Create a Contact! Why you need to do it for your document’s sake.
At Mosmar we work with many law firms in their journey to running efficient legal transactions.
A bone of contention we see regularly is around the creation and use of contact records in the document drafting process.
I’ll give you a scenario:
Kath and Kim are both drafting correspondence to the other side in a legal transaction, providing details of another party involved in the case – let’s call him Bill Jones.
The document asks for Bill’s full legal name and address.
Kim types Bill’s details manually into the document
Kath adds Bill to the database, then click again to insert his details into the document
I’m sure you’d agree, Kath is the winner here – because:
- They now have Bill’s details on record for future documents
- They have Bill’s history that he was related to the case
- Bill will turn up in any future conflict checks, which may influence other cases Kath and Kim can work on
It may seem obvious, but in our nearly 13 years of legal experience, we see regular push back from businesses to embrace (if not enforce) this step.
We still see documents drafted with contact details typed manually in, or worse yet – copied across from previous documents (eeek! see my earlier article on Save As).
Kim may smirk at Kath because her document was faster to draft, but the risks simply aren’t worth the seconds in time savings.
In Summary
Keep your legal contact database up to date, and use it in your documents
Configure your precedents and templates to encourage (if not require) the use of contact data
Run reports regularly on your contact content, and pivot the data to see any relationships that may be of concern.
Ensure you have policies in place to regularly review contact quality
Like to chat to us about this?
Give us a shout – info@mosmar.com.au