Case Status: Change is Needed

As the world grows more technologically advanced in every field, businesses are witnessing a consumer driven push to become more forward thinking about technology. For instance, 30 years ago, banks were never interested in online banking. They believed customers visiting the branch would continue to be the norm. They would measure their differentiation on the perceived customer service they were giving to each customer in-person. But, today, people refuse to use a bank that doesn’t have online banking. While this has become the minimum standard of care in banking, customer service in the legal industry continues to remain stagnant; at least till recently.

The legal industry has never been forward-thinking. It has become increasingly clear that many attorneys’ perspective on customer service is either outmoded or incorrect. There is an overwhelmingly low client satisfaction score in the legal industry, and the number one complaint to state bar associations continues to be lack of attorney communication.

The high cost of legal services has historically allowed law firms to remain inefficient. They can afford to over pay higher staff wages and under pay for tools and processes which drive efficiency. The view for many law firms is that hiring is the solution, yet year after year the same client complaints show this is not the solution. Many law firms suffer from poor customer service. And in all fairness, consumers so rarely experience a problem requiring a lawyer, that they expect the same level of customer service that they get in every other area of their life,but at the end of their case, clients tend to feel disappointed, unhappy, or even mistreated. Change needs to come to the legal industry.

Radically Transforming the Legal Industry

Case Status CEO, Andy Seavers, sees a vision of the legal industry that looks radically different. “Most lawyers aren’t proud to be lawyers anymore,” says Seavers. “They started practicing because they believe in advocating for clients, yet many are viewed as greedy, unethical, or even lazy. There needs to be a change. These viewpoints are primarily wrong, but change is necessary if clients are going to start feeling advocated for. And it starts with a foundational change to the way lawyers deliver legal services. And it’s for the clients. That’s what this is all about.”

We are recognizing Andy Seavers as the winner of our 2^nd Annual 2022 LegalTech Award for his work in the legal industry. Seavers believes in a future where lawyers are proud to be lawyers. Where clients view their attorney in the same way they view their doctors; as individuals who truly care for the well-being of their clients. He believes it starts with getting back to the reason that most lawyers became lawyers: to advocate for clients.

Case Status was founded on the premise that clients deserve transparency into what is going on in their case and ownership in the process. Rather than keeping clients at arm’s length, Seavers believes that bringing clients into the process in an organized and structured way fundamentally changes a client’s understanding when working with their lawyer. And the result is truly transformative for a law firm. Clients begin trusting their lawyer earlier. They reinforce the process consistently through continued information about what is going on, what’s to come, and what to expect. When trust is established early, checkins and inquires disappear. Clients trust the process because their firm is delivering legal services in a way that has become the standard in all other areas of their life.

Transformational Leaders

Firms all over the country have subscribed to Seavers’ way of thinking, not because his vision is new to them, but because it’s the vision that they have for their law firms. And Case Status is one key part of executing their vision. Law firms such as Richard Harris Law, Pond Lehocky, Saiontz and Kirk, Chaffin Luhana, Daggett Shuler, and hundreds more have vocally spoken about the impact that Case Status has in equipping their firms to be transformative leaders in the legal industry.

As our panel comprised of CEOs, CIOs, CTOs, Subject-Matter Experts and industry analysts, including Enterprise Viewpoint’s editorial board, analyzed the LegalTech industry, Seavers and the Case Status product stood out, not because of any buzz words like “A.I.,” “Machine Learning,” or “Metaverse,” but because Case Status, founded in late 2017 by Seavers and a personal injury lawyer, was built first for the clients in the legal industry.

Seavers knew that Case Status first and foremost needed to become the go-to information hub for legal clients: case updates, messaging, appointments, automation and more, all on an app on the clients’ phone. Seavers shared, “Many of our law firm’s clients don’t have an active email address, only speak Spanish, and don’t have computer access. That means that Case Status needs to be accessible by anyone, regardless of age, income, language, or status. We must meet clients where they are at. When we do that, when we really give clients access to what is going on and ownership in the outcome of their case, that’s when we see radical transformation happen.”

Transformation is Rad!

Seavers believes in shifting the way firm’s view change. Lawyers historically have feared change. Seavers has a different perspective. He has grabbed on to the word “Rad!” and feels very passionately about what the word stands for. Seavers says, “Back in the late 80s and early 90s, people wanted to be ‘Rad.’ They were the culture leaders. They weren’t afraid of change; in fact, they believed in leading the charge because it was fun, exciting, and it was paving the way for a new future that needed to happen.” The managing partners taking over today’s firms remember what it means to be a culture leader, and he wants to help them not fear change, but embrace it.

The barriers for entry into software are lower than ever. And Case Status continues to launch firms faster than we have ever seen in this industry. Seavers shared a story about an elderly paralegal who, in tears, thanked Case Status for enabling her to have time to take her granddaughter to the park. Because clients know what she is working on, knows where the matter stands, and understands how they can contribute, she has cut out virtually all the unnecessary inbound calls and emails. She has more meaningful calls with her clients when conversation needs to be had, and the trust that has been built through transparency has changed the way clients view the firm. In a nutshell, we buy into the vision that Case Status is radically transforming the way clients interact with law firms.

Innovation at your Fingertips

Clients download the Case Status mobile app, custom branded for a firm with logo and colors. When clients are engaged, firms become operationally efficient, but Seavers’ vision doesn’t stop there. Case Status tracks client satisfaction in a way that we have never seen before.

Net promoter score (NPS) has become the gold standard for how to measure satisfaction in a business. It’s generally known that law firms have low client satisfaction, typically around a 32 in the net promoter score measurement (that’s not good). Case Status asks clients at every phase of the case for an NPS score. Law firms have never been good about asking clients for feedback, so a platform that automates the collection process is key. But what sets Case Status apart is that clients are required to give an NPS score when asked. Case Status acts as the trusted 3^rd party in the feedback collection process, teaching clients that sharing honest feedback is a core foundation of the law firm they are working with.

Imagine having insight into the satisfaction of every client in the firm. That type of data is transforming the firms that utilize Case Status. Firms know which clients to spend more time with, which staff members need more training, which clients want to leave reviews and which clients are going to speak positively and refer the firm in the future. No one does that! And we support that asking clients for feedback is part of the firm’s ethical duty of care.

When we work together, we are all better!

Case Status is creating a difference. Seavers believes there is not enough camaraderie among LegalTech companies. “We are all solving problems for law firms,” says Seavers. “We should be working together more.” Case Status is a stand-alone platform, but goes above and beyond to integrate with the existing Case Management solutions in the industry who will work with them. “We are Switzerland!” jokes Seavers. “We work with everyone. We aren’t competitive with case management, and we make case management stickier in the firms that we work with. When firms build processes around their case management tool and Case Status, they never leave their case management tool. It’s only happened once in the history of Case Status.”

Case Status currently integrates with Clio, Filevine, Litify, MerusCase, CASEpeer, MyCase (almost done), and a Zapier integration allows them to integrate with hundreds of additional solutions. Integration allows firms to automate a lot of the tasks and workflows specific to the client thereby automating case related updates. This not only increases the firm’s efficiency but also reduces the number of inbound calls while proactively automating communications rather than being reactionary.

Let’s Grow Together

What started as “The Dominos Pizza Tracker for your Legal Case” has grown into the leading platform for client advocacy. In the last 6 months, the Case Status team doubled its revenue, and raised its Series A of funding. “If law firms are ready to make a radical change, one that is fun, exciting, approachable, and for the benefit of the client, we are ready to partner with those firms. And the reality is that although we are talking about a new platform for communication, the process change is worth it. If Pond Lehocky can get launched in under 30 days, so can you! In the next five years, Case Status will have transformed access and ownership in a similar way to the way online banking has disrupted the banking industry. That’s a future where lawyers are proud to be lawyers. And that’s the industry I want to be a part of” concludes Seavers.