The legal profession will soon benefit from results of a comprehensive study on case, matter and practice management systems. The Case Management System (CMS) study, conducted by the University of Florida Levin College of Law’s Legal Technology Institute and Perfect Practice®, will distribute the survey to approximately 25,000 U.S. legal professionals to understand current use and future trends of case, matter and practice management systems. Once completed, CMS study results will assist law firms and corporate legal departments in making better management software decisions. In addition, the study will clarify the terminology used by the industry and will provide software designers with insight on how to improve the usability and efficiency of their CMS products.

“Although case and matter management systems have been available to the legal industry for 30 years, there is still confusion about the differences between case, matter and practice management,” said Andrew Z. Adkins III, founder and director of UF’s College of Law Legal Technology Institute (LTI). “Everyone has their own definitions. This survey will help set the standard for terms used by the industry.” (See our previous post on this topic)

In addition to developing an industry glossary, Adkins said the survey results, which will be released in early 2010, will benefit the legal profession and software companies alike. The findings will enable law firms and legal departments to compare software capabilities and costs, and will give software companies valuable information on user trends.

In addition to Perfect Practice, other companies lending support to this project include Client Profiles, LexisNexis (Time Matters), Thomson Reuters, InsideLegal.com, Legal Files Software, Omega Legal Systems, PerfectLaw Software and LawBase by Synaptec Software.

Contact Andy Adkins if you are interested in sponsoring the survey (1 sponsorship left) and stay tuned for results from this survey.