LawToolBox.com, Inc., an independent software provider based in Denver, Colorado, creates out-of-the-box deadline rulesets and docketing management tools for law firms and legal departments. The LawToolBox solution allows its customers to easily and methodically manage litigation and compliance deadlines with confidence.

By leveraging Microsoft technology, LawToolBox also ensures that its products are securely delivered to end-users while offering a seamless and familiar user experience.

Difficulties in manually managing deadlines

Marrache Law (also known as “Abogados a su defense”), a boutique law firm based in Oxnard, California, focuses on representing the Hispanic community in cases of automotive accidents, immigration cases, and criminal defense.

Due to the complexity of court rules-calendaring, calculating and scheduling deadlines represents the number one risk attorneys face today. Almost 40 percent of all malpractice claims against attorneys are caused by missed deadlines.

Historically, deadline creation was performed manually, as deadlines were calculated by hand and then added to calendars one at a time. This process, when multiplied by the thousands of deadlines legal professionals were constantly managing, led to an increased chance of human error combined with a high labor cost.

Recognizing the high risk and legal troubles that could arise from missed deadlines, Marrache Law was searching for a modern approach that could streamline this process and avoid costly downstream issues.

Marrache Law was looking for an automated solution for court rules-calendaring that it could integrate with the products it already used—with a specific need for Outlook calendar integration. By exploring a number of case management systems, Marrache Law had initially leveraged Slack, but found that it didn’t provide enough support or integration with the Microsoft technologies they used every day.

After discovering the collaborative tool Teams, Marrache Law enabled LawToolBox to help manage court rules-scheduling in Outlook while amplifying the benefits of Teams for their business.

An efficient modern solution

Marrache Law used LawToolBox to automate the calculation of deadlines using its proprietary docketing rulesets based on state and federal rules of civil procedure.

Users can now enter simple data, such as a trial date in the Los Angeles Superior Court, and the tool will calculate over 70 deadlines in seconds—a vast improvement over the many hours it would have taken using their previous process.

LawToolBox’s integration with Outlook and Teams empowers Marrache Law professionals to create and manage cases within Outlook or Teams to schedule deadlines straight to their calendars. Designed to adapt, LawToolBox can automatically recalculate and cascade changes in Outlook and Teams, provide quick access to legal matters (a “matter” is the collection of activities involved in managing aspects of a corporate legal practice), and team members can collaborate instantly across the network.

Another important feature of LawToolBox is its ability to watch for court rule changes and, if a change is made, send notifications to the user and update their calendar accordingly.

When leveraging Microsoft Groups and Teams for matter management, LawToolBox will automatically create a specific document folder, calendar, notebook, and shared inbox whenever a new matter is created. LawToolBox also offered Marrache a way to integrate into its hundreds of previously created Groups and Teams without hassle.

Time better spent

The LawToolBox solution saves Marrache at least an hour daily by managing its caseloads and enforcing the use of Teams around the office. By collaborating primarily in Teams, correspondence between associate attorneys and staff is kept in Teams, freeing up most email communication to clients and prospects. In a profession where billing rates are high, time is valuable and saving an hour a day can save thousands of dollars.

LawToolBox has also led to a happier staff and a better customer experience. While many clients are facing the most contentious and stressful legal situations of their lives, they are comforted knowing Marrache Law firm is efficiently managing their cases. Management efficiencies also benefit the clients by lowering attorney costs and enabling staff to focus on winning their cases.