Amicus Attorney

Amicus Attorney is my favorite software. Period. I have used it for many years, and it's fun.

Puntos a favor:

I actually look forward to pulling up the program (it reminds me of the best secretary/paralegal I have ever had). Everything is at hand, and connected to anything I need to do, whatever task is immediately at hand. It is flexible enough to accommodate interruptions in work, and powerful enough to take on every task I need to perform. When I was practicing full-time, my overhead was 30% while generally in the profession 40% to 60% was considered normal. My billing hours went up dramatically, and my family time increased commensurately. The tech support has alway been terrific. I had been practicing for several years before the personal computer was introduced, and I am not a computer wiz. When I needed tech support they were always on time and always fast and effective in sorting whatever I needed. The online tutorials are also terrific - clear and easy to follow; allowed me to use advanced features initially beyond my ability. This is a great program backed by a solid company with real integrity. I is always a pleasure to do business with them.

Contras:

Paying for it, of course. Worth the money, though in increased billing hours and increased time with my family. Several years ago there was an separate accounting add-on, which I used and did not like at all. I am not sophisticated in accounting principles or software. Tech support was good, but I ended up doing it the old fashioned way (hired someone).

Amicus Performance

Comentarios: I have used Amicus Attorney in the past and have always been happy with the efficiency it offers. I am the administrator and daily user of the program. The billing program is easy to use and the organization of client's files is a time saver.

Puntos a favor:

The efficiency. The program for billing is easy to operate. The management of client's files is essential to our practice. Being able to add all contacts to a file is a time saver when working with same.

Contras:

Nothing I can recall at this moment. I so far have not had a bad experience with this program.

I have been using Amicus Attorney since 1996. I love/hate it.

Puntos a favor:

Amicus integrates your calendar, contacts, email, phone calls and matters and reminds you to create docket entries for all appointments, emails, calls, documents, etc. The beauty and economic benefit of the software is that it helps you to capture your time and to keep you organized. Over the years, Amicus has added things like Amicus mobile (which allows you to access features from your mobile device or any web browser) and a client portal (which allows you to permit clients to access certain information). I have always considered the most important element of the software to be the communications module. If you turn on email integration and make notes of all of your calls using the software, you can quickly review what has been happening in a case by turning to the communications module. You won't forget to docket your time for all those communications.

Contras:

While many other features have been added, the developers have not made material improvements to the communications module since email integration was added in about 2001. Obvious improvements have been needed since then. For instance, you cannot access scanned or faxed letters from the communications module. These can be added and viewed in the documents module and in a chronology module (added in about 2015), but neither option is not ideal. Flipping through communications should be as easy as flipping the pages of a paper file, but it's not. It is the organizational equivalent of having one file folder with your emails and phone calls, and another file folder with your faxes and letters. You have to flip from one folder to the other to view each. Also, you should be able to filter communications. For instance, you should be able to display only client communications, or only counsel communications, but you can't (even though there is a field for role on file for each contact attached to a file). The chronology module will put everything including all communications and documents (including letters and faxes) in chronological order, but you can't filter the chronology to show only communications (it will also show every document, docket, calendar appointment, etc.). I have looked at alternative practice management software several times over the years and haven't seen one that I am adequately attracted to want to make what would be a painful change.

An Aging Software

Comentarios: Overall, Amicus is a solid case management software, but given their choice to switch to a model that does not truly have their customer's best interests in mind, it was simply not a software we could continue to use or support.

Puntos a favor:

I have used this software for over two years at the law firm I work for. Ultimately, the software does everything we need it to do and them some: track case development, client information, time spent, etc. The software served its purpose well and has kept our firm organized and up to speed with all our cases.

Contras:

While we have a large database of clients and still depend upon Amicus day-to-day for our older cases, we ultimately made the switch for other case management software a year ago, for one sole reason. Price. While Abacus decided to go the route of so many other similar products and only offer a subscription-based model, this was not something that ultimately suited our needs, and we had to cut ties.

Good software that could be great

Comentarios: Paperless offices require careful organization and this program provides a good platform. It is a little pricey, but their customer support is great.

Puntos a favor:

The interface is well designed, it does a good job of maintaining data integrity. I feel that it does allow me to keep fairly organized, and it is helpful as far answering the phone and being able to get right on top of things, it is great. The sync with Outlook works most of the time, and it does a nice job with duplicates. The time keeping seems to catch almost everything, but needs improvement.

Contras:

There are two possible setups, I think I chose the wrong one for my situation. If you have a "split" setup then unless you are on your network, you cannot do a lot of necessary things --such as generate documents, The handy tool that pulls up all your documents that you will need at trial, you guessed it. Finally, there are things that should be easier to do, such as copy complete tables of data.