Clio: Our New Law Office Case Management Program

This week, a little inside baseball: we talk about Clio, our law office case management program. Fleming & Curti, PLC, had a decades-long relationship with Time Matters, starting with the DOS version in about 1992. It was once the leading case management program for law firms. We used it extensively, and in fact were recognized as national leaders in the use of the program. But it stopped adapting in the past decade or so, and it became obvious that it was time to move on. A relative newcomer in the legal technology world, Clio is cloud-based, creative and still developing new capabilities. So we made the switch four months ago. It has been invigorating, terrifying and awesome, all at the same time. Why do our clients (or you) care? Because of the expanded abilities the new software makes available. For instance, Clio offers: Client “portals.” Want access to digital copies of your estate planning documents, or pleadings in your guardianship matter? We can set that up. Want to send us confidential documents but don’t trust email? We can help with that, too. Billing. Our prior program also handled billing, but it was a clunky, unattractive arrangement. Clio lets us easily bill electronically, and gives clients a simple “click-to-pay” link that allows payment by credit card. That helps both of us — clients and the firm — immensely. Meetings. Yeah, any case management program is going to make it possible to schedule meetings. But Clio lets us set up Zoom meetings easily, and can update everyone with the link and reminders. And we can set reminders for in-office and telephone meetings, as well (though we’re moving slowly, so we don’t remind you of your dentist’s office with flurries of reminders). Emails. Our old program allowed us to save emails to your file, and to share them with the whole office. But it was extremely hard to reply or forward when necessary. Now we can reply to an email even if it was sent to someone else — and we can print out emails when necessary, too. Cloud availability. We will be able to look up documents, contact information and other data without having to go into the office. For a practice that includes a lot of fiduciary responsibility, that is huge. If a trust beneficiary or guardianship principal ends up in the hospital over the weekend, for example, we can respond faster without having to get to the computer system in the office. That’s just a sampling. Clio is likely going to dramatically change our practice for the better. We just have to get through the transition phase.