Legal Law

Law Office Workflow: A Comparison to the NYSE and NASDAQ Processes

A difficult start for 2016 investors

During the first two weeks of 2016, investors in the stock market have suffered a sudden and painful drop. Some call it historic both for its speed and its voracity. The images most of us have of traders in lab coat-looking jackets with large identification letters across the front are likely from the New York Stock Exchange or NYSE. Those traders handle buying and selling in an auction-like environment, usually using hand signals or yelling at the specialist designed to represent the stocks being traded. There is a physical building in lower Manhattan where this happens every day.

In contrast, there is the NASDAQ, which stands for the automated listing system of the National Association of Securities Dealers. The NASDAQ, (now formally called NASD for the National Association of Securities Dealers) unlike the NYSE is not a physical exchange, although it handles more than 2 BILLION operations a day.

From Investopedia.com: Rather than being an auction market, NASDAQ is a communications network between thousands of computers. Instead of brokers shouting orders, market makers put their names on a list of buyers and sellers, which is then distributed by the NASDAQ in a split second to thousands of other computers. If you want to buy a NASDAQ-listed stock, your broker will call a market maker with your trade information or enter your order into a Nasdaq-sponsored online execution system.

The analogy with legal practice

Just as the corporate securities trading market has come a long way in the past 40-50 years, so has the process for legal professionals. The easiest observation to remember is the physical space that documents consume in and for legal practices. Literally (and in some cases remain) entire warehouses full of documents related to cases that were solved long ago, and instead of risking throwing out a piece of paper that had testimonials, agreements, signatures, and the like, companies were piling up. taller boxes. and more, occupying expensive square footage in office buildings. Over time, many would resign themselves to a remote, off-site location where barcode scanners and wireless handheld devices could scan their content in the event of a sudden need to produce a document.

In recent years, like stock exchanges, there have been significant advances both in technology and in the acceptance by courts of alternative evidence in addition to paper. The advent of e-discovery meant that customer data stored in computer databases was as obvious as the paper it replaced. Lawyers would no longer have to show up in court with paper boxes to back up their case. Instead, a summary of what existed in a pre-trial file could be used and, if necessary, a quick reprint of the computer databases could be done.

Paper to digital assets

While there are some areas where paper is required, i.e. contract signatures, acknowledgment of receipt of goods or services, and / or notice of HIPAA guidelines, these documents are now also kept in computer repositories using document scanning tools. high speed, which can add barcodes. and other tags and labels to help generate an index per case. Keeping all related assets, including scanned documents and images, emails, and other electronic information related to a specific case, is often referred to as matter centrality. Simply put, instead of storing information alphabetically by customer, it is now possible and often preferred to associate ALL electronic data with the matter for which it applies, simply review, check status and handle properly.

Legal practice workflow

Workflow is often a fancy term for what is simply a process. In what way does the firm, whether due to its practice areas and / or to be in compliance with the relevant legal regulations on the subject, needs to create a workflow. Usually this begins with the client incorporating or gathering the facts of the matter, creating a case file with contact information for all relevant parties and any additional information, including medical reports, police reports, information from the sure, to start. the process for litigating the matter.

Much of this becomes routine as technology improves and is adopted, and when bottlenecks are discovered, there should be a review of the process to minimize or avoid future bottlenecks that can delay the progress of the case and its eventual closing.

Office resources

While it may vary based on the size of the firm, the number of locations, and the magnitude of the legal matters being investigated, there is generally a 1-to-1 ratio of attorneys to staff. These staff may include a paralegal, office assistant, billing coordinator, and / or other resources employed to help attorneys whose time generates revenue for the firm focus on doing billable work. This works well in very small or individual firms, or conversely, in very large firms, where human capital can be shared between attorneys.

Gathering information on outsourcing

While not technically a bottleneck, gathering information from third parties, such as hospitals, doctors, labs, and other healthcare-related information providers, can be a daunting task and is simply not a practical option when working on personal injury. , medical malpractice and / or massive damages. wrong case types. Imagine a class action lawsuit against a medical device manufacturer that has injured hundreds, if not thousands, of people. Collecting each of those record “orders” would be the equivalent of someone trying to trade high-volume stocks like Microsoft or Starbucks before computers hit the trading floors. It just breaks the workflow.

Those cases have created a cottage industry where skilled professionals are often called Medical Records Retrieval Specialists (or MRR for short) have the technology and often the right ways, contacts, and relationships with healthcare providers to respond to the request and respond faster and without utilizing the aforementioned law office staff resources .

And, because these professionals deal with this issue day after day, the workflow they can provide to the law firm is much more efficient, resulting in lower costs for the firm and a fixed cost bill that can be considered a recoverable expense. the client’s. Additionally, the MRR must be versed in the most current documents required by state and federal compliance rules for HIPAA and the most recent HITECH laws.

Summary

More than 100 years ago, a group of gentlemen met under a tree in New York City where they traded various commodities, stocks, and banknotes. Later, that process would be replaced by a machine called tickertape, which allowed merchants to enjoy the comfortable environment of their offices while keeping track of their investments and transactions. It would take another 40 years for terminals, a keyboard, and a CRT display to enable personalized transactions via a central computer housed in a raised-floor room somewhere off-site. Today, these transactions can be carried out with a smartphone and a cellular signal or a WiFi connection.

These same advancements are progressing in both the legal and medical fields, making it easier and more efficient to practice those arts, remain competitive with other firms, and improve your chances of success. Incorporate the use of outsourced medical record retrieval providers, with cloud-based, web-accessible, secure, front-line software applications, reduce costs, reduce risks of non-compliance, and maintain office workflow. fast moving lawyers. and without problems.

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