5 Ways Legal Tech Can Help Lawyers Reduce Stress
The startling result from a recent joint study by the American Bar Association and the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation showed that 28 percent of lawyers suffered from depression while 19 percent had severe anxiety. Due to workload, the emotional toll of legal work, or the tension of persisting in a competitive industry, lawyers will always encounter stressful situations that can severely impact their physical, mental, and social health.
There are more than enough stressors built into the practice of law. These can include finding, qualifying clients, doing intake and other pre-litigation tasks before you even get to serve the clients. Using outdated and siloed technology tools or manual processes undoubtedly add to the stress and pressure of helping individuals through what could be the most difficult periods of their lives.
Thankfully, there is legal technology that can produce incredible results if lawyers will adopt legal innovation. Legal technology often uses the Cloud to simplify law practice and legal case management and is now rapidly becoming the new norm. Let us discuss how adopting legal tech can be used to minimize a lawyer’s stress.
- Automate routine tasks
Lawyers can utilize automation apps to reduce work-related stress. Automation can streamline and optimize repetitive tasks such as billing and other administrative tasks, thus increasing productivity and reducing human error. According to the 2021 Legal Trends Report, 61 percent of consumers said they prefer to use automated payments, and another 66 percent said they choose to pay a legal bill online. - Use client portals
Clients are dependent on their lawyers to manage their most sensitive legal issues. They expect immediate replies and will not settle for less. But lawyers, inundated with challenging deadlines and tedious paperwork, sometimes find it difficult to set a few minutes to call several times a day to update each client on their case. Using a client portal, clients can send a message to their lawyer and access the status of their case anytime and anywhere. - Utilize self-scheduling
An automated appointment scheduling system can take time off a lawyer’s busy schedule. Tools like Doodle, Calendy, and others allow clients to book appointments using a calendar link showing the lawyer’s available time slots. The system will also send automatic appointment reminders to the client. - Capitalize on document automation
Creating documents such as drafting lawyer retainer agreements and affidavits can be time-consuming. Lawyers can lighten their workload and save valuable time by leveraging legal document automation to generate repetitive paperwork. - Take advantage of e-Signatures
Eliminate the time-consuming, multi-step process of document signing. With e-signatures, clients no longer have to print, sign, and scan documents and send them back to their lawyers. In minutes, lawyers can use the e-signed papers and get the case rolling.
Legal technology is essential to reducing stress arising from mundane tasks and creating work-life balance for lawyers.
Stay on top of a dynamic industry and manage hefty workloads using legal technology solutions such as Clarra’s cloud-based law practice and legal case management software. To know more, contact us today!
