Professional Services
Success Stories
SUMMARY
- CLIENT: Rutledge Law Firm
- PRODUCT: Collection-Master
- PROBLEM: Manual and time-consuming process for court filings and service of process
- SOLUTION: Comprehensive VT help in setting up Vertican File & Serve
- IMPACT: Tasks that took 8 hours per day now take 30 minutes
PROBLEM
Kip Rufini is the Director of Legal Operations for Rutledge Law Firm in Texas. Prior to implementing VTFS, the firm’s file and serve tasks were a significant drain on her time and resources. It typically took Kip 8 hours a day to manage the workflow of all the different proceedings and service of process, manually tracking filings, compiling packets, monitoring service, and updating claims at each step. All the complex steps, varying requirements, and constant checking seemed to take forever. Rutledge was even close to requiring additional personnel to stay on top of it all.
SOLUTION
Joe Woodward, Deputy Product Owner, worked closely with Kip to set up and configure her VTFS system, turning the manual tedium into an automated lifesaver. VTFS supports multiple process variants so the setup is flexible. For example, when the timeline is tight, Rutledge will do the filing themselves and only outsource process service. In this case, the VTFS code will just create the service record. VTFS can be configured for multiple processes by jurisdiction and any of the 25 proceeding types. At the point of attorney approval, VTFS smart functionality uses formulas to create records for the debtor(s) en masse.
IMPACT
Instead of spending her entire workday on court filing and process service tasks, it now takes Kip 30 minutes per day. And they haven’t had to hire additional staff. Kip can now spend her time on value-added activities that push the business forward.
Since implementing VTFS in July, Rutledge has sent over 800 cases to court.
“VTFS has been a game changer for Rutledge. It’s taken a manual and very time-consuming process for court filings and service of process and has given us an automated, flexible, and scalable solution – reducing my workload by 90%!”
– Kip Rufini
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Additional Information:
- vMedia is a prerequisite for VTFS implementation.
- For even greater firm efficiency, implement Attorney Meaningful Review (AMR) prior to, or in conjunction with, VTFS.
Related Links:
- VTFS in Collection-Master:
- VTFS Mastermind – Video and Presentation (Nov 2024)
- VTFS on vConnect (June 2024)
- VTFS in the EDI Help Manual
- VTFS in Q-LawE:
- VTFS Mastermind – Video and Presentation (Nov 2023)
- VTFS on vConnect – Part 1: Reduce the Drudgery (Sept/Oct 2023)
- VTFS on vConnect – Part 2: Workflow Designer (Dec 2023)
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SUMMARY
- CLIENT: Mid-Sized Collections Law Firm
- PRODUCT: Collection-Master
- PROBLEM: Formatting Remittance Statements to Meet Client Requirements
- SOLUTION: Template Changes and Custom Programming
- IMPACT: 50+ Hours Per Month Saved in Manual Work
PROBLEM
A firm contacted Vertican stating that they spend an inordinate amount of time formatting remittance statements to meet their Clients’ requirements. Their staff uses cut-and-paste and rearranges data on every remittance, which takes considerable time. To avoid excessive work for staff with limited bandwidth, the firm invested in VT Professional Services to customize the remittances per Client requirements, out-of-the-box when the remittance is performed.
SOLUTION
Joe Woodward, Deputy Product Owner, worked with the firm to create Client-specific templates that print to Excel precisely as each Client requires — no more cutting and pasting each remittance and wasting valuable human effort. The firm was able to reallocate its resources since it no longer needed to spend any staff time reformatting every remittance.
IMPACT
Since formatting each remittance could take 10 minutes to complete and verify, at 300 remittances monthly, the firm saves 50+ hours of work per month. Professional Services helped them reclaim the time from unnecessary manual labor.
SUMMARY
- CLIENT: Retail Collections Firm
- PRODUCT: Q-Law
- PROBLEM: Mail Merge not working with new forms
- SOLUTION: Rebuild and re-program the forms from scratch
- IMPACT: No more backlog of complaints
PROBLEM
A retail collections firm in the Midwest was stumped. They couldn’t get mail merge to work with five new Word forms: four summons and one garnishment. After several weeks of frustration, they asked Vertican for help.
When Michelle Samlaska, Client Success Manager, tried to load the summons forms, her Word program froze, then crashed. Upon investigation, she saw that the forms, which were court templates, contained hidden metadata and security features embedded in Word.
SOLUTION
Michelle rebuilt the summons forms from scratch, stripped out the embedded data, and made the forms interactive. She then input the correct merge fields, wrote custom field strings, linked the data sources, and set up the automation logic to pull data from the accounts. After this, she also created a second set of forms and programmed the merge fields for Debtor 2. Each form was then tested to ensure mail merge was successful.
IMPACT
The firm’s Accounts Coordinator was amazed with how fast the forms went through after Michelle’s help. From a backlog of over 300 complaints, by the first afternoon following the solution, 47 complaints were processed in a matter of minutes, and the entire backlog was resolved in a single day!
While custom programming was still required for the garnishment form, five hours of Professional Services took care of weeks of hassle and gave the firm peace of mind. In the end, they received eight summons forms since they had two versions for court venues, two for process service, and then four created for Debtor 2.
LESSON
There’s no need to lose sleep (or sanity!) by trying to do it yourself. Let Vertican come to the rescue!
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Reprinted from the Septeber 2024 vConnect
SUMMARY
- CLIENT: HOA Collections Agency
- PRODUCT: Q-Law
- PROBLEM: How to charge interest when the client withdrew the principal
- SOLUTION: Set up automatic interest tracking using existing functionality
PROBLEM
One of our clients collects monthly Homeowners Association (HOA) fees. They had a large HOA client who wanted to charge interest on the monthly fees but subsequently pulled the accounts.
The collections agency had to return the principal to the HOA but was still entitled to their fees, which they wanted to collect with interest. But there was no longer a principal balance or a judgment account by which to charge interest.
They figured they’d have to track interest offline in spreadsheets for 500 accounts, then manually upload the data to Q-Law. But they decided to consult with Vertican first. When they explained the problem to Michelle Samlaska, Client Success Manager and Kurt Sund, Q-Law Product Owner, they asked, “Is there a better way to do this?” The answer was a definitive “Yes!”
SOLUTION
In a one-hour consultation, Michelle and Kurt created a custom solution without custom programming. Using existing product functionality, the solution ‘tricked’ the software into doing what the client wanted it to do – apply interest to specific non-judgment accounts. After the initial setup, they will never have to do manually what the system does automatically.
SAVINGS
A 1-hour Professional Services consultation likely saved the agency 20 hours of staff time per month.
LESSON
Proactively engage Vertican before you get wrapped up in a manual, offline workaround. Invest in Vertican’s expertise to save your firm time and money.
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Reprinted from the June 2024 vConnect