Legal consultation management software
Legal consultation management software keeps each client question in one record, from the request to the written answer, with a deadline the system watches. In jaah law the deadline is required, and an approved consultation that passes it turns Late by itself. By default, each lawyer with a user gets a to-do to approve or reject it, then one to draft the answer once it is approved.
This consultation software for law firms and legal departments is one part of jaah law, the law firm management software.
The consultation from the request to the invoice and the drafting, in one file.
- Status
- Deadline
- Response
- Send Report
- Deadline
- Send Report
Why client questions go unanswered
- Questions arrive by phone and are never logged.
- Nobody owns the deadline.
- The answer sits in an e-mail thread nobody else can find.
The five states of a consultation
Draft
Recorded, waiting for a lawyer to approve or reject it.
Approved
Accepted: the response and the advice are written.
Late
Set by the system once the deadline has passed.
Done
Answered and closed by a lawyer.
Rejected
Declined, with a reason from the firm's list.
From question to answer in five steps
Record the question
A consultation records its client, the opposing parties and the third parties, each listed with a phone and an e-mail. Other clients can join it when the firm turns Multi Clients on.
Choosing the client fills in the client's default lawyers.
The deadline is required, and the firm sets it; one opened from a client request starts with the request's deadline.
A consultation can also open from a client request, filled in from it.
A draft consultation.
- Client
- Lawyers
- Deadline
- Inquiry
- Lawyers
- Deadline
Approve or reject
A new consultation gives each of its lawyers who has a user an Approve / Reject Consulting to-do.
It falls due one day later by default; the firm sets the days, or turns the to-do off.
Reject asks for a reason from the firm's own list. The reason stays on the consultation and is printed on its Consulting Report, which the client can see.
Nobody can dismiss the to-do by hand: approving or rejecting closes it.
A draft consultation's actions.
- Approve
- Reject
- Approve
- Reject
Draft the answer
The Inquiry tab holds the question. The Response and Advice tabs appear once the consultation is approved.
Approval gives each lawyer with a user a Drafting the Consultation to-do.
It falls due one day after the approval, unless the firm changes Draft Within.
The answer of a consultation.
- Response
- Advice
- Response
- Advice
Watch the deadline
A scheduled job marks an approved consultation Late once its deadline has passed.
Moving the deadline to today or later returns it to Approved; a past date makes an approved one Late at once.
When the lawyers change, the open to-dos pass to the new lawyers and keep their due dates.
Send the answer and close
Send Report opens an e-mail to the clients with the Consulting Report PDF: number, dates, lawyers, client, question, response, advice and parties.
The e-mail and the PDF are in the main client's language, and Print gives the same PDF.
Mark Done closes the consultation and its drafting to-do. Reset to Draft is for managers, after a confirmation.
Reminders, and who receives them
Consultation to-dos go to the lawyers who have a user.
- A new consultation: an approve or reject to-do, due in one day by default.
- An approved one: a drafting to-do, due in one day by default.
- Both follow the lawyers when they change.
- Every day, with WhatsApp connected, the consultations untouched for 30 days by default go out as a PDF. Each lawyer with a user and a phone gets their own, and the supervisor named in the settings gets all of them.
- Status messages to the client (approved, late, done, rejected), when the firm turns them on.
The consulting settings.
- Approve / Reject Consulting Activity
- Approve Within
- Drafting Consulting Activity
- Draft Within
- Approve Within
- Draft Within
What the client sees
Each consultation has one of four privacy choices. Two of them, the default among them, let its client see it on the portal; the other two keep it off.
The choice does not change what staff see: that follows their access rights.
With a portal account, the main client reads the question, the response and the advice as soon as they are saved, and sees the status, the parties and the lawyers. They can open the PDF and write to the firm in the consultation's thread.
A consultation's privacy choices.
- Privacy
- Privacy
What a consultation records
| Number | Numbered automatically, per year. |
|---|---|
| Parties | Client, opposing and third parties; other clients when turned on. |
| Lawyers | One or more, proposed from the client's default lawyers. |
| Deadline | Required, set by the firm. |
| Question and answer | Inquiry, then Response and Advice once approved. |
| Status | Draft, Approved, Late, Done or Rejected, with its reason. |
| Privacy | Four choices; two show it to the client on the portal. |
| Change history | Who changed the main fields and when; not the question or answer texts. |
Consultation reports
Three PDF reports: the Consulting Report, the Consultations List Report and the Neglected Consultations Report.
The list covers a creation period and can keep only some states or clients.
The neglected report lists the consultations nobody has changed for 30 days by default, oldest first.
The Print Neglected Consultations window.
- Neglected For (Days)
- Consulting States
- Neglected For (Days)
- Consulting States
Access rights for consultations
- Three rights per user: Read-only, User: Own Documents (a lawyer or follower of the consultation), Manager: All Documents.
- Only the manager can reset a done or rejected consultation to Draft.
- A consultation's privacy decides whether its client sees it on the portal, not what staff see.
- Phones get the same consultations and rights in the browser.
What jaah law does not do with consultations
- It does not compute a legal deadline: the deadline is the firm's date.
- It marks a consultation Late by itself, but never answers or closes one.
- Its to-dos reach only the lawyers who have a user.
- On the portal, a consultation is listed for its main client only.
- It has no connection to any court system.
Questions about legal consultation management software
What does legal consultation management software do?
It keeps each client question in one record, from the request to the written answer, with its lawyers, a deadline and a history. In jaah law, an approved consultation that passes its deadline turns Late by itself.
What happens when a consultation passes its deadline?
If it is approved, a daily job marks it Late. Moving the deadline to today or later returns it to Approved, and changing an approved consultation's deadline to a past date makes it Late at once.
Can a lawyer dismiss the approval or drafting to-do?
No. They close when the consultation is approved, rejected, done or reset.
Who can see a consultation?
Staff see consultations by their access rights, whatever the privacy. The client sees one on the portal only when its privacy allows it, as the default does.
How does the client receive the answer?
By e-mail, when a lawyer uses Send Report: the clients get the Consulting Report PDF, with the question, the response and the advice, in the main client's language. With a portal account, the main client also reads it on the portal.