CARET Legal - Detailed Review

CARET Legal Overview

CARET Legal is a comprehensive law practice management software that offers a wide range of features to streamline and optimize the operations of law firms. Here are the main features and how they work:

Case Management

CARET Legal’s case management system is central to its functionality. It allows law firms to manage cases from creation to closing, including tools for managing documents, contact management, eFiling, eSignature, and calendaring. This system provides a bird’s eye view of financials, activity, and progress on each matter through the Matter dashboard. You can customize matter views, set matter-level user permissions, and track audit logs, ensuring all aspects of a case are efficiently managed.

Document Management

The document management system enables users to store, organize, and retrieve files easily. You can upload documents, search them by keyword, and share them with other lawyers or clients. The system also allows creating folders within folders and assigning documents to specific cases. This feature ensures that all documents related to a case are easily accessible and well-organized.

Time Tracking and Billing

CARET Legal includes a time tracking function that helps law firms bill clients accurately. Attorneys can assign time entries to specific tasks within each matter and add notes about these tasks. The software automatically calculates billing totals based on the work performed, and you can set up recurring billing cycles with multiple rates per hour or charge a flat fee per case. It also integrates with online platforms to accept credit card payments, simplifying the billing process.

Calendaring and Scheduling

The calendaring feature allows you to schedule appointments and tasks quickly. It integrates with Google Calendar and other calendars, enabling you to set reminders for upcoming deadlines or tasks related to each client. This ensures that you never miss important dates or appointments. The email reminders feature also keeps clients informed about their scheduled appointments.

Contact Management

CARET Legal’s contact management system helps organize contacts such as clients, prospects, referral sources, witnesses, and opposing counsel. You can view contact information, create custom fields, assign color codes to each matter role, and easily import and export contact data. The mobile app even allows you to add contacts by taking a photo of a business card.

Mobile App

The mobile app provides access to your cases on the go, allowing you to review pending matters, create new issues directly from your phone, and stay updated on case activities. This mobility ensures that attorneys can manage their cases efficiently even when they are not in the office.

Email Management

CARET Legal integrates with your existing email account, detecting and associating inbound emails from matter-related contacts. You can automatically bill for time spent drafting emails, convert emails to tasks, and save emails directly to the relevant matter. The software also offers secure email options, including encryption and court-admissible proof of delivery.

Trust Accounting

The trust accounting feature helps you manage trust accounts by tracking funds deposited and withdrawn. You can create custom fields and templates for trust documents, track assets, updates on beneficiaries, and payouts from trust accounts. This ensures accurate and up-to-date records of client payment histories.

Client Portal

CARET Legal offers a secure client portal called CasewayTM, where you can share vital information with clients, including documents and billing information. Clients can upload documents, and you can review and edit them within the portal. The portal also includes immersive branding options, such as a custom login page and branded email notifications.

Integration with Other Apps

CARET Legal integrates with various other apps like Google Calendar, Xero, QuickBooks Online, Lawmatics, and more. The new public API allows for custom applications and ‘out of the box’ integrations, such as the integration with Lawmatics, which automates data transfer and reduces manual data entry. This integration streamlines the client lifecycle, ensuring accurate and efficient case management.

AI Integration

While the sources do not explicitly detail AI-specific features, the automation and integration capabilities of CARET Legal, such as the Smart Suggest systemTM for email management and the automated syncing of data with other platforms, suggest a level of automation that could be enhanced by AI. However, there is no clear indication of how AI is specifically integrated into the product beyond these automation features.

Conclusion

In summary, CARET Legal is an all-in-one law practice management software that helps manage every aspect of a law firm’s operations, from case management and document storage to billing and client communication. Its integration with other apps and automation features make it a powerful tool for streamlining legal practice management.