In the ever-evolving legal technology landscape, innovation has become synonymous with progress. Clio, a leading provider of cloud-based legal technology, has taken a significant step forward for one market segment by recognizing the specialized needs of personal injury law firms and lawyers. The product is called Case Management Software for Personal Injury Firms. The product is an add-on to Clio’s cloud-based legal practice management software, Clio Manage.
Clio is now offering plaintiffs’ lawyers features that it hopes will maximize settlements, streamline medical record management, and accelerate recovery proceeds and disbursements.
According to Joshua Lenon, Clio’s Lawyer in Residence, whom I recently talked with at ClioCon, Clio carefully studied the personal injury legal market. It then tried to identify the unique pain points faced by personal injury lawyers. These pain points include dealing with costs and various liens, determining recovery amounts, keeping track of time, expenses and case status and dealing with medical providers in the contingency fee business model context. As a result, Clio has a new platform within its ecosystem that caters specifically to the personal injury niche.
Understanding the Challenge
Personal injury lawyers operate under different rules and business models than their counterparts in other legal practices. For example, they don’t use the conventional billable hour model. Instead, their earnings are primarily contingent upon winning or settling cases. Lenon noted that keeping track of the time invested in a case for contingency recovery purposes is a little different than how billable hour lawyers deal with time. Moreover, Lenon told me that some states (and judges) demand specific data before approving contingency fees. Florida, for example, requires that contingency fee lawyers show the time spent on a matter compared to recovery.
Personal injury clients are primarily individuals, not businesses or in-house counsel. Often, these clients have not