Sean M. Clapp, LLC
Real Estate Law
Fishers, Indiana

Used Outlook and paper calendar for calendaring, paper files and paper notes for case management. Used Peachtree for billing and accounting.

Now using AbacusLaw.
Key Abacus features: Calendaring, contact management, case management, document management, reporting, billing and trust accounting.

Efficiency

Outlook didn't provide reliable reminders, cross referencing, document management, case reporting, or rules based calendaring.

Had to check individual attorney's Outlook calendars and day calendars to determine what was going on.

Spent hours a day just searching for information and documents.

With paper case files, only one person could access case information at a given time.

With Abacus' central calendar, anyone can see what is going on for any single person or group of people at any time.

"Everything that comes in and out of the office is scanned immediately into Abacus. Everything is where it should be and is immediately accessible."

By synchronizing their Palm Treos to Abacus, attorneys are able to take their calendars and contacts wherever they go, then synch back to Abacus when returning to the office.

By synchronizing laptops, attorneys are able to work and access case information remotely. Taking a laptop into a meeting or mediation allows attorneys to access case notes and documents instantaneously.

Picked up 2 to 3 hours a week of billable time using Abacus to capture time entries.

Risk

The staff always worried about improperly managing client trust accounts, knowing the number one reason for legal discipline was improper trust accounting.

Without reminders or redundancy it was easy to miss hearings and trial deadlines.

Everyone did calendaring their own way without standard convention or notation.

"Abacus' trust accounting works extremely well." Trust information shows up on the matter screen and on client's bills and it is very easy to track. No more worries about trust mistakes.

Deadlines are hit and hearings are properly staffed.

With uniformity and convention for calendaring ensured, events don't get overlooked due to sloppy organization or carelessness .

Customer Service

With 3 different indexes, 4 separate lists, and notes all over the place, client information was difficult to find and interpret.

With everything at the user's fingertips, notes and document s are pulled up quickly when a client calls.

Abacus keeps everyone informed. When an attorney is out anyone can help a client.

Case Load

Increasing case load wasn't an option.

The case load has grown by 60% since using Abacus.

Decision Making

Lacked basic reports .

Abacus case reports help track firm and attorney efficiency, productivity, utilization rates, and determine which types of case are profitable and which are not.