The task of a real estate lawyer is not an easy feat. It entails excellent management skills in order for him or her to efficiently perform their key functions. A few of which include the following tasks:
- Preparing for the financial summaries of transactions
- Preparing for the necessary arrangements for closings
- Preparing for the preliminary negotiation documents
- Preparing for legal documents like purchase contracts, and listing agreements
- Gathering information associated with taxes
- Analyzing mortgage and financing commitments
- Eliminating possible title problems
- Determining the status of the title
- Conducting property surveys
- Determining scope of inspections
- Drafting of instruments of conveyance
- And so on…
It is fortunate they have highly skilled paralegals at hand who know how to handle these tasks competently but undoubtedly, the problem of human error can and will happen, leading to situations where office conflicts and attorney-client disputes may arise.
Aside from these concerns, another problem that real estate lawyers have to face today, is simply remaining in business. Lawyers are not exempt from the recent recession and many law firms are trying their best just to stay in business. Many have resorted to different methods in which they can save expense and one of the first things that is often considered is reducing the headcount which includes associates, paralegals, staff and non-productive partners in the firm.
This is a great cost-cutting strategy but who will then manage all of your files, schedules, as well as document and correspondence preparations? Do you think you will solely be able to handle all the above tasks? You definitely need an aid which will not bring you any additional worries.
LPO(Legal Practice Optimization) compliant case management software is the perfect solution to all of these problems. It helps lawyers with their case management worries and assists them with their cost-cutting issues and it massively reduces risks of human error. It will not require you to hire additional staff members just for him or her to operate the system for you. It is very simple and convenient to use. It has a friendly interface that allows users, even non-technical types, to navigate through it without any hassles.
Let’s take for example your task to remember important dates related to particular cases that your firm is handling. Traditional real estate lawyers will most likely have a big white board inside their office. This serves as his reminder of the things that needs to be accomplished for the month. He or she may not be the one who updates this gigantic work calendar but this is enough for him to be reminded of his or her tasks for the month.
The problem with this office management approach is convenience. There is no way you can bring this giant white board everywhere yet Case management software provides you the luxury to always have all of this vital information at the comfort of your laptop or mobile device. Now you can have access to a colossal weight of information wherever and whenever. Once a system is installed in your laptop or desktop, you can conveniently click on its designated button and the information you sought for will instantly be presented before your eyes. There is no need for you to call your paralegal and search for files. You simply need to familiarize yourself with the case management software and you can handle it on your own.
Aside from this, it allows you to automatically generate and send letters. Legal Case Management tools typically come with tons of templates for all your letter needs. It can even install your letterhead into the system as well as your virtual signature so you can send and print letters conveniently. They also contain trackers for different kinds of correspondences that you have traditionally mailed or electronically mailed to your clients. Just signal the system to proceed with mail delivery and it will be done within a few seconds.
A reliable case management application is the ultimate paralegal you may ever need. It is not susceptible to human error and performs its duties 100% efficiently. Any calculations that must be done can be done in an instant. Any client, broker, lawyer, or any other contact type can be instantly retrieved. In this manner, you can reduce your headcount, benefit, compensation, and even office expense without worrying about the quality of work it will deliver.
Real Estate Legal Software such as The Real Estate Assistant module, part of The Legal Assistant software suite, provides your firm with custom databases that will include the following:
- Lawyer Database
- Clients Database
- Bank Database
- Real Estate Broker Database
- Real Estate Agency Database
- County Clerk Database
- House and Pest Inspector Database
- Surveyor Database
- Municipality Database
- Title Agency Database
- Letter Database which contains more than 150 letter templates
- HUD-1/RESPA
It will assist you with time and billing management, inter-office communication, scheduling and calendar management, notification and reminder management, generate the HUD-1 RESPA form at the click on a mouse, and additionally document management and letter generation features.
One major advantage offered by The Real Estate Assisant is the nature of combining multiple features into a single product, unlike many offerings out there which require one package for handling billing, another to let you create the HUD-1 or GFE settlement statement, The Real Estate Assistant has in-built HUD-1 Software right out of the box.
There is no other legal practice management software developed which can so much cater to the needs of real estate lawyer than The Legal Assistant.