of the competition.

4Analyze data

We live in a digital age, and this must be reflected in our marketing efforts. Digital marketing enables organizations to analyze results and data on strategies developed online. Through the review of this data, marketers can better understand their prospective clients’ preferences and alter their efforts based on these findings. However, traditional marketing does not provide a way to analyze whether certain marketing efforts are more successful than others.

5Improve efforts

Since digital marketing can generate reports, marketers can quickly see how their target audience responds to their digital marketing campaigns. These reports allow you to change course based on your findings. As a result, your strategies and content will always be based on your client’s preferences, something that cannot be measured with traditional marketing.Having a comprehensive law firm digital marketing strategy is one of the best ways to build trust and credibility with potential clients and grow your law firm.

Digital marketing strategy

Your specific online marketing strategy will depend on whether you’re marketing yourself as a lawyer or marketing the entire law practice.Legal professionals who are marketing themselves should focus on their personal brand. They must provide evidence of their credibility and trustworthiness to potential clients or firms where they might want to work. To shore up your personal marketing efforts, ensure your LinkedIn profile, biography, and other online profiles feature professional photos and outline your achievements, approach, and values. Positive reviews from clients or firms should be included in marketing materials, if possible. Personal brand is also essential when marketing a law firm, as a firm’s brand is reliant on the brands of all the lawyers within it. Therefore, helping firm employees understand how to market themselves is a critical component of any law firm’s digital marketing strategy.Ethics is another crucial factor to consider. Whether an individual or an entire firm is the focus of marketing efforts, each jurisdiction has its own unique set of guidelines on the ethical responsibilities that must be followed when designing an online marketing strategy. Two important things to remember:

1. Avoid labeling yourself as an “expert” unless you have the qualifications required by your jurisdiction, and
2. Be highly cautious about inadvertently sharing details about your lawyer-client relationships.

How do lawyers attract more clients?

The most common types of digital marketing for lawyers can be broken into eight general categories. These include:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – including words and phrases that legal consumers are using to search for information online in firm-generated content.
• Pay-per-click - paid advertisements and promoted search engine results designed to increase search traffic.
• Social media marketing - using social media and social networks to market legal services, engage with existing clients, and reach new prospects.
• Content marketing - employing storytelling and information sharing to increase brand awareness.
• Email Marketing - a form of digital marketing that utilizes email to promote a law firm’s services.
• Mobile Marketing – advertising focused on reaching the target audience via smartphone or tablet.
• Marketing Analytics - tools designed to track and measure the success of digital marketing campaigns.
• Affiliate Marketing – a strategy that involves collaborating with third-party influencers to promote a firm’s services.

Lawyers are permitted to advertise but they must follow specific lawyer advertising rules and ethical obligations. For example, American Bar Association (ABA) Rule 7.2 on Communications Concerning a Lawyer's Services specifies that lawyers can communicate information about their services through any platform. Still, there are rules surrounding lawyers and social media ethics that specify what they can share.

How to market a law firm of social media

To attract new clients through online advertising, lawyers must go where their prospects are – social media. There are plenty of social networks to choose from, so you’ll need to determine which social media platforms are best for your law firm and particular practice areas. With a modest investment of time and research, social media marketing can positively affect your law firm’s growth.

Are you unsure about what law firms post on social media? Here are a few suggestions on how to use social media in your law firm marketing:

• Twitter. Try following some influential legal leaders on Twitter and engage in thoughtful conversation.
• LinkedIn. Create an effective law firm LinkedIn page, ensuring it is separate from your personal LinkedIn profile. Both should be optimized to help you and your firm stand out to potential clients while differentiating from the competition.
• Facebook. Create a Facebook advertising campaign to position yourself as an authority in your space and attract new clients.
• Video marketing. Video is one of the most effective marketing tools for lawyers, although the legal industry has been slow to adopt it. However, video marketing for lawyers that tells a story is informative, entertaining, and engages leads.

As with any digital marketing, ensure that your social media marketing campaigns follow your particular jurisdiction’s ethics and advertising rules.

How to market a law firm via email

Email marketing is another highly effective way to reach marketing goals for a law firm. Research has found that email is almost 40x more effective than social media for turning prospects into clients. Here are a few ways to make your email marketing campaigns even more effective:

• Embed a video in your email. Video is an excellent way to introduce yourself to your leads and prospective clients, and it’s not as difficult as you might think. Many video hosting providers provide you with an embed code that can be imported into the HTML editor section of your email service provider.
• Automate your email campaigns. Automation enables your law firm to respond to every prospective client that provides their contact details with a personalized email. Moreover, automation provides a prompt response – when your leads are most engaged and looking for a lawyer. If you reply manually, you can only do so when you have time, which might be after they’ve hired another attorney.
• Don’t forget to follow up. Following up after your first email can boost reply rates by as much as 30 percent, while those who send only one email with no follow-up garner an average reply rate of 16 percent. Sending 2-3 follow-up emails is the most effective – those who flood their prospects’ inboxes don’t necessarily have a better chance of getting a reply.

Automated drip email marketing enables lawyers to contact people reliably, consistently, and in a personalized manner.

How to market a law firm with blogging

Lawyers who enjoy writing can put those skills to use to grow their law firm. Blogging (content marketing) is a great way to build your brand and authority. Content can be used to showcase expertise in a given area. A lawyer or law firm that provides helpful answers to general legal questions potential clients have can build trust and confidence. Demonstrating authority in a particular area of law makes it more likely that a prospect will eventually hire you.If you decide to start a blog, take a “thought leadership” approach and try to identify legal-related evergreen topics to write about. Ensure your content has a clear focus, takes on a professional yet approachable tone, and provides helpful information (without offering specific legal advice).

Why do lawyers advertise on billboards?

Have you ever wondered, ‘Why do lawyers advertise on billboards?’ It’s because they are in place 24/7, can be viewed thousands of times per day (in a high-traffic location, and have been proven effective but also quite expensive. Instead, lawyers considering advertising on a billboard should think of social media as a digital billboard—for a much lower price.

Does SEO work for law firms?

If you create a law firm website to market your firm, but no one finds it when they search online, will potential clients be able to find you? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) works for many types of businesses – restaurants, retailers, tech enterprises, and law firms -any company that attracts customers via Google can benefit from SEO.To maximize your website, adhere to SEO best practices for lawyers. Ensure that your site is accessible and provides useful, quality content -- this is what search engines like Google seek. Ranking at the top of search results doesn’t happen instantly, and it usually doesn’t happen without some effort to improve your site’s SEO.

What is the best form of advertisement for a lawyer?

Legal marketing generally encompasses advertising, public relations, trademarks, and other efforts to increase a law practice’s visibility. Numerous companies provide marketing services for lawyers and specialize in online marketing for attorneys. Some of the companies that provide legal marketing services include:

• ALM Marketing Services – delivers high-level lawyer marketing services as well as financial, consulting, insurance, and allied services.
• FindLaw – features one of the largest online legal directories to enhance various legal marketing services, including web design and SEO.
• LegalMatch – offers an on-demand attorney-client matching platform featuring centralized and multi-dimensional legal marketing services accessible through an attorney member subscription.
• LexisNexis - provides legal and professional solutions for law firms, government agencies, businesses, corporations, and academic institutions.
• MAX Advertising – a legal marketing agency for law firms that uses the “strategic integrated marketing” approach.
• LawRank – a legal marketing agency dedicated to providing legal firms with superior search marketing results.

More and more firms are choosing to automate the leg work of their marketing efforts. Marketing automation software automates tedious tasks, allowing lawyers to drive growth in the business while staying focused on clients. For example, these platforms create an email marketing template that goes out automatically, providing prospects with timely and personalized marketing materials and giving lawyers the ability to measure the success of their automated marketing efforts – thanks to built-in visual analytics features.Lawmatics law firm marketing automation helps you seize every new client opportunity with targeted messaging and impeccable timing. To learn more about how Lawmatics can streamline your firm’s marketing efforts, request a demo today.

You’re likely investing in multiple marketing activities without knowing which ones are truly bringing in the most revenue – or which are bleeding you dry. It's time to move beyond simply counting leads. Start understanding the impact of your marketing channels on your practice's bottom line.In this webinar Lawmatics Director of Strategic Partnerships Blake Roberts welcomed Chris Nelson and Shaun Bruno from CallRail. Chris is the Senior Manager of Vertical Marketing at CallRail, and Shaun is the Manager of Demand Generation.

Time stamps of key takeaways

0:00 — Introductions

Learn a little bit about Blake, Chris, and Shaun. Then get a high-level overview of why marketing performance metrics are so important.

9:57 — Marketing channel overview

Marketing channels can be categorized in different buckets. Online, or digital marketing, channels, include search engines, social media accounts, digital ads – and more. Offline channels include anything physically interactive: broadcast media, print, billboards, word-of-mouth referrals. The first step to understanding your most profitable channels is understanding the online or offline environments that generate clients.

16:06 — Top channels in 2023

Shaun and Chris break down the results of CallRail’s 2023 poll of the most effective channels, by both brand awareness and lead generation potential.

22:15 — Right fits for your firm

Where do you want to go with your practice? Who is your ideal client? What are your competitors doing? Shaun and Chis run through these essential questions and how to identify the best marketing channels for your law firm’s goals.

31:58 — Your law firm’s website

While your firm’s website is a digital marketing channel in and of itself, it’s also a booster for other marketing channels. Here, Shaun explains exactly what that means.

39:21 — Measuring channel effectiveness

So you know what marketing channels exist, you know what channels align with your goals – but how do you measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts? Only 42% of firm’s CallRail surveyed base their marketing spend on attribution metrics provided by reporting tools. That means the majority of law firm’s aren’t creating a data-informed marketing strategy. In this section Shaun and Chris discuss the importance of measuring channel effectiveness and how reporting tools can help your firm.

1:00:59 — Q&A

If you had a question come up during this webinar, someone else likely had the same thought. Stick around to see if anyone asked your question during the Q&A portion.

Webinar slide deck

Register for upcoming Monthly Deep Dives here.

From consultations to court dates to signing meetings, you undoubtedly schedule a plethora of appointments with potential clients. Lawmatics has all the tools you need to facilitate a smooth process, from the initial booking to confirmation, reminders, and post-meeting correspondences.While you may know that all of these tools exist in Lawmatics, you may not yet be using them all to their full potential. We are thrilled to share this deep dive into every aspect of appointment in Lawmatics.

Calendar Sync

Before you even begin booking appointments, we first recommend that you sync your external calendar to Lawmatics. Note that this is an individual user setting, so each of your firm’s users can connect their own calendar account. By initiating this sync, you permit that any of your appointments booked via Lawmatics to seamlessly sync onto your external calendar. The sync eliminates any need for you to be hopping back and forth between multiple calendars, such as your Google Calendar or Outlook and Lawmatics, when booking an appointment.To sync your Calendar to Lawmatics:

1. Navigate to the Settings page in Lawmatics by clicking the gear icon near the top right of your screen.
2. Select Calendar from the left sidebar. If you have not yet synced your calendar, you will see options to sync for each calendar provider.

Once you have walked through the necessary steps, your page will look similar to the one shown below.

From here, you can easily select your availability hours as well as Buffer Time, Lunch Hour, and other availability settings. These options will come into play for our automatic scheduling, which we’ll discuss more later.

Appointment Settings

In addition to syncing your calendar, there are a few other settings relating to appointments that you’ll want to get squared away. Select Appointments from the main settings menu to get started.First, make sure you create your firm’s various Appointment Types. This is an essential step before you begin booking appointments in Lawmatics. Appointment Types are used to distinguish between the different emails, reminders, follow-ups, etc that are used for each different type of appointment your firm may hold.

Note that these are completely customizable and can be edited or updated at any time.

Scheduling Appointments

Now that you have synced your calendar and set up your appointment types, you are ready to start booking appointments in Lawmatics. Within the platform you will find many different ways to go about scheduling your appointments. Throughout your intake process you may wind up using some combination of these methods. Let’s walk through each of them.

Calendar

The first and perhaps the most obvious way to book an appointment is from the Calendar, found under the CRM tab. Simply select Calendar from the drop down menu, and you will then see a summary of your Lawmatics appointments, as well as your Tasks.

Click on the New Appointment button at the top of the page to book a new appointment. You will then be prompted to fill in details on the appointment and make selections such as the location, attendees, etc. No matter which method you choose to book an appointment from the options outlined here, you will see a similar window when scheduling.

Matter Profile

You can also book appointments directly from a matter’s profile. Simply navigate to the matter using either the search tool or clicking on their name from the pipeline, then click the Schedule Appointment button.

Note that there are two options for appointments, highlighted above. Schedule Appointment allows you to simply choose the date and time and book the appointment. Request Appointment on the other hand sends out a booking link for the recipient to choose their own appointment time based on the host’s availability. Read on to learn more about that feature.

Custom Form

Forms are another common method for booking appointments. If using an internal Form, you have the option to select either an Appointment field, or the Booking Request field, both highlighted below.

The Appointment can only be used on internal Forms, since it allows the internal firm user to select the exact date and time for scheduling the appointment. The Booking Request option gives the client the chance to schedule for themselves based on the host availability.

Booking Form

A Booking Form is similar to a Custom Form but with one exception, it will always contain a booking request whereas this is merely an option on a Custom Form. This scheduling method is great for embedding on your website, since it can simultaneously capture a new lead and prompt them to schedule their own appointment.

Bonus: Use a booking form with our new Payment Gateway feature to easily collect a consultation fee

Booking Link

Last but not least, you can also use a simple Booking Link to allow leads or clients to book their own appointment. Booking links are generated from the Appointments page in settings, click the arrow icon (visible on the far right for each appointment type) and then make your selections as shown below.

This link could be used in an email template, connected to a button on your website, or even used internally.

Confirming Appointments

Now that you know the ins and outs of booking appointments, it’s time to dive into the client experience side of things. Your leads and clients will absolutely love the experience of receiving an instant email or text message after they schedule letting them know that everything is confirmed and sharing any other pertinent details.While you may be accustomed to using an Appointment Automation to confirm appointments, we’ve made this even easier with our new default confirmation option — no need to build a dedicated Automation any more. When you navigate to the Appointments section of the Settings menu, you now have the option to create a Custom Email and/or SMS template for confirming each of your various appointment types. This confirmation will be sent automatically at the time the appointment is scheduled.

When setting up your Appointment Confirmations, you can create your own custom email template (along with any merge fields) and/or create a text message template as well.

Make sure to select which appointment type(s) your confirmation applies to, as well as any practice area limitations that should apply for this confirmation. This setting allows you to easily set up various confirmation messages for different appointment types, without needing to create a bunch of separate automations.

Appointment Reminders

Similar to Appointment Confirmations, Appointment Reminders are also now set up on the Appointments page within settings. While you still have the option to use appointment Automations for sending out your reminders, we have made it much easier with this new built-in setting.Much like with appointment confirmations, set up your appointment reminders for each appointment type.

Additionally, you may also set up multiple reminders for a single appointment type if you wish to have reminders go out on multiple time frames, such as 1 week before, 1 day before, etc.Once again, you no longer need to build any Automations for confirming or reminding of your appointments. These simple settings will handle everything!

Rescheduling

In a perfect world, all clients would show for all of their appointments as scheduled. But unexpected conflicts do arise and thus rescheduling is often unavoidable. Thankfully, Lawmatics has simplified this as well.When you use Booking Forms or Appointment Requests, you will always have the option to include a Reschedule option right within the scheduling module. So let’s say someone is booking their appointment. Immediately after they have chosen a date and time, they can simply return to the initial request and select an alternate time slot, as opposed to booking a new appointment all together.

Above you see an example of the Reschedule Setting option within a Booking Form. Simply toggle that on to include the Reschedule Link.In addition to using the Reschedule Link on automated Appointments, you can also manually reschedule any appointment by simply editing that Appointment either from the Calendar or from the Matter Profile, shown below.

Note that when an Appointment is rescheduled in Lawmatics it will also automatically be rescheduled to the new time on your external synced calendar. Additionally, any Appointment Reminders that you have set up in your Settings as described above will also run as per the new time. Even if they had already been sent relative to the original appointment time, the reminders will resend based on the new date and time.

Conclusion

Lawmatics can tackle anything you throw at it when it comes to your appointments. A consultation with a new lead is often the first impression they have of your firm, so it is essential to make the scheduling process a smooth one.From automated booking links to customized confirmations and reminders to easy rescheduling, appointments are sure to be a breeze with the help of Lawmatics.

They say behind every great lawyer is a great paralegal…. well, something like that. While not all lawyers have paralegals, also known as legal assistants, they are without a doubt a game-changer for lawyers juggling multiple cases and deadlines.A paralegal's main role is to help assist attorneys with all of the administrative tasks that it requires to keep their law firm operational. From organizing client files to conducting interviews to researching, paralegals are there to help pick up the slack that can be enormously difficult for a lawyer to juggle on their own. But amid all of that, are they qualified (or allowed) to give legal advice?

What a paralegal does

With their legal expertise and attention to detail, paralegals are the ultimate sidekick for lawyers who need an extra set of hands. They can draft documents, conduct research, and even help with trial preparation — often specializing in a particular practice area. And while they may not have a law degree, paralegals are often just as knowledgeable as their attorney counterparts. Think of them as the legal equivalent of a Swiss Army Knife - versatile, dependable, and always ready to lend a hand.Some of their duties include:

• Fact-checking
• Preparing for trial
• Drafting letters
• Drafting pleadings
• Case development and planning
• Assisting at trial
• Finding and Interviewing Witnesses

Differences between paralegals and lawyers

1 Education

The primary difference between paralegals and lawyers is their education. Lawyers must earn a law degree which takes an average of three years following an undergraduate degree. They must additionally pass the State Bar exam in whichever state they plan to hang their shingle or join an established practice.Paralegals are not required to earn a law degree. They may complete a paralegal certificate program which varies anywhere from several months to one year, or alternatively, they may complete an associate's degree in paralegal studies. Paralegals are not required to pass the bar, nor do they need to pass a licensing exam to work as a paralegal.

2 Scope of practice

The legal profession is highly regulated and requires strict adherence to ethical and professional standards. As such, the role of a lawyer is tightly defined by their license to practice law, which includes the ability to provide legal advice, represent clients in court, and negotiate on their behalf. Paralegals, on the other hand, are not licensed to practice law, and therefore have limitations on what they can do. By working closely with lawyers and under their supervision, paralegals help to ensure that legal proceedings are carried out smoothly, efficiently, and in compliance with all legal and ethical requirements. Their contributions may not always be visible to the outside world, but they are essential to the functioning of any successful law practice.

3 Level of responsibility

Being a paralegal may seem like a lower-stress job than that of a lawyer, but that doesn't mean it's without its challenges. Paralegals are still expected to adhere to strict ethical standards and must take great care to ensure their work is accurate and thorough. And while the ultimate responsibility may fall on the lawyer, a good paralegal knows the importance of being diligent and meticulous in their work. After all, mistakes can have serious consequences in the legal world, and no one wants to be the cause of a lost case or a dissatisfied client. So, while the burden of responsibility may be lighter for paralegals, they still play a critical role in ensuring the success of their clients' cases. And who knows, with their attention to detail and legal know-how, they may just be the ones to catch a crucial detail that saves the day in court - all without having to pass the bar exam.

4 Salary

Typically, lawyers earn significantly more than paralegals because ultimately lawyers have a greater scope of practice, lengthier education requirements, and are required to pass the bar, which is not an easy feat. The median salary as of February 2023 for a paralegal is $87,870 whereas median salary for an attorney is $102,090.

Legal requirements for providing legal advice

1. A license. Delivering legal advice is extremely regulated. And while it may vary depending on your location, ultimately, it is always a rule that an individual must possess a license to practice law. A license serves as proof that a person has the knowledge and expertise required to deliver reliable legal advice.
2. Confidentiality. In addition to having a license, people who deliver legal advice may not disclose any of their client's information to an outside source without the client's consent. If there is a breach of confidentiality, it could lead to serious legal consequences.
3. No Conflicts of Interest. Legal advisors are forbidden to engage in conflicts. Conflicts of interest are considered to occur when personal and financial interests do not match those of their clients. For example, it would be considered a conflict of interest to represent opposing parties of a case.
4. Adhere to standards of professional conduct. The standards of professional conduct include acting in the best interest of their legal clients, providing competent legal representation, and avoiding anything that could negatively impact the perception of the legal profession.

So, can paralegals give legal advice?

Since paralegals are not lawyers, it is therefore unethical to provide legal advice. Delivering legal advice as a paralegal would be considered unauthorized practice of the law. Under no circumstances should paralegals do so, regardless of their level of experience because they are not legally permitted to provide legal advice or represent clients in court as a non-lawyer.Paralegals may communicate with clients on their cases as long as the communication does not include legal advice or any misleading statements. Since paralegals may be working closely with clients throughout their cases, clients may become confused about their role compared to their lawyer’s. Any time a client asks a paralegal a direct question that could be considered soliciting legal advice a paralegal should respond that it is not within their scope of practice and any such questions should be directed towards their lawyer.

A paralegal with legal software— the ultimate game changer

Paralegals can be immensely helpful for a legal team looking for high-quality assistance in handling their workload. And while they may be incredibly helpful, unfortunately, they can’t do it all.By having a clear understanding of what paralegals can and cannot do, you’ll know the best way to utilize a paralegal in your law firm and boost your team's efficiency.By hiring an extra set of hands on deck paired with powerful legal technology like Lawmatics lawyers can free up more of their time to focus on billable work, and ultimately increase their law firm's profitability. Lawmatics can help you automate the monotonous day-to-day tasks so you can get the most out of your paralegal’s time to help you with more hands-on work. Are you ready to see how Lawmatics can up your law firm’s game? Sign up for a free product demo today!

We’re thrilled to share that Lawmatics has once again been recognized by Legal Tech Publishing and Above the Law! Our CRM platform has been listed in their Practice Management Buyer’s Guide for 2023. With several new features since we were featured in last year’s guide – from conflict checking to sending emails from your outbox – Lawmatics is proud to offer Legal Tech readers a comprehensive all-in-one CRM and automation platform. We’re incredibly proud to share our vision of elevating the client experience via automations in a catalog of outstanding legal technology solutions.Why legal tech publishing recommends Lawmatics

• Automations streamline repeatable processes and non-billable tasks, increasing productivity and results for clients.
• Time & billing features – including LMPay – simplify payment collection.
• Task management features keep everyone on the same page.
• Our user-friendly client portal allows for easy client-attorney communication, eliminating the game of email and phone tag.
• Lawmatics streamlines every step of the client intake process, from processing inquiries to securing paying clients.

Check out the full review in Legal Tech Publishing’s Practice Management Buyer’s Guide: 2023 Edition here.