Amicus Attorney

Amicus Attorney was my first legal management software. We both started together almost 40 yrs ago.

Vantagens:

Permits me to practice law. Amicus is easy to use and very intuitive. It's just clicking away, and getting things done. Now, I can be anywhere and use it from my tablet or a laptop computer if I am out of town

Desvantagens:

I was never able to incorporate Amicus' billing software so I continued to use Timeslips, and both work well together. Now that Timeslips is getting expensive, I may give their billing software another try. Perhaps now it is intuitive as Amicus Attorney.

The new way to practice law

Comentários: Overall I like Amicus. I looked at a number of applications, some less or more costly and settled here after talking with other attorneys who use a number of different applications. Amicus helps you become more organized, particularly if you are in a smaller firm environment. It can also reduce your overhead by reducing the need for staff because of how it integrates information, particularly timekeeping and billing.

Vantagens:

This program is a good integration of: document management for clients; contacts; task and deadline tracking; timekeeping; billing; and, an email program. The fact that it can be accessed online and via a phone app is a major plus. You don't have to travel with a laptop and can access all of your files anywhere. The way it sorts emails, documents and everything else by client files that you can create is very useful in keeping you organized. Depending upon the settings you select, much of this is done automatically by the application. Multiple users can access and work on client files and immediately share their work with other attorneys in the firm. It's a very collaborative platform. I like the integration with QuickBooks and truly appreciate the ability to work with operating and client trust accounts. However, QuickBooks is the only financial management program with which it integrates. I have been at this almost a year and learn a new function daily that improves my effectiveness for clients. Their technical support has been great. I am crazy about their support staff and can tell you this is a major reason that I have stuck it out through a steep learning curve. I also appreciate the fact that it has an open forum where users can recommend changes and improvements. I am impressed that Amicus actually takes action on suggestions and has adopted user recommendations. This is a nice value add proposition.

Desvantagens:

There are some significant limitations. The application integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Word but not at all with the WordPerfect suite of programs that many attorneys find to be the standard in the practice and better that their Microsoft counterparts. Amicus indicates that it is considering creating an integration with the WordPerfect suite. Amicus limits users to 20 GB of space that is not much in this day and age. Expanding the account size within Amicus is very expensive. The application integrates with Dropbox, which is a more affordable option to add storage space. Yet, oddly, it does not integrate with Microsoft OneDrive. This is also a new functionality that Amicus says it is considering. When evaluating this program be mindful of this restriction as it can easily double the actual cost of moving to this platform. Getting documents out of and putting them back into a client file is a bit cumbersome. It also takes time to learn how to save versions of the same document and the versions are not easily seen. Moving emails around is a awkward. It is time consuming to select a group of emails for filing. Similarly, you cannot select an entire conversation on a subject, regardless of whether it is in your Inbox or Sent box, and place them in the client file. So, in some cases you need to clean both Inbox and Sent mail and place items in the client file. A real time killer. I have found that the application times out or snags on occasion.

Dan's Ideas

Comentários: Moderate. I loved Credenza. I use Amicus because it it is the least bad of the server-based options. I have often thought of retiring from law and working on a program that actually works the way lawyers do. The number one issue is the inability to have a workflow overview.

Vantagens:

Easy to keep track of client info and who is who on the file, plus scheduling events

Desvantagens:

1. Document management sucks. I am sure that I am not the only person who keeps all documents organized in Windows subfolders. We should be abler to access and manage documents seamlessly and use that functionality in Portal. 2. Inability to create a workflow overview: we need to see status of file at a glance. The Chronology function is too cumbersome and is only chronological: not theme/category-organized. It does not tell us what is really going on in the file 3. Email integration almost never works well: multiple duplicate copiers for all recipients and not easily searchable. 4. Inability to immediately create letters to a contact ("person") on a file using firm letterhead. This should be a no-brainer but even your seminars can't teach us that. 5. Server version constantly crashing and freezing, meaning that all notes on the desktop are lost. 6. Notes are really hard to work with: impossible to reply to a sticky in a way that keeps a chain going and shows to whom the sticky was sent. 7. The custom pages function is really primitive

Our Recent Upgrade

Comentários: Attorney Schaeffer and I chose Amicus Attorney for our firm many years ago when we went to a legal tech show and I think Amicus was first coming out. We have been through I don't know how many upgrades through the years.
My favorite version we have used was the one for small firms. That was our last version. It was easy to use. It had a great look to the program when you opened it up like having a file cabinet. For someone like me with dyslexia it was much easier to view the client page. To me the old version was something Steve Jobs would look at and have approved. It had a good feel and look. I used to like showing it off to visiting attorneys because it was so cool. This new one is just a program.
I like the way the documents open with this new upgrade when attached but other than that there is very little I like about this new one. It is a little more confusing to explain the process of inputting new clients. I write our policy and procedure book and I always want to make it so anyone could pick up the policy book and be able to use the program and put in a new client, attach documents, write letters, etc.
Maybe it was just that I was used to the old program but there were things that made more sense with it when explaining the process.

Vantagens:

Amicus always trys to make a product that is easy to use and learn which this product is. I really like the way it brings up the documents to be able to see them once they are attached to the file. It is also easy to put in notes about the document. I review the medical records and put notes on the file. Your tech people are always helpful and pleasant.

Desvantagens:

Unfortunately I have found many glitches with this upgrade that I do not like. One is when you are attaching a new person to the file you get choices from the contact list but there is no way to review the person to see if the address for that person is correct. We have doctors who work out of multiple locations. I asked someone at Amicus and they told me there was no way to do it. Our old Amicus program allowed us to do this. Another thing was if someone else has the file open I can not cut and paste from the custom pages area. I prepare depo billing while the attorney is preparing the client and if the attorney has the file open I can not cut and paste info from it. Also because most of us have older eyes we need the resolution made larger on our computers. This distorts the info on the people on the file. You can not see all the phone numbers or the e-mails. Another thing is there any way to make the program use fax numbers with out the ( ) on the area code number. We use ring central for computer faxing and it takes twice as long to try take the () out and put a hyphen in when copying and pasting into our outlook.

For our purposes, this software does everything that most the firm members expect of it.

Vantagens:

The calendaring feature works as expected, and all members associated with that event are able to see the event on their calendar and make any changes or updates to it, as necessary. The telephone feature works, even if you don't have your phone system connected to your computer, as it allows you to make notes and keep track of your billable time. The time entry assistant is really nice, as it allows you to identify items in your day that you may have overlooked for billing purposes.

Desvantagens:

Does not integrate as seamlessly with WordPerfect as I had hoped, an does not lend itself to some email providers other than outlook.