Risk Management
18th August 2008
We see the words Risk Management a lot these days but everyone seems to have a different view of just what this encompasses.
Is it making sure your practice complies with Law Society rules; follows new Money Laundering directives from Europe; protects itself from bad debt and meets all key dates and case deadlines?
In truth it is all of these things as this article from leading legal sector consultant Charles Christian makes clear.
Following on from Charles’ excellent article it is clear that the role of the software supplier is to build risk management functionality into their practice accounting and case management systems.
We are pleased to report that Linetime have taken this on board and that the Liberate legal software solution contains risk management functionality in several areas, for example:
Client Conflict Checking - Liberate will automatically check clients added against the existing Liberate database. As an example conflict checks can include (but are not limited to) client surname, postcode, matter description and other key data items.
Money Laundering – Liberate allows users to record details of evidence provided to establish/record proof of identity. Source of Funds checking is also included in the standard Liberate solution.
Client Identity Verification – Where further levels of client identity verification are required (e.g. Politically Exposed Persons register) Linetime have integrated Liberate with the CallML product from the specialist information services provider CallCredit.
Solicitors Accounting Rules – The Liberate legal accounting product complies with UK Law Society Solicitors Accounting and Franchise Rules.
The integral Interest calculator ensures practice compliance in the area of interest on client monies. The product is also CLS/CDS compliant.
Financial Exposure – Liberate allows the user to set disbursement, fee and WIP limits at client and matter level. Users also have access to a Credit Control Module. This monitors the firms exposure levels against any pre-set limits and instigates appropriate procedures when rules are broken.
Liberate from Linetime is a complete suite of products consisting of:
Practice Management
Case Management
Debt Recovery Software
Contact Marketing
MyView.Net
B2C - Secure Web Access
ImageRouter
Liberate Express - Matter Management
Key Date Reminders – Liberate maintains an internal register of key dates that have been set for each matter. Reminders, including narrative details, are displayed when the set key dates (e.g. limitation dates) are approaching, appropriate escalation procedures are included.
Audit Trails – All documents, transactions and ‘case’ events are date/time stamped and recorded in case history, along with details of the user performing the task and the workstation used. The accounting system alone contains thirty different audit trail reports!