Reports & Accessibility Key for Civil Legal Aid Case Management in COVID Era

With seven offices, including a Low Income Taxpayer Clinic, Legal Action of Wisconsin (LAW) is the largest non-profit civil legal aid organization in Wisconsin.

Struggling with an outdated software system, Legal Action’s geographically diverse workforce needed a reliable web-based case management solution to make case information more accessible. The onset of COVID-19 brought these needs to the forefront, and LAW’s switch to LegalServer couldn’t have come at a better time.

Legal Action went live with LegalServer about a month before COVID ‘stay-at-home’ happened in our area. The ease of access for our staff to use LegalServer while working from home is a huge benefit.

“LegalServer allowed us to provide much more needed services to our community than we would have been able to do with our prior case management system,” says Don Tolbert, who’s the Database Administrator at LAW. And enabling remote work is just one benefit of the software.

Reports Made Easy

Reporting to multiple funders, including Legal Services Corporation (LSC), is critical to LAW’s operation, but the agency’s previous case management system lacked the necessary reporting capabilities. This meant Legal Action often had to export data into Crystal Reports for further data manipulation - a time-consuming process that required the skills of only a select few people in the organization.

With LegalServer, the entire reporting process is simplified. LAW utilizes all of LegalServer’s built-in reporting capabilities to produce standardized reports for LSC and several other funders.

Time savings and accessibility are more important than ever amid the pandemic, and streamlined reporting has made a big difference for LAW’s team, who now have access to key data at their fingertips.

“We no longer have concerns of needing to use a third party reporting system,” Tolbert says. “Our ability to make reports that are more easily accessible by our staff makes getting data to funders easier.”

Operating remotely, LAW continues to serve Wisconsin’s vulnerable populations without missing a beat, thanks to the dedication of its team. LegalServer is there to help streamline, organize, and automate their work - to the benefit of staff and clients alike.