Practice Management Software-As-A-Service Review: MyCase

Strengths

• Communicating with clients and sharing documents, calendar events and invoices.
• Clients pay invoices using MyCase Payments, an electronic check system.
• Developing and reusing forms with Word merge document templates.
• Creating and applying workflows to cases with trigger dates, descriptive tasks and calculated calendar events.

Weaknesses

• Stored document content cannot be searched or viewed online.
• Workflows do not link documents.
• Email integration lacks POP and IMAP support.

I subscribed to a trial of MyCase, practice management (PM) software-as-a-service from AppFolio Inc., to see if it could help me communicate with clients and get timely paid for work products and services. MyCase is noted for wrapping a PM system around a client communication protocol. The San Diego-based company recently implemented a free eCheck system, called MyCase Payments, for clients to securely pay attorney subscribers with electronic checks.

MyCase features are all available from the home page or dashboard view, including a handy one-time workflow to getting started in the PM software as a service (SaaS). See Figure 1.

Like other SaaS-based PM systems, MyCase has features to easily add clients, cases, calendar events, documents, tasks, invoices and time and expense records to the system, review those records in subject-matter tabs or Web pages, and recall the records using a Google-like search box that remains sticky to all Web pages.

When I created my first client in MyCase, I checked a box to allow her access to a client portal. MyCase Client Portals provide secure environments for me to share case information, calendar events, documents and billing information with clients. The portals allow clients to review case activity, upload and download documents, comment on documents, and exchange messages with me and any staff members assigned to their cases.

A client needs a unique email address stored in MyCase to receive an invitation to access a MyCase Client Portal. The email address is used to alert clients to case updates and new content, such as calendar events, documents and messages to review in the portal. Clients see no portal content until it is shared with them by me or a staff person assigned to a case. Client alerts contain no content that may compromise client privacy or privileged information when sent over the Internet.

By default, clients receive email alerts for all case updates, such as when I share calendar entries, invoices and documents and add comments to documents. When MyCase approves my eCheck application, clients will receive a link to a secure Web page to electronically pay invoices with their bank routing and account numbers.

For complex cases, clients may be deluged with email alerts that desensitize them to important case updates. It would be nice to have more granular control of client alerts to indicate critical or high alerts that notify clients of court dates and other matters that may drastically or irrevocably change the representation.

I created simple, linear workflows from the Settings page available from the pull-down menu at the top of the browser below your user name. Workflows ensue from an event with a trigger date, such as a complaint or notice, and list sequential tasks with descriptions to complete on days calculated from the trigger. I created workflows for my firm’s client intake process and a New York City eviction and applied them to cases. But I could use more complex workflow algorithms to apply conditional rules to fork and branch work processes and include forms and templates with task directions along the route.

Using the free MyCase Draft app, I created Word Merge Document templates for cases. If you have used Word’s Mail Merge function, it’s easy to create merge forms in MyCase that assemble into documents with client and case details. But MyCase’s merge process is singular—only one document can be created at a time. Merge documents can be shared via client portals where clients can view, edit and comment on the documents online. Merge document metadata is searchable but not the contents of documents.

Like Merge documents, documents uploaded to MyCase can be shared with clients and commented on, and metadata, not document content, can be searched. But uploaded documents cannot be viewed online. Users must download documents uploaded to MyCase for review. Why? MyCase encrypts documents with 256-bit AES before writing the files to disk. Although this tradeoff between usability and security is palpable in the short term, I hope MyCase develops a secure online document search and review for all documents uploaded and created in MyCase. It would save time and effort in creating metadata for each document.

The Messages tab views internal messages sent by staff and clients and external email messages I forwarded to a unique URL set by MyCase. MyCase does not ingest mail via POP (Post Office Protocol) or IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol). Email integration comprises receiving forwarded messages with attachments from a mail agent, such as Microsoft Corp.’s Exchange or Google Inc.’s Gmail. The message and document are separated on receipt and available to add to a case and share with a client. If you are looking to send and receive email from inside a SaaS PM system, MyCase would not be the platform for you.

MyCase is competitively priced in a crowded field of PM software-as-a-service providers. For $39/month per use, subscribers get a feature set comparable to other SaaS PM systems, but with an instant-on tool to help you communicate with clients and a free eCheck system to get timely paid.

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Attorney Sean Doherty has been following enterprise and legal technology for more than 15 years as a former senior technology editor for UBM Tech (formerly CMP Media) and former technology editor for Law.com and ALM Media. Sean analyzes and reviews technology products and services for lawyers, law firms, and corporate legal departments. Contact him via email at sean@laroque-doherty.net and follow him on Twitter: @SeanD0herty.