Amicus Attorney Steps Back and Goes Forward with a New Version

By Gerry Morris

One of the major players in the case management software market Amicus Attorney, has released a new product, Small Firm Edition 2008. The interesting thing is that Small Firm is based on Amicus’ V+ platform that was supposed to superseded by last years release of Version 7.

Let me back up a minute and make a few general comments about case management software. As I written in previous columns, case management software is the backbone of a reduced paper office. The software organizes all file information including scanned and generated documents in an easy to use interface. The two leading players in the market are Amicus Attorney and Lexis Nexis’ Time Matters. I use Amicus because the interface is extremely intuitive. Each client file appears on an index list and, when opened, appears on the computer screen as an image of a manila folder with different categories of information under labeled “clasps”. Please refer back to my previous articles for a more in depth description.

When I purchased Amicus some five years ago, it was also feature for feature the equivalent of Time Matters. Since then, Lexis Nexis has acquired Time Matters and pumped a lot of resources into its development. I have some experience with Time Matters from teaching a clinical program at UT Law School. We implemented it there last year for one of the clinics. It is indeed a very feature rich and highly configurable program. However, I wouldn’t tackle setting it up myself. Amicus, on the other hand, (at least Version 5+ ) is simpler to install and configure. Time Matters has a longer learning curve because of a less intuitive interface. Once it’s installed and everyone gets up to speed it is a great program.

Amicus has made a couple of attempts in the past few years to add new features with new versions of their software. Their first try at an upgrade was Amicus X, a product with a web based interface that was supposed to be accessible over an Internet connection. The product was a disaster. Amicus followed up with Version 7 and had mixed success. The initial release of the product was buggy and sales were slow. Version 7.1 cured many of the problems and I’ve generally heard good reports about it. However, my experience and that of several colleagues has been that Version V+ was the best software ever released by Amicus.

Version V+ , I’m told, is based on the FoxPro database engine while Version 7 is a complete revision based on Microsoft’s newer SQL Server. The software thus required a complete rewrite and the kinks have been slow to resolve. There are benefits to the SQL platform but not if the rest of the software doesn’t work correctly.

Version V+ lacked some useful features that competitors long ago added. I had hoped that Amicus would someday upgrade that version but I had heard from consultants that Amicus had decided to phase out support of Version V+. All of a sudden a brochure arrived at my office today offering Small Firm Addition 2008, which is basically V+ with a lot of the features I have been wanting.

Small Firm Addition features an improved interface similar to that of Version 7 with a row of buttons on the side of the screen to make navigation through the program easier. One great new feature is an improved task management module. According to the literature, task assigned out to others can now be monitored through Amicus. It was difficult to do this in the original V+ and I ended up making a task entry to remind me to follow up on the task I had assigned. And, if you don’t like the way Amicus keeps up with tasks, Version V+ Advanced Edition users will now have full Microsoft Outlook synchronization so that tasks, as well as contacts and calendar setting entered in Amicus will automatically be synced with Outlook and will appear there, and vice versa. You can use great task management features in Outlook and changes will sync back to Amicus. .Also, a PDA can be synced with Outlook rather than directly to Amicus so that PDA other than Palm products can now be used with the Advanced Edition. Basically, if the PDA can be synced with Outlook you can get your Amicus calendar, tasks and contacts on your PDA.

Some of the less complex but still handy changes include real time spell checking; auto text for inserting frequently used words and phrases; an explorer view of documents; and automatic email signatures for messages sent from within Amicus.

Amicus recommend the Small Firm Addition for offices with under ten users. That will be sufficient for most solos and many small firms. The hardware requirements are modest. Also, the upgrade price is affordable. See www.amicusattorney.com for details.