Personal Injury firm shifts Covid-19 challenges into a competitive advantage with Vinesign

The Challenge

1. Simplified Intake Bringing in new cases and clients is important to any law firm, but nowhere is it more fast-paced and competitive than personal injury law. The Law Offices of Craig Goldenfarb recognized that responsiveness, always-on availability, and personal touch are critical to successfully signing new clients to representation.

   “The biggest value we see with Vinesign is on the front end when we’re signing up cases,” explains Amy Boykin, Operations Manager for the firm. With a well-trained intake staff, the team knows how to recognize which clients the firm can represent and signs them to representation before even finishing an intake call.

   Before Vinesign, the firm used a mobile intake coordinator, who met clients in-person to collect signatures.

   Our new process is a game-changer because previously, after scheduling an intake appointment, we had no way of knowing who the potential client might be calling between then and the appointment. You’d have no idea what was happening. Now, we can get off the phone and know they’re not calling anybody else because we’ve retained them as a client.”

   This approach has led to higher conversion rates and reduced potential client churn.

2. Modern Client Service The speed and flexibility of Vinesign are recognized by clients as well. Amy offers clients the choice between email or SMS texts for their documents. Both options allow clients to sign from anywhere. The ability to sign faster means clients get help faster, too.

   We can tell clients that we can get working on their cases sooner now. We get their letters out sooner, and we get them to a doctor sooner. Basically, we can do everything in a 15-20 minute time frame as opposed to a week.”

   The convenience of eSignatures extends past intake and throughout the case lifecycle. For example, medical authorizations are a common need during a case, particularly for out-of-state clients. Amy’s team can send authorization requests in Vinesign instantly. Vinesign’s integration with Filevine means the case files remain organized. Amy shares, “we have a nice folder structure set up, so when signed documents come in, we know we have the fully executed document in our files.”

3. Seamless Firm Operations Amy recognizes the power and benefits of Vinesign to the extent that she requires the entire firm to use it. “If you interface with a client, you have to use Vinesign. It’s not an option.” The reason, she says, is all about creating a foolproof system of operation.

    

   Each team has a group of people on it, and if somebody is out, we don’t want things to stop just because no one else has access to a certain document,” Amy explains. With Vinesign, “the flow doesn’t stop because someone is out sick or on vacation.”

   Amy has created a collaborative environment in Vinesign that enables everyone at the firm to check the status of all eSignature requests. “Let’s say a paralegal uploads a document for signature. If that paralegal is out the next day, an assistant can follow up on it.” This allows anyone at the firm to access a document for the client.

4. Advice For Firms Considering Vinesign When asked what advice she would give to other firms considering Vinesign, Amy says, “if you don't have it, you're losing out. It's been night and day for our firm from our previous system, and we’ve achieved so much more from intake to settlement.” From Amy’s point of view, there's no downtime in getting things done.