Family Software

Case management of software designed especially for family and matrimonial work

Over the last 20+ years Select Legal Systems Limited has had the privilege of working with some of the best family law specialists in the country to develop the LAWFUSION Family Law Case Management Software Modules.

Family Law is a highly complex, sensitive and time consuming area for fee earners. The LAWFUSION Family software suite gives users the functionality to efficiently handle all cases whether they are privately funded or they are through the LAA (Legal Aid Agency), enabling law firms to handle larger case loads more profitably whilst delivering a high quality service. Like all other areas of the system, the family module can be tailored to the preferred working practices of your firm.

Man with cupped hands holding silhouettes of a family for family law software

Key Features

Case Management

LAWFUSION caters for all the main areas of family and matrimonial law including – Separation, Divorce Action, Child Access and Contact Arrangements. It also includes documentation and steps for Domestic Violence and Financial Remedy including – Petitions, Affidavits and Statements of Arrangement. Documents and procedures are highly customisable so you can adapt them to mirror your own procedures and style.

Auto-form production, letter generation and email management all included.

Civil Billing

LAWFUSION handles all the civil billing complexities associated with the LAA’s Civil Family Fee Schemes. i.e. The Care Proceeding Graduated Fee Scheme (CPGFS), the Private Family Law Representation Scheme (PFLRS) and the Family Advocacy Scheme (FAS). The billing process for these three areas is automated within LAWFUSION removing the need for the services of a cost draftsman.

LAA Civil Online Working

The Legal Aid Agency introduced online working for civil and family certificated legal aid work not so long ago. They developed a CCMS (Client Cost Management System) as part of this for advocates, clerks and cost lawyers covering the whole process, from submitting legal aid applications to paying bills. Select Legal worked closely with the LAA on this and developed LAWFUSION functionality that includes legal aid billing wizards that allows users to submit multiple bills directly to the LAA from LAWFUSION as a bulk upload, rather than having to re-key billing information into the LAA’s CCMS.

Document Bundler

The LAWFUSION Document Bundler is a PDF Court Bundle Generator. Incredibly popular with family law firms, it offers features such as automatic page numbering and contents page creation.

It provides a bundle template that users can add files and documents to, as they are preparing for court. When the user is happy with the bundle it is saved as a PDF, incorporating all the necessary paperwork for the court appearance.

Read more about the LAWFUSION Document Bundle Generator software here.

Integration

All LAWFUSION modules are interlinked with each other. For family lawyers it is of course important that the family module talks to the system’s accounts suite. WIP figures/totals and breakdowns are available at the click of a button.

There are high levels of LAWFUSION integration with the Microsoft Office suite and Select Legal Systems have carried out special, bespoke integrations for clients such as Family Law Group – who have a ‘Civil Legal Advice’ Contract.

Of course, LAWFUSION provides extensive integration with Legal Aid Agency’s Civil Family Fee Schemes (CPGFS, PFLRS and FAS).

Time Recording & Automatic Billing

Time recording and automatic billing saves time and improves cash flow for LAWFUSION users. Monthly automatic interim bills can be generated via a simple process which massively reduces the administrative burden traditionally involved in billing. In addition to auto bulk billing, for one-off bills, a wizard pulls in data such as the fixed fee or WIP, money on account, disbursements and VAT.

Multiple charge levels with fixed and hourly charge rates as well as Legal Aid calculations and billing are inherent as are limit monitoring features and notifications. The system can be set to send fee earners warnings when cases are getting close to fee estimates set.

LAWFUSION provides comprehensive reporting of all time recording and billing data giving family lawyers all the statistics and graph options they need.

Read more about LAWFUSION Time Recording here.

SMS Text Messaging

As an addition to email messaging, many family lawyers choose to keep their clients up to date via SMS text messaging.

It’s immediate, it cuts down the need for telephone calls and all messages can easily be recorded to case history for future reference. Read more.

Case Studies / Relevant News

Video Case Study

Family Law Group
In this video that lasts 7 minutes, senior execs and fee earners from Family Law Group explain how the firm had outgrown its previous system and why they chose LAWFUSION to help streamline its expanding business.

With 9 offices stretching between Chesterfield in the North and Bedford in the South, Family Law Group does exactly what it says on the tin – they focus entirely on family law – offering private and legal aid services as well as mediation relating to: Divorce & Separation, Child Arrangements & Social Services, Care Proceedings, Matrimonial Finance & Property, Mediation, Collaborative Law, Forced Marriage and Domestic Abuse Injunctions.

More info

Video Case Study

Silver Fitzgerald
This 6-minute video features an interview with Douglas MacDuff, a solicitor at Silver Fitzgerald, a niche family firm in Cambridge.

Douglas explains why he believes LAWFUSION is a quality software product that law firms can rely upon, but more importantly why the business relationship with your software supplier is equally if not more important than the technology itself.

More info