Legal Affairs Case Management
Enabling Strict Oversight, Distributed Access, and Ongoing Flexibility
The legal affairs office for a large federal agency is responsible for responding to and processing more than 35,000 matters at any given time — involving everything from random drug tests of workers to suspended certifications of equipment. A staff of more than 500 (which includes more than 160 attorneys) is spread across multiple regional offices. Irrespective of the location, staff must have secure access to the system that manages these cases as they move through the system.
From Big to Small, From Months to Days
The office, which had previously used an ad-hoc system of paper files and spreadsheets, required a unified case management solution that could handle all types of legal matters in a timely and comprehensive manner. The office, which needs to provide legal advice within five business days of a request being filed, also wanted a system which would help reduce the time its staff spent on each matter. A simple matter can be handled in as little as one to six months, while the majority of matters take between one and three years. An exceptionally complex or contentious matter may take up to 10 years or more to process.
Rolling it All Together
The federal agency selected Tyler’s Application Platform to support its geographically dispersed legal staff and 16 individual practice areas. The implementation was approached in three phases. The first phase involved replicating the existing cases in the system and entering all associated data. Next, reports were established so that they can run at any time to provide metrics and insights regarding operational performance. In the third phase, the implementation team placed a focus on the development of active dashboards so that senior management can better monitor and allocate resources on an ongoing basis.
Driving Results Quickly and Continuously
The implementation team’s agile approach delivered results early, quickly and continuously to the federal agency. The platform’s dynamic modeling capabilities have made adding information, steps and rules on the fly a reality for the organization. Any necessary enhancements can be made to the system as needs arise.
With all information related to legal matters centralized, attorneys and support staff are able to more readily focus on the work at hand. Team members also are now able to collaborate and share information with people throughout the organization, including those who do not share offices. Access to the system via a secure web portal means managers can track cases from any office. This gives them the ability to see the caseloads of each attorney and make any adjustments based on resources and budgets. It also allows managers to shuffle resources appropriately to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
An enterprise-scale case management system requires a high-level of support from a dedicated team that works as a partner. If an issue arises with the solution, the Application Platform’s support team’s close working relationship allows for issues to be addressed jointly and efficiently.
Forward-Looking Enhancements
he size and scope of the work this organization’s legal office performs lends itself to the employment of even more detailed data analysis. Tyler is currently working with the agency to deploy even more advanced analytics capabilities in support of their mission.