Restore Digital's Paul Moonan predicts the "next big thing" in terms of legal technology

The age of putting ‘Big Data’ to practical use has dawned.  Legal analytics technology is leading the way in revealing patterns, relationships and trends in key data which can offer a depth of perspective to legal businesses, previously buried deep in the paper mountain around them.

Analytics technology, which uses digital data capture as a starting point, can be used in many areas of legal work. Whether it is a question of litigation documents, e-discovery collections or transactional documents, this technology enables lawyers, law firms, litigants, judges and courts to better inform themselves on key aspects of their work, improve their decision-making processes and business strategies.

Lawyers are able to harness the power of data analytics technology to win over clients, judges and juries – not to mention their accountants! When used as a predictive tool it helps law firms improve their case cost management or provides a competitive advantage in court cases. Many law firms are using predictive analytics to predict the behaviour of judges, juries and venues from past cases. This allows firms to prepare more efficiently for trials which can have a significant impact on case outcome.

In order to adopt this technology, firms must first have their paper documents and data in a digitised format. If digitisation of the business is not yet complete or even underway, it may seem a monumental task – although help is at hand.

Data analytics can only be performed through the digitisation of documents throughout the legal firm. Outsourcing this repetitive, time-consuming and yet vital step to a support service partner, such as Restore Document Management, provides an easy route to the completion of full digitisation.

This strategy brings with it expertise; not only in specialist scanning and digitisation processes but also in impeccable accuracy and document security. Reputable document management firms’ employees are all DBS checked and law firms are safe in the knowledge that they use software which is compliant with UK Government security standards in terms of encryption.

Data digitisation by scanning is a cost-effective way to enable quicker information retrieval and it facilitates data analysis, whilst at the same time reduces reliance on paper document storage, cuts administrative costs, avoids duplication of tasks, and strengthens audit trails. 

Being able to review, analyse and summarize their records online, from any device home or away, to suit their business means lawyers’ productivity improves, cases become less protracted and more efficient, customer service is quickened and fee-earners are freer to engage in higher level data analysis to gain more of a tactical advantage.

Current evidence points to the fact that the data analytics technology revolution is already in full swing. Being part of it depends largely on whether or not a law firm has yet scanned and digitised its documents. Competitive edge starts and ends with digitisation.