In 1996 partners of a Virginia-based law firm, as national coordinating counsel for several Fortune 500 entities, founded TrialNet, Incorporated (now Acuity Management Solutions) to better coordinate field counsel in mass tort litigation. The partners believed Internet technology would provide the means for achieving greater efficiency and effectiveness. The vision was to create secure networks through which clients and its outside counsel could share information. Read more...
Back in the 80s and 90s, when Acuity staff were practicing lawyers and paralegals working on mass tort litigation, the laborious process of billing clients across many claimants could be daunting. For clients, it was an even more tedious process; as they tried to break out and calculate the true legal spend for each individual claimant involved in the one litigation ---- all within the manual review world. And forget about being able to effectively create reports out of this data!
A recent Law Technology News article by John Edwards discusses the potential pitfalls that in-house counsel, as well as legal claims departments, face when selecting technology solutions. The nature of the technology industry dictates that today’s top-of-the-line electronic billing or practice management solution may be obsolete by tomorrow, as the next big thing hits the market.
