essential tips for avoiding missed deadlines (and malpractice suits!)

Essential Tips for Avoiding Missed

Deadlines

(and Malpractice Suits!)

888-432-1529 www.rocketmatter.com

Meet Carol-Lynn Grow


Malpractice Claims by Firm Size

Firm Size Malpractice

Claims

Percent of

Market

Risk Factor

(claims/market)

Solo 33 48 0.69

2 to 5 33 15 2.20

6 to 10 9 7 1.29

11 to 100 14 16 0.88

Over 100 11 14 0.79

Lawyers have a 17% chance of being sued for malpractice each year


Malpractice Claims by Practice Area

Personal Injury- Plaintiff 19.96%

(4.64% decrease from 1995)

Personal Injury- Defense 9.96%

(5.86% increase from 1995)

Real Estate 16.46%

(relatively constant)

Family Law 9.58%


Estate, Trust, Probate 8.63%



Addressing #1 Cause of Malpractice Claims


How does this

happen?


Bad Habits and Inefficiencies

• Waiting to schedule deadlines

• Not keeping centralized calendars, no backups

• Lack of research on local rules and rule changes

• Procrastination and/or failure to plan

• Deadlines don’t get reassigned with staff changes

• Entering deadlines on calendars one-by-one


Some Horror Stories

• Late filed Notice of Removal to Federal Court

• Certificate of Review/ professionals

• Inadequate or late fact disclosures

• Hiring an expert too late

• Missing Summary Judgment deadline

• Notice of Appeal


A Few Helpful Tips

• Office-wide calendar with some redundancy

• At least one date for every matter to ensure they are reviewed regularly

• Enter deadlines ASAP, with spaced reminder dates

• Make all attorney and non-attorney staff accountable

• Give yourself enough time to investigate and work toward deadlines

• Analyze your procrastination


Technology Can Help!


Practice Management Software

• Centralized calendar that’s backed up

• Synch with Outlook and Google Calendar

• Workflows and task management

• Organized matters, keeps track of last activity

• Integration with LawToolBox


LawToolBox Rules-Based Calendaring

• Automates procedural and custom deadlines

• Easily update your calendars for all your team members when something changes

• Minimizes risk, qualifies for maximum discounts in malpractice insurance

• Links to authority for each deadline

• Another set of eyes watching for rule changes


Transform Your Deadline Management Process

Before After


Easily manage deadlines with

LawToolBox and Rocket Matter

Thank You!Nefra MacDonald | [email protected]

Carol Lynn Grow | [email protected]