“Only data can protect us now”

As a conveyancer, especially at this time of year, you’ll know it’s not really the season of good tidings and joy.  Pressure levels are at a level that would make a Tower executive wince, with social media posts reveals a depressing litany of long working hours where everything feels like a battle.

What makes this even more challenging are these issues are coming from a multitude of sources; clients, lenders, agents and indeed other lawyers.

History tells us that fighting a battle on multiple fronts typically ends in defeat and we must take steps to avoid this - data has a vital role to play in protecting ourselves.

1.     Speed to information

We must give lawyers the tools to do the job and reduce the time wasted on the simple things, such as finding case details.  It sounds obvious, but without fast and ready access to case details, lawyers are on the backfoot when someone calls in asking for an update.  This inefficiency increases stress and the reliance on the individual with knowledge of the case.

Case management systems should be configured to offer extensive search facilities such as case reference, client surname, property address, postcode, other side law firm, estate agent or even mortgage reference number.  While this might result in invalid results being returned, this is resolved by a secondary narrower search within the initial results.

Once a case is found, it’s important to show as much information as possible to the user, rather than burying it in sub-menus and pop-ups.  Identify what is important to someone who doesn’t know anything about the case and show it.  For example, the name of the fee earner, their assistant, the status of searches or the number of outstanding enquiries.

If a case management system does not support the building of such summary screens, Excel can be used instead – the benefits of having a single place to look outweigh the overheads of maintaining this data.

2.     Make dates your friend

Anyone involved in property transactions will complain about the length of time involved and the lack of transparency.  The process IS inefficient but by not having accurate information about timings to hand, lawyers leave themselves open to accusations of causing delays.

These accusations can be stressful for lawyers to deal with, which is why we must track timings – given lawyers the necessary information to hand, builds confidence and reduces feelings of being unfairly attacked.

For example, clients often over-estimate timings and complain that their case has been “dragging on for months”.  They frequently use the offer acceptance date as a starting point and don’t factor in that it took them three weeks to return their paperwork.  On a purchase, a contract pack may not have been received for six weeks and replies to enquiries delayed by a month.  Unless lawyers have this information to hand, in an easy to read format such as weeks, they are an easy target.

Again, for those case management systems that don’t support this, it can be easily achieved in Excel by storing the dates and calculating the difference between them.  datedif()should be a conveyancer’s Excel function of choice.

3.     Identify specifics

Finally, one of most egregious myths about conveyancing is that it’s “just a tick-box exercise” whose simplicity makes the length of time it takes for a deal to go through even more frustrating.  The reality is, of course, very different, with each case being annoyingly unique.

The lists of differences can be extensive; lender requirements, clients getting divorced, buy-to-let transactions or undertakings required, for example.  However, by storing all these in a single place, (we call it our “Hazard Grid”) reduces the dependency and pressure on the individual lawyer by sharing this with colleagues and helps pre-empt issues during the case.

Such “hazard grids” do not need to be complicated enabling the user to click to turn on the hazard warning and clicking to turn it off again.  Again, this can be achieved very easily with Excel using conditional formatting to highlight a cell based on its value.

Is this really necessary?

Whilst some retain the view that clients are looking for a professional legal opinion, the harsh reality is that the demands on lawyers have never been higher and will only continue to grow.  Expectations of Amazon-style immediacy are only going to increase and the delivery of service now extends beyond legal expertise.

Lawyers must accept that service now includes delivering timely information, which realistically can only achieved with further investment in technology-based information systems.

Unless they take steps to exploit the support that technology provides, lawyers will continue to experience the negativity and aggression that is part of society today. 

Even at Christmas.

Peter Ambrose is the CEO of The Partnership and Legalito – specialists in the delivery of transparent and ultra-efficient conveyancing software and services.

Peter Ambrose: pambrose@thepartnershiplimited.com, 01483 579978

Press enquiries: Tracy Holland, tholland@thepartnershiplimited.com 01483 579978