Data drives the legal profession as never before. With data resources at their fingertips, law firms can make better decisions, not only for their legal business but also for their clients.
Here’s why data storage and data analytics matter so much.
Data Is an Important Resource
Every law firm gathers a large amount of data just in the ordinary course of doing business and crafting legal arguments.
Once you have the data, what are you going to do with it? Let it languish in a dark filing cabinet and only pull it out if you happen to remember it? Or maybe store it in individual files on your network? If you do, you’re missing out on a valuable resource you could be using to construct better cases and grow your legal business.
Data is like a gold mine. The value is there, waiting for you. But you have to put in some effort to profit from it. Data storage allows you to hold onto what you’ve learned in the past. Data analytics makes it possible for you to draw conclusions about that data and put it to use in your business and cases.
For Specific Cases
The data you keep on past cases can help you make better decisions about new cases if you have it stored properly. Add that to being able to analyze the data about the individuals involved, and it’s much easier to make a winning case.
Data can answer many questions, such as:
To find these answers and others, you need to store the data you gather in your law firm and access more data from outside your firm. Then, it must be analyzed to produce reasonable answers. With these answers, lawyers can make informed decisions about how to proceed.
For the Business Side
Law firms must not only win cases (or settle them advantageously), but they must also keep their business afloat. Data analysis, which begins with efficient data storage, can help your law firm not only survive but thrive.
Here are a few ways you can use data storage and data analytics to boost your legal business:
Raw Data Can Be Misleading
So, what’s the big deal about analyzing the data? Why can’t you just take a look at it and see what comes up? Why not just make a judgment call by looking at a few data points? The problem is that a few data points won’t tell you the whole story. While a certain decision may have worked out well in the past, one case or even several examples aren’t enough to be useful in making predictions for future cases.
The very fact that each case is unique makes raw data ineffective for guessing outcomes. Why? With just a little data, you can’t see the trends or the bigger picture. The more information you have about similar cases, the easier it is to understand the things they have in common and how they are different. That takes a lot of data and effective data analytics.
Data analysis is more than just pulling up data and reading it over. It’s a process that involves:
You could do this yourself or delegate it to someone in your firm. However, there’s a steep learning curve, and it requires expertise to get it right. For most legal businesses, especially small- to medium-sized firms, the most effective and efficient solution is to work with a managed services provider that offers data storage and analytics services.
Law Firms That Don’t Use Data Wisely Fall Behind
The competitive nature of the legal field makes it essential to get the most out of the data you already have as well as the data you can access. If you don’t store and analyze your data adequately, you can be sure that other law firms are doing so with their data.
What’s more, they’ll leave you behind in terms of both the types of clients and cases they get and the profits they make. Your reputation will suffer as you become known as the firm that loses because it hasn’t kept up with the times.
Proprietary Data Must Be Protected
You don’t just need to store your data – you need to store it securely. The proprietary data you have on your clients and adversaries can make your opponent’s case if they get it. Beyond that, you face serious regulatory risks if you don’t protect your clients’ personal data.
On-site storage and cloud storage can both be used to keep your proprietary data safe. But you’ll also 
need a managed services provider that can ensure your storage systems are well-maintained and functioning properly.
Don’t wait for the industry-wide drive for legal data pass you by. Get help from data specialists at JMARK, a managed services provider ready to help you store your data securely and use it to its maximum potential through data analytics. Contact JMARK at 844-44-JMARK, email us at [email protected], or send us a message through our Contact Us page of this website.
