Remote Litigation Support to Meet Tight Deadlines

In the legal profession, deadlines are both extremely important to make and difficult to manage—or even understand. In one infamous case from 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that an appeal was untimely, even though it was filed within the deadline that the District Court provided.¹ As it turns out, meeting legal deadlines is often not as simple as it seems. 

Below, we’ll provide some context for why deadlines matter in litigation and why legal teams may struggle to meet them. Then, we’ll explain how remote litigation support helps with tight deadlines and explore some of the biggest benefits to expect from a streamlined litigation process.

Why Meeting Legal Deadlines Is Critical in Litigation

Deadlines matter in every context. They’re especially critical in litigation because making or missing a deadline can affect trial outcomes and directly impact case proceedings. On one level, timely filing ensures that litigation can move forward.

For example, per New York State’s statutes of limitation, civil cases related to libel or slander must be filed within one year. Medical malpractice matters need to be filed within two and a half years, and matters related to personal injury, product liability, debt collection, and related disputes all need to be filed within three years.² But what looks like a large window can close quickly if you aren’t careful, taking cases off the table simply for tardiness.

On another level, poor deadline management can compound over time, leading to backlogs and negatively impacting attorneys’, legal professionals and overall legal teams’ performance. Understanding how to minimize process serving delays is one way to help prevent these issues before they escalate.

Common Time-Sensitive Challenges Faced by Legal Teams

No legal team sets out to miss a deadline. However, time management can be challenging in the complex, dynamic practice of law. Failing to budget time well can lead to delayed filing.

Some of the biggest time management issues attorneys and legal teams face include³:

• Taking on too much work in terms of case volume and complexity
• Allowing administrative and other issues to interrupt critical casework
• Underestimating and failing to accurately capture or document time spent
• Procrastinating or otherwise avoiding focus on time-sensitive casework
• Failing to delegate tasks to assistants and other legal team members
• Being overly perfectionist about the granular components of a matter
• Refusing to use the best available technology to streamline casework

As with compounding deadlines, these issues have cumulative effects. Missing or almost missing one deadline makes it harder to manage other timelines effectively. Technological innovations make it easier to coordinate remote depositions and other processes efficiently.

How Remote Litigation Support Enhances Efficiency

Remote litigation support services help legal teams avoid and mitigate these issues to ensure deadlines are met. They provide on-demand access to court reporting and streamline record retrieval. By automating the more rote components of these processes, with human oversight for quality assurance, legal teams can devote their best resources to more complex tasks and maintain efficiency.

Remote litigation support services also streamline communication and document sharing, which can be a hindrance to swift processing in some situations. With a unified platform with secure file uploading, access, and storage, legal teams spend less time wrangling important documents and more time analyzing and mobilizing them. This leads to faster turnaround times and more time allotted for time-sensitive legal tasks. It also ensures seamless data privacy compliance.

Remote litigation support services are especially impactful in matters involving sensitive, complicated data types like medical records. They let you navigate fragmented data and regulatory red tape with ease.

Key Benefits of Remote Litigation Support Services

Remote litigation support services help firms in many ways; timely processing to avoid missed deadlines is just one of them. This matters because, as noted above, deadlines themselves matter. Every jurisdiction handles deadlines differently, and some are much less forgiving than others.⁴ But with quality litigation support, legal teams can avoid these penalties across all legal contexts.

The biggest benefits of remote litigation support with respect to timely processing are:

• Increased flexibility without sacrificing accuracy, fidelity, or security

• Centralized, dynamic access to case files and scheduling information

• Lower risk of missed deadlines, communication issues, and legal setbacks

Support services help legal teams achieve litigation automation, streamlining time-consuming tasks to maximize attorneys’ capacity and efficiency across all cases.

Staying Ahead of Deadlines with Remote Litigation Support

Meeting deadlines in a legal context takes careful preparation and management. Challenges of caseload volume and complexity can compound over time, making it easier to fall into the trap of poor time management. Fortunately, litigation support services make deadlines easier to manage.

U.S. Legal Support helps legal teams manage preparation, filing, and all other time-sensitive matters of casework efficiently. We’ll help you choose and use the right technology to get all documents in on time, empowering your team to focus on critical strategy with confidence.

To learn more about our remote litigation support services, get in touch today!

Sources: 

1. Justia. Bowles v. Russell, 551 U.S. 205 (2007). https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/551/205/
2. FindLaw. New York Civil Statute of Limitations Laws. https://www.findlaw.com/state/new-york-law/new-york-civil-statute-of-limitations-laws.html
3. Thomson Reuters. 7 lawyer time management issues and how to avoid them. https://legal.thomsonreuters.com/en/insights/articles/lawyer-time-management-issues
4. JD Supra. Federal Rules Often Forgive Missed Deadlines While Virginia Still Traps the Unwary. https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/federal-rules-often-forgive-missed-1390716/

Julie Feller

Julie Feller is the Vice President of Marketing at U.S. Legal Support where she leads innovative marketing initiatives. With a proven track record in the legal industry, Juie previously served at Abacus Data Systems (now Caret Legal) where she played a pivotal role in providing cutting-edge technology platforms and services to legal professionals nationwide.