Directlaw.com Company Blog - Developments in Virtual Lawyering

• We have spent a lot of time improving the look and feel and making the Dashboard more user friendly.
• The areas of the Attorney Dashboard are now listed in a navigation column on the left side of the page instead of tabs along the top.
• Each of the areas now has search filters and sortable columns to make it much easier to find the record you're looking for.
• Each record now has a drop down list.
• If you have any questions about how to use a certain area of the dashboard, look for the white question mark in a blue circle next to the title of the area you are working in. Clicking the question mark will open a help screen for the area. 

You can create new fixed fee or "unbundled" legal services using DirectLaw. You can also create fixed fee legal services based on your own legal documents, as distinguished from documents automated in Rapidocs and provided to you as part of your DirectLaw subscription. 

The American Bar Association’s eLawyering Task Force has compiled a draft set of best practice guidelines for legal document providers, which can be downloaded here*. The Guidelines would apply to web-enabled legal document providers such as DirectLaw. even though this service is provided to attorneys, and not consumers. 

I have noticed recently the launch of many lead generation Web sites for lawyers. Some of these Web sites will be useful for marketing the online legal services of virtual law firms.

DirectLaw's virtual law firm platform now integrates with Clio's web-based practice management solution. With DirectLaw, Clio subscribers can add DirectLaw's client-facing document automation application and state specific document libraries. DirectLaw's subscribers can access the benefts of Clio's cloud-based practice management applications. DirectLaw is not a "back office" practice management application that keeps track of functions such as timekeeping and billing and docket control. DirectLaw subscribers now can access these functions through Clio by becoming a subscriber.

To help solos and small law firms learn how to deliver legal services online, DirectLaw has created DirectLawBasic , a full-featured  version of our virtual law firm platform for solos practitioners.  For a $29.00 a month subscription fee, a solo practitioner can enjoy all of the benefits of a virtual law office with no up-front fee, large capital investment or binding long-term contracts.  The only limitation is the number of automated legal documents made available.

DirectLawBasic  only enables the attorney to select only five documents for online use from DirectLaw’s extensive libraries of state specific legal forms and documents.

As we approach the New Year, we want to thank our valued DirectLaw subscribers. We realize that the idea of offering an online secure portal to your clients is a new one for many law firms, and we greatly appreciate the willingness of these law firms to be innovative in delivering a new kind of client experience.

A survey just released by Epoq, the developer of the Rapidocs document automation system  that is built-in to the DirectLaw virtual law firm platform provides support for the proposition that lawyers can save a huge amount of time in creating a first draft of a document by using a document automation system.

Case management, document management or automation, e-billing, SaaS, e-discovery, mobile apps, virtual law office.  This is just a starting list of legal technology that promises a better, faster, and more efficient law practice.  It’s enough to make your head spin.

For years some law firms, but not all, have used some form of document automation in their law offices. Ranging from an MS Word macro to long standing programs such as HotDocs, as well as automated forms distributed by legal publishers such as Willmaker by Nolo, some law offices have incorporated some form of document automation in their law practices. Document automation of legal documents that are generated in high quantity by a law firm is an indispensable process for increasing law firm productivity and maintaining profit margins in an era of intense competition.