If you run a busy personal injury practice, you know the challenges.
You have to manage clients, cases, employees, documents, deadlines, stay up to date on the law, and that’s on top of managing your firm.
You also have to handle the business and administrative aspects of your personal injury practice.
It’s a lot to manage, especially in a bigger or growing practice.
Within that, technology and IT can be a competitive edge for lawyers. Or, if it’s not done correctly, it can be a liability.
You’ve likely heard a lot about cloud computing. Maybe you’re using some cloud-based services now.
Most people use many cloud applications daily in their personal lives, from Gmail to Dropbox to Netflix.
In large business enterprises, the average number of cloud applications used by each employee is 36.
In the legal profession, it’s still a much different story.
But perhaps you’re considering moving more of your personal injury practice to a cloud-based law practice management software program.
Or, maybe you still have some reservations about going all-in on cloud computing.
You’re probably worried about security, lack of control, or simply the fear of the unknown and trying something new.
But, in an industry that is notoriously slow to adopt new technology, more and more lawyers are finally warming to the cloud.
If you wait too long, you’ll be behind the curve.
Cloud-based practice management software provides many advantages for lawyers over on-premise solutions.
Those advantages include constant availability, simple scaling, and efficiency, all of which help lawyers increase their firm’s productivity and profitability.
Let’s dive deeper into the three main reasons more law firms are moving to a cloud solution and the reasons that are keeping them in the cloud.
Table of Contents
Constant Availability
With cloud services and practice management software, all of your documents, emails, events, due dates, tasks, contacts, timesheets, and invoices can be accessed at any time, by any authorized user, on any device.
When you use cloud services, you have the freedom to retrieve and work on case information in a secure environment without any complicated network connections.
When everything is synced and stored securely in the cloud, you know that the information you’re accessing is the latest version of your documents and data.
The cloud also offers entirely new possibilities to make better use of your time, like during business trips, or improve the work-life balance with the ability to work from home, thanks to mobility.
Since your data isn’t stored or processed locally, like on a work computer, for example, you can benefit from accessing the latest version of your documents anywhere.
Everything stored in the cloud is synchronized in real-time, and it can be accessed via a web or mobile app.
With encrypted data transmission with secure password protection, you can log in from any device with internet access.
This benefit can come in handy in an emergency.
When you compare this to on-premise solutions that require complicated access portals, if you want to work out of the office, you can see which one would be more beneficial to your firm.
It’s easy to see how the cloud simplifies availability while keeping data secure and protected.
Simple and Secure Scaling
Cloud solutions reign supreme over on-premise solutions when it comes to adaptation and flexibility.
If you run a small personal injury practice that needs a practice management solution to grow with them, cloud solutions are the obvious choice.
Your practice can pick and choose modules or features that are most important to you.
You can also integrate with existing tools, like Word or Outlook, or various billing software services.
Modular concepts facilitate a rapid rollout and a dynamic functional expansion without the long, complex IT projects synonymous with on-premise solutions.
To put it simply, you can start small with the basics but can expand in the future.
And, by setting up your practice with secure, ISO 27001 certified tools, you don’t have to worry about data backup, recovery, compliance, and security forever.
When your data is safely secured and automatically backed up in a secure, private cloud, you reduce data loss risks posed by natural disasters or cyber-attacks.
You also control who has access to client information and data.
You can rest assured knowing that you will be able to meet rigorous confidentiality, professional secrecy, and third party data protection obligations that your clients deserve.
But, it doesn’t stop there.
Cloud services support secure collaboration and file sharing between colleagues, clients, and third parties using a central information system.
This reduces the risks posed by relying solely on email, which is a cyber attacker’s gateway to accessing confidential client and firm data.
Cloud services offer much greater security than on-premise solutions.
Efficiency
Cloud computing and practice management software increases efficiency over manual, analog processes, but what makes cloud-based solutions the obvious choice?
When your practice uses a cloud-based solution, everything is updated and linked in real-time.
As a personal injury lawyer, this allows you to stay on top of your tasks and deadlines with an up to date calendar and alerts.
This ensures that you’re always one step ahead of client demands and the competition.
You can stay on top of billing with more accurate invoicing, case tracking, and time or activity-based management.
As a managing partner, one-click reporting lets you measure productivity and your practice’s overall financial performance.
It will also be easier to identify debtors and receive late payments.
When you reduce the time it takes to generate an accurate view of your firm’s performance, you will have the time and the means to focus on growth and profitability.
There’s Power In The Cloud
These are just a few of the reasons why many law firms have already made the move, and why your personal injury practice should consider using cloud computing.
And these are the reasons that the hundreds of law firms are already moving to the cloud, and why they’ll never look back.
Legal technology has grown leaps and bounds over the last several years.
It’s no longer a question of whether or not to utilize cloud computing for most firms, but when they will choose to make the migration.
Larger law firms face a more more complex decision, and many midsize or large firms may end up adopting a hybrid approach when it comes to cloud computing.
These law firms use some public cloud services while maintaining sensitive data or mission-critical apps on-premises.
By moving all or some of their infrastructure to the cloud, law firms can avoid costly capital expenditures, gain faster access to technology resources, and have greater flexibility to respond to changing technology needs.
That’s a winning argument in any court.
Try CoCounselor
Many law firms are already using cloud-based legal practice management software.
But, if you are running a personal injury law firm without cloud-based practice management software, or you would like to explore another option, we invite you to take a trial run of CoCounselor.
CoCounselor and Personal Injury Law Firms were made for each other.
CoCounselor is the only cloud-based practice management solution specifically designed for Personal Injury Firms.
With CoCounselor, you can gain operational efficiencies, keep your entire staff on the same page, work from anywhere on any device, and build valuable dashboards and reports to keep you up-to-date on important deadlines and the overall health of your practice.
If you’re still running a personal injury law firm without law practice management software, it’s time to give CoCounselor a try.
Click the button below to start your trial.