Doing business includes the risk of legal action. You may never have a lawsuit on your hands. We all prefer avoiding lawsuits. However, they do sometimes happen, and they are always easier to deal with if you preempt them.
Legal action taken to solve a dispute against another person or entity is called litigation. A litigation lawyer, or trial lawyer, specializes in the litigation process in civil cases. Litigators represent both defendants and plaintiffs. They argue cases in courtrooms.
Their job includes investigating, trials (and all the data collation involved in them), settlements, appeals, etc. Their jobs depend on complete and organized possession of all the details of the suit they’re arguing. If litigators have incomplete or poorly organized information to work from, they’re less likely to argue a successful case.
That is, if you have to go to court at all. If you’re a savvy corporate leader, you want to create the best odds to prevent, or at least plan for, the potential of a legal action taken against you. Preemptive litigation support empowers business leaders to make sound business decisions based on a holistic understanding of the realities in their company and in the marketplace overall.
What is Litigation Support?
Litigation support services, like those provided by UnitedLex, assists attorneys with litigation management. They design and implement systems and databases for coordinating large amounts of data and documents required in litigation.
Key performance indicators (KPI) during litigation provide essential data to corporate leaders. Armed with strong KPI data, these leaders save 30-50% financially and prepare best-in-class litigation management.
Understanding the impact of certain KPIs improves the performance of corporations and consulting firms alike. Using strong data creates an optimum approach to litigation management regardless of who’s involved, from rapid value projects (RVPs) to long-term strategic builds. Understanding significant KPIs informs spending and litigation decisions.
Costs rise every year. Litigation costs often make up the largest line item in corporate law budgets of Fortune 500 companies. In spite of the costs of litigation, it isn’t always clear how those dollars get spent. Improved data collection can improve strategic decisions.
At UnitedLex, we’ve identified six KPIs that help law firms and law departments gain clarity regarding their overall litigation process. Collating better data in these areas will help improve decisions about spending time and money.
- Preservation Compliance
- Data Reduction
- Data Relevancy and Re-Use
- Review Accelerators
- Workforce Optimization
- Litigation Management
While these KPIs apply to the litigation portfolio as a whole rather than any specific litigation matter, tracking them helps with efficiency in general. KPIs provide useful benchmarks that define and identify areas of high risk or cost. Law firms or law departments can make strategic decisions to improve stages of litigation and trial preparation.
For a more complete breakdown of these KPIs, download our whitepaper.
What is Litigation Support Software
AI-driven litigation support software is an integral part of saving time and money in legal processes.
UnitedLex litigation support software has tools to create benchmarking scores for the state of separate functions in the above KPIs. Many legal stakeholders miss the value in improved data processes. Volume of data, rather than quality of data, can inform bad and expensive strategic decisions that waste time and money. With good litigation support software, decision-makers are able to make more high-value decisions.
Better choices about what to measure and how much to weight it, allow for better strategic decisions:
- The litigation team is aware of the function
- The process is well defined
- The function is adequately managed and monitored
- The process is currently repeatable
- The process is optimized and well-integrated into the overall litigation management program
Using digital litigation support tools and AI-driven data management, legal teams can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their litigation process.
KPIs in Litigation Support
Data management, either through digital tools or in traditional manners, improves litigation processes.
Effectively managing the legal and business aspects of litigation requires data-driven KPIs. If done right, KPIs improve performance and decrease costs. They can also improve outcomes when used correctly. KPIs can change the perception of costly legal departments and improve their value.
Through litigation support, legal departments can leverage data-driven trend analysis and KPIs to:
- Improve ECA valuations, matter budgets, outcome predictions, and reserve(s) allocations
- Evaluate cost and performance of outside counsel as part of law firm panel management
- Drive selection of the most effective counsel for a particular matter
- Control discovery, motion, & trial expenses
- Improve legal outcomes by analyzing past performance of legal arguments
Create improvement across the entire litigation portfolio with effective litigation support and robust KPIs. In-house trial teams, legal operations groups, and general counsel will gain the tools to make better decisions and track results. This integration process doesn’t necessitate an in-depth rebuild. It can be done piece-by-piece and improvements can be realized in legal processes right away.
Legal teams are essential to the desired strategic outcomes of any company. Their jobs rely on collating information and using it to achieve goals. Utilizing litigation support services is an effective way to manage data, set benchmarks and KPIs, and empower legal teams to have a dramatic impact on the effective decision-making of a company.
UnitedLex is a technology and legal services company providing litigation support services. We are committed to delivering full-scale Digital Legal Transformation. The world’s most forward-thinking law departments rely on UnitedLex’s expertise in over 25 global jurisdictions. Founded in 2006, the team includes 3,000 legal, engineering, and technology professionals with major operations in 18 countries. Contact us or book a meeting here.
