The MasterList

Reflections On Why Case Management is Still Case Management.

Case Management. What is it? A philosophy of action? A framework for handling the contents of the legal crucible? Mere words no greater than their parts? What would Des Cartes say. Or, Cardozo. Or, Chomsky. Or, even Atticus Finch? I believe they would all break it down like this. Case Management is "the management of a case". What does that entail? A case. And, it's management.

Let's start with a "case". A case is a frame we put around circumstances to give them bright line clarity in terms of legal elements. It involves action to achieve a goal which requires legal analysis and legal structure. Typically it is thrust upon us by a client who is nothing more than an actor in those circumstances and we, the lawyer, are the agent to achieve the legal end. This end could be a complaint and proceedings to right a wrong, or a rightful defense against a wrongful claim. It could be the application of our best skills to negotiate a result or, having achieved a negotiated result, to reduce it to a paper memorial which will stand the test of second thoughts by the parties. There are other flavors of case involving corporate, government, and tax aspects of operating a life or a business in our society. Even death and distribution can be the subject of a case.

So, let's look at "management" of a case. There are many aspects to a case and the good lawyer knows how to manage all of them. This includes everything from managing his or her own demeanor at appearances, the conduct of staff and office protocol as relates to legal procedures, to knowing the law on any element of the case to a tee, and seeing how the facts and the law weave into a pattern which will form the warp and weft of the planned result. It will also include the ability to organize the work so that it doesn't pile up beyond belief, to prioritize it so just the right work gets done at the right time and is not left undone at the expense of make-work. It includes the ability to multi-task within a case and between multi-cases. And, ultimately the reward is hopefully economic success and the balance and harmony between career and personal life that can come with that hard-earned success. Ironically, the price of that reward is often a perpetually unbalanced career.

In short, case management requires a highly actualized, highly skilled professional with outstanding legal and practical know-how, managerial skills, human skills, and a bit of mastery when it comes to sequencing plans and weaving them around legal and factual insights.

Juggler. Shape shifter. Craftsman. Director. General. Sherpa. Warrior. Eye of the hurricane. Knight. Noble person. That is the case manager we call lawyer.

So. Let us now look at the term "software" as in "case management software". What would it look like if Atticus Finch could have invented it from scratch? How would it help Atticus? And, how would it change Atticus? And, most importantly how would it help Atticus "manage" his "case"? When we (or Atticus) design this software, let us never forget the case, the client, and the achievement of the best possible result.

So, first and foremost, software is a tool. Sometimes a set of tools. The acid test of whether any aspect of the software has "case management" functionality is simple enough. Does it help the lawyer, manage the case? Here's an example. Word and Word Perfect are both great products. Atticus' secretary gravitated from a manual Royal typewriter, to an IBM Selectric, to a Wang, to a PC with Word Perfect, to a PC with Word. All great and powerful transitions. But, these new and better methods of putting words to print, spellchecking them, and formatting them, even when the PC arrived on Atticus' desk and he began editing, and even drafting, the documents himself did not help Atticus, more than marginally, hone his facts, his proof, his research, his legal knowledge, his analytical skills, his incisive questioning at depositions, his breadth of awareness of the elements of a touchy situation and how to handle them. Those "case management" skills stand alone mostly unimproved by the new power of word processing.

So, is word processing case management? No. Is word processing a great tool? Yes. But, not a case management tool.

So, that brings us to modern "case management software", a genre in which most of the original proponents have moved to an integrated, enterprise model now called "practice management software". Is practice management case management? No, and maybe. It depends on how much it helps Atticus directly in those aspects of his conduct and practice that are core to his concept of "managing a case". To the extent that it helps him indirectly, it is not case management. An alarm clock allows Atticus to get up one hour before the dawn breaks, have coffee and pancakes and get to his office early to read the email. But, the alarm clock is not case management. Nor is any feature in any case management or practice management software that does not "directly" and prosthetically help Atticus "manage" aspects of cases in the same way that the development of word processing has helped his staff produce documents.

Adding an alarm clock to a calendar, a coffee pot with a timer, and an automatic pancake maker that can read Atticus' mind as to when he's in the mood for pancakes, might make Atticus a better, more alert, more prompt, more upbeat person. It might even help clear his mind and help him win legal cases. But, when you add it all up, those features do not a case management program make.

Case management is still case management and the meaning cannot be pre-empted by the addition of the suffix "software" or any conglomeration of features, however helpful, that don't focus 4-square on the design issue of whether true aspects of case management are being implemented or enhanced by the software.

So, what is case management software? The analysis starts with your own view and with what works for you. Ask yourself what you would design to help yourself manage cases based on your own practical, abstract, and personal definition of "case management". The definition you would give a young associate just coming out of law school, absent the suffix "software". How would you define that? And, how would you convert that definition into practical software that could help you, or Atticus, plan, assess, implement, compete with honor, or even win.

Now, scan the market and see if you can find it.

Case management software is possible. But, if it doesn't work the way you do, it can't help you manage cases the way you do. If it doesn't fit your definition of case management then it's not your kind of case management.

You are the market. You define the market. The market does not have to define you. Case management software is a tool like any other tool. It you can't use it, it's not going to be useful to you. If it doesn't fit, you won't wear it. If it does, try it.

And, give it the acid test. Does it help you "manage" "cases"?

Bill Neubert
The MasterList

White Paper: Reflections On Why Case Management is Still Case Management.
July 19, 2002

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