The new technologies are uniquely suited for disrupting the core excellent business environment processes of law firms and offer solutions that surpass these legacy processes in terms of efficiency and cost-efficiency.
The development of advanced legal software applications has allowed for the automation of legal businesses and is often a fast track to years of growth. Law app development gives law firms a competitive advantage that is hard to achieve otherwise. The size of the Legal tech market is a sign that many law firms are taking stock of these new opportunities and are pursuing them.
However, there is still plenty to profit and benefit from Legaltechs relatively early adoption.
This article will show you how to create a mobile app development for law firms that makes the most of modern technology.
We will examine the essential functions you should include when creating a mobile law firm app. Also, we will discuss the benefits of any new technology and the resources required to create one.
How Developing An App For Law Firms Can Help Improve Their Business Processes
No matter the size or location of the law firm, it must process vast amounts of information with precision and accuracy.
Not only are these tasks extremely labor-intensive, but also the risk of human error that can lead to costly consequences. How can a legal app be developed to reduce these risks, ease the work of junior staff, and improve the law firms client interactions?
A legal software program that is well thought out can:
- Facilitate document management and speed up a law firms document turnaround manifold.
- Facilitate signatures by clients on legal documents.
- You can ensure a higher level of document storage security and a faster and more secure document exchange.
- Accelerate the search of documents by laws - locally or elsewhere on the Web.
- Process a greater number of legal documents faster and with more accuracy.
- AI-enabled search can take document analysis to a whole new level.
- This will reduce the costs of junior legal staff for a law company and improve the business team processes of many other legal businesses.
The Functionality Of Law Firm Apps And The Best Ways To Implement This Functionality
A law firm apps functionality can differ depending on its intended purpose. There are three main types of legal software solutions.
- Legal Software for Laws: These applications include scheduling, chatting and networking, document sharing, and billing and invoicing functionality.
- Multi-Tenant Law Platforms: These legal software systems are complex and allow legal service providers to automate different companies legal processes and provide legal assistance. Multi-tenant legal platforms include document storage and sharing, document-related collaboration, and document eSignature.
Documentation Management
The Legal industry is based on documents. They are numerous and varied. They must be subject to frequent changes, collaborated upon by multiple stakeholders, and submitted for approval.
High workloads and bottlenecks are caused by excessive paperwork and other information. It is possible to miss a deadline or fail to respond quickly to a document. Legal software requires a document management module to reduce paperwork, minimize risks and eliminate large amounts of development costs.
The module should be a central access point and a central location for all documentation. This module should allow authorized users to organize documents in files.
The Documentation Management Module In A Law Firm App Has The Following Main Functionalities:
Creation of Documents: The user must be able to select from multiple templates to create the document they require.
The user must be able to modify any existing templates easily or create one from scratch. Searchable by type of document, all templates you make available must be searchable. It might also be useful to suggest to the user a few real-life or specimen documents based on the selected template.
These documents should only be available to users according to their access clearance. Your documentation management software should allow for document reuse. The user must be able to copy the documents from which they are recommended or use them to create a new document.
Collaboration on Documents: Advanced annotation capabilities must be included in the document management functionality of your app.
This ability must enable authorized users to edit or add comments to a document that is being shared. You must be able to comment on photos, add comments, and write over photos not included in documents.
Analyze, Update, and Modification of Legal Documents: It is theoretically possible to find documents using the legal apps advanced search capabilities.
Then, you can update or juxtapose them manually. The entire process is too laborious and time-consuming in real life. It becomes so difficult that it is impossible to continue.
This type of operation is no longer a problem, thanks to AI. Natural Language Processing (AI) technology can locate and combine two similar documents or all documents that refer to a particular fact.
You can then modify part of the text in these documents manually, on a case-by-case basis, or with just one click.
Document Sharing: Your on-demand lawyer app firm app should allow for sharing legal documents with internal and external actors.
Authorized users must also be able to share whole sets of documents related to a particular case. It should be possible to prevent the system from sharing documents with system users who do not have access to them.
You could also set up additional restrictions, such as preventing users from downloading, emailing, printing, re-sharing, or modifying a document.
You can also implement notifications to notify users that a particular type of document is being shared outside of the system.
Users must be able to share documents linked by case or other criteria. The system must check that all documents in the set are accessible to the recipient according to their access privileges.
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Approval and Review of Documents: It is possible to submit legal documents for approval while working with them.
In line with this, your document management module must allow you to submit a document for approval. You can also indicate the exact nature of the request. An electronic signature is required to approve or close a document.
This encrypted hash can only be decrypted if the recipient has your public encryption key. This capability can be added by integrating your application into a certificate-based document security system. We believe increasing the security provided by this method is far better and more necessary.
How?
Identity Verification can be an alternative or part of a complex authentication combination. It could include a login, a digit-based passcode, and some user biometrics.
Due to the increasing sophistication of ID-based frauds, you must select a reliable Identity Verification solution. For example, one that uses Fingerprint Scanning and Iris Scanning. These techniques can also be used in mobile applications.
Document Storage and Anti-Meddling Functionality: The secure Cloud is the best and most preferred storage option for legal documents.
Strong encryption, such as AES256, can protect all your legal data. Secure internal access to sensitive areas of your document storage can be protected by password-protecting or using two-factor (2FA) authentication.
It may be a good idea to send real-time access notifications. These notifications will indicate the username, type, and name of the accessed document. You can also video-record individual sessions.
We have already mentioned that strong encryption and certificate-based security can help ensure the integrity and authenticity of legal documents. Blockchain technology can be used to increase document security. You can use digital tags to add Blockchain technology to legal documents to make counterfeiting impossible.
Blockchain technology also lets you view the history of all your digital assets changes. Blockchains ability to track the history of changes for all your digital assets makes contract management much easier.
Once a contract is signed, it remains in place and cannot be altered. Blockchain removes another risk. It allows you to be certain that the authorized recipients and senders of documents you are exchanging documents with are legitimate and not malicious actors.
This makes Blockchain crucial in dealing with regulators or government agencies.
Analysis and Research in Legal Matters
Legal research is a labor-intensive process due to the sheer volume of documents law firms have to deal with. An app for law firms that supports AI/NLP can take the hassle out of legal research and provide more detailed results.
This legal software can search for and include a greater number of documents. It can also process them much faster than human beings. It is easy to find and analyze documents from similar cases, to find patterns in past cases, and to find information about a particular entity, situation, or place, such as a judge, location or court decision, or circumstance.
A law firm app can also automate the tedious but extremely important task of searching for patents. Its not just patents that are automated - you can also locate and check registered trademarks and products much faster than traditional searches.
Client Management
Apps for law firms take the stress out of dealing with clients. They often greatly expedite the turnaround time for many tasks.
Each client must create a profile with basic information, including their case history, client activity, contact information, and personal data. Adding invoice management functionality to this function is possible, allowing you to show the clients unpaid and paid invoices easily.
A large portion of the Client Management functionality in a law firm app comprises scheduling and contact management functionalities.
The scheduling functionality integrates with the apps calendaring capabilities to make clients or other appointments. This function should also include a reminder feature that displays reminders about upcoming appointments and other events to users and sends reminders to clients how they prefer.
Your legal apps contract management capabilities should allow clients to view their contracts, work with you on them, and design them. As we mentioned, it may be a good idea to use 2FA-based electronic signature functionality and Blockchain to protect your client contracts.
You can also use AI to design your client management functionality for your legal app, similar to Document Management.
You can use AI to analyze your clients spending habits and adjust your budget accordingly.
Read More: On-Demand App Development: Key Steps To Take 2023
Task Management
The Task Management feature of an app for a legal firm must allow for the creation of tasks and their delegation to staff members.
All task-related information should be displayed on the calendar and the central dashboard. Users should be able to create and assign to-do feature lists. They can also prioritize tasks and provide detailed instructions.
Searchable task criteria include status, date, due date, progress, assignee, and any other relevant multiple criteria. Sometimes combining Task Management and Calendaring capabilities into one functional module is a good idea.
Expenditure Management
It is logical to create a separate expense management module to facilitate payment management. In the example of Lawyer Appointment App Development for laws, such expenses could include stamp duties and court fees.
Invoice Management, Billing, and Payment Collection
The app for law firms must automatically generate editable invoices. Searching for both issued and paid invoices should be possible using multiple criteria.
These include the date of issue, the date the invoice must be paid, the client, and the date. It is important to offer clients a way to make payment for legal services easily, in addition to invoices.
Central Dashboard
Its difficult to keep track of all the happenings during the day. Creating a dynamic dashboard that will display all current and upcoming events is possible.
These events might include court deadlines, client appointments, forthcoming tasks, recent, current, and future tasks, their execution dates/deadlines and status (e.g., completed, overdue, or the date the task must start), as well any outstanding bills and their status (e.g., overdue or the date the bill must pay). Your law firm apps central dashboard must allow you to quickly view all events.
Time-Tracking
For some cases, such as in legal apps for attorneys, it is essential to quickly and easily check work hours. This lets you indicate the client case, date and rate, and other pertinent information.
A fully-fledged, user-friendly mobile application is essential for any legal solution. This applies to both attorneys and clients. This is crucial to allow them to access your legal functionality quickly and efficiently.
Mobile apps for law firms must include features that allow clients to communicate with them, view and manage their appointments and calendars, and track work hours.
Apps for Law Firms that Offer Client-Side Functionality
While the functionality of many law firm apps overlaps in some ways, there are still several essential functions that must be added to the client side.
Your clients should be able to use your app to find a particular law, schedule an appointment online or in person, track the progress of their case, and receive notifications about it.
Multi-Tenant Solutions
Multi-tenant legal software, unlike other apps for law firms, allows legal service providers to offer their services to other businesses.
These solutions mostly consist of document management and document signing and exchange functionality. They could also include any other functions that standard law firm apps offer, depending on the type and extent of legal services provided by the provider.
A multi-tenant legal solution allows clients to securely store and sign their legal documents, as well as e-signing and exchanging them with counterparts.
They can also enlist the professional assistance of a legal service provider in relation to legal documents. They can search for documents using multiple criteria and share single and whole document folders. Additionally, they can invite others to collaborate (review, sign) on their documents.
Multi-tenant legal services are built on a complex user hierarchy. This supports clients companies in their legal dealings with counterparts as well as the receipt of legal advice from legal service providers.
The owner of the solution. One example is the multi-tenant legal system we developed for one of our North American clients. It included these user roles:
- Super Admin: The legal providers expert has full access to all companies as well as their document libraries in the solutions database.
- Full Access User: is a user with the same rights as the Super Administrator role but for a particular company.
- Client User: is a user that has access to certain document folders or single documents in their company. These documents are stored in the solutions database.
- Client Administrator: A user with the rights to grant access rights to their companys Client Users or Guests.
- Document Manager: is the legal service providers legal expert that assists Client Users in managing their documents and supports them in signing documents.
- Guest: is a role that allows users to temporarily review legal documents via an invitation. Guests have access to a limited number of folders and documents. If granted permission, they can sign these documents.
Multi-tenant legal solutions are a cost-effective and convenient way for businesses from different verticals to manage their legal business processes.
These solutions, especially when they utilize Blockchain technology, can provide greater security and document integrity.
Not only does it require a lot of Legaltech knowledge, but also the usual skills and abilities required for an enterprise model for software development.
Your provider of law app development must be capable of creating a viable, scalable solution architecture as well as ensuring that the solution has sufficient processing power and stability. The multi-tenant legal solution that we have delivered allows you to manage around 800 million legal documents and 50 companies.
A custom software development provider may be able to create mobile GUIs for enterprise applications if you are looking to build a mobile law firm app.
You Can Create A Mobile App For Your Law Firm Using The Mobile Tech Stack
To develop a mobile application for law firms, you can use either the Android or iOS mobile development platforms.
In general, there are no clear advantages to either one of these platforms in regard to the development of law apps. You should be aware of some of the valuable development tools these mobile platforms offer. You can discuss this with your mobile developers to determine the level of implementation you prefer for certain features and characteristics of your mobile app.
If you are looking for a higher level of legal data storage level of security, you can choose the Keychain in iOS or Android Keystore in Android.
You should choose Alternative Layouts over Responsive Design to ensure that your mobile GUI is responsive across all operating systems. The price of a law app for law varies depending on its features, the quality of the app development company, how to find a coder for an app, and the location of the developer.
It is important to mention upfront that it is best to choose a software company with sufficient customer experience in developing law firm apps.
Also, they should be based in an area that offers favorable software development locations. This alone can reduce your dedicated development teams costs by up to 2x. This arrangement should allow you to develop a legal software solution that meets your companys technical requirements for between $ 50000 and $200000.
This type of solution is for technology-driven providers of legal services who want to create a multi-tenant solution to cater to corporate clients. It can cost between $ 200000 and $ 1000000. If you are looking to create a mobile app for your law firm, the amount you need to invest will be between $ 50000 and $200000.
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Conclusion
Demand Lawyer Application Development in the legal industry, especially for a mobile app law, can help many legal businesses solve a variety of problems, improve their KPIs and create a wealth of business goals opportunities.
No matter if youre looking at app development for law apps, these moves can increase productivity and allow you to have more flexibility and mobility. Multi-tenant legal solutions that provide legal services to corporations are possible. Here law app development is a game-changer and creates a new, highly promising business niche.
