SLUG Members Support VLSP - Learn About Software
by Heather Cline Hoganson

At the January SLUG meeting, members approved donating $2000 to the Voluntary Legal Services Program to upgrade and enhance the technology in its office. Elections were held and Gabor Morocz was "upgraded" from vice-chair to chair, while Heather Hoganson moved from secretary/treasurer to vice-chair. A new face, Timothy Miller of the Diepenbrock Law Firm, was elected as this year's secretary/treasurer.

January's meeting topic was CaseMap, a litigation software tool for big and little cases. In the 2001 Technolawyer@Awards, CaseMap/TimeMap received an award in the category of favorite Knowledge Management Solution.

Brian Taugher, a longtime SLUG member who works at the Attorney General's office, showed us how helpful this software really is in organizing a case. CaseMap runs over top of Microsoft Access and is, as Taugher said, "The first tool that helps you think through the case."

CaseMap allows a user to organize parts of a case under the headings "Facts," "Objects," "Issues," and "Questions." Multiple users can work simultaneously on the same case in this client-server software without canceling-out the work of other users, and one can even "synch" information from one's laptop.

With CaseMap, a user can enter information in tables, such as "Fact: January 15, 1998. Ms. Smith fired from MegaCorp - told she was 'getting too old.' Fact not disputed; Issue of age discrimination. Source = Ms. Smith." The software allows the date to be as specific or general as necessary. The date of a fact can be identified very specifically, as by day and time, or it can be specified only by month or by year. Unlike other applications, CaseMap does not default to the first day of the first month if the user doesn't have this concrete information, giving the user more flexibility.

After filling in the rest of the story, CaseMap lets the user sort by people, dates, and issues, whether facts are disputed, and whether (in the user's opinion) this fact helps or hurts the user's desired outcome. Customized fields can be added by a user (such as whether employees were smokers or non-smokers) or one can stick with the pre-programmed fields and get a lot done without having to spend time learning a new program. A user can organize issues and have facts or people linked via issues. CaseMap also allows one user to pose questions to other users on the team (and have them post the answers!), preventing a siege of "sticky notes" cluttering monitors, briefcases, pockets, and, ultimately, floors.

CaseMap provides a "data refinery" which enables users to search the data entered, filter results to create reports and charts to show case activity by year or month. CaseMap also enables a user to import/export text into other programs, like Litigator's Notebook or Concordance. One noted weakness in CaseMap is its inability to link directly to a source - the electronic copy of a deposition, for instance.

However, CaseSoft does have an added feature of allowing a user to publish directly to a web site (a secure one, of course,) for outside counsel or clients to collaborate. Taugher reported that, unlike many software companies, CaseSoft actually encourages users to call technical support - they even send a free t-shirt on one's first contact! Moreover, CaseMap's technical support people not only answer questions, they also may also suggest other alternatives and options that the user might not have thought to try.

Another key selling point for CaseMap is its price. Single-license versions start from about $500, which is peanuts in the software world. But don't take the many positive experiences SLUG members have related in using CaseMap - try it yourself. CaseSoft offers 30-day free downloads of CaseMap and TimeMap at www.casesoft.com.