Improving legal practice efficiency: Moving from diaries to e-calendars

If COVID-19 taught us anything, it is the fact that technology is well advanced to become an ordinary part of everyday work processes. For lawyers, the demand to meet deadlines and commit to tight schedules is an ever-abiding reality and one which undoubtedly brings major headaches every now and then.

The ability to properly manage competing schedules is a skill every lawyer or legal practitioner continues to rely on as the demands of the profession weigh in. It may have been easier in the past, especially when there was no known alternative to the manual processes of writing these schedules and tasks in a diary. But let’s face it, was it really easy then? Even now, is it still easy?

Without presuming knowledge of how all lawyers would react in the instance, there is a sense in which it is understandable that a litigation lawyer who has lost his diary will be in an unpleasant state of mind, given the importance of the diary. The diary may contain important notes pertaining to a particular case, and could even detail the approach that is to be used in the said instance. No one wants to lose a document like that!

Apps like Justice Locator are designed to make it easy for legal practitioners in Ghana to manage their court diaries

It goes without saying that mobile phones have become some of the most common technology devices in the modern world. For professionals, it is easy to say nearly everyone has a mobile phone. With the proliferation of Android phones across the mobile phone market, it is not particularly far-fetched to assume that nearly two out of every three mobile phone user owns an Android phone, at least.

For any legal practitioner, this offers a rather exciting opportunity to leverage the presence of modern technology. This is because the unpleasant duty of keeping all these notes and planning schedules in a book that can be stolen or misplaced at any moment (without insurance, we should add) is replaced with productivity tools such as Justice Locator, Evernote, Outlook Calendar etc. that are immune to theft and forgetfulness.

Unless you are running your mobile phone on LineageOS or such other operating system, your phone needs or uses a Google Account. For law professionals, Google’s integrated services creates a one-stop solution for tracking and managing diary appointments through the Google Calendar service.

The Google Calendar is provided to you for free use when you set up your Google account

Google Calendar is an easy-to-use application available on your mobile phone and linked to your Google account that helps you schedule meetings and events as well as receive reminders about upcoming activities. In fairness, these are features that are available to you on nearly every modern electronic calendar. The advantage you have is the fact that as you move away from manually keeping tabs on your upcoming activities and schedules, you afford yourself the luxury of inviting others to work with you and collaborate on your shared calendar workspace.

Most mobile phones come with the calendar application pre-installed. All you have to do is to login to your google account and you will be automatically signed in to all related google services.

Microsoft’s Outlook gives you the opportunity to manage your calendar on your PC without internet connection

If you use other emailing services such as Yahoo, you may have to check to be sure the related calendar application is installed. If it is not pre-installed on your mobile phone, you simply have to download it from your phone’s store and log in to your account when the installation is complete. From there, it is a simple process of creating your events and reminders as you please.

Benefits of using an e-calendar

Electronic calendars and diaries are excellent tools for any legal practitioner, for the simple reason that they are available to you wherever you have access to the internet. We’ve sampled the top four benefits available to you when you switch to these tools

Coordinate easily with others

Lawyers, like most professionals have to work with others on a daily basis. From interns, paralegals, researchers, clients, court officials etc., there is a tall list of persons that interact with a lawyer and with whom notes may be shared. In the law firm, it is important to ensure that schedules do not clash and there are no overlaps in who can use the conference room and at what time. Believe this, there is only so much the administrator can do in ensuring fair access to workplace facilities.

A digital calendar functions as your personal assistant and helps you relate with others. You no longer have to wonder where a team member is at any particular point in time because you can easily check their calendar and be sure. It saves a lot of time and maintains your professional edge at always.

Set up reminders

Even among the best of us, there are times when a meeting can be mistakenly assumed to have been set for a different week when it is in fact, only thirty minutes away. It is helpful to have an assistant that can easily prompt you when you have an upcoming meeting or event.

The advantage with digital calendars is that they are always on your mobile devices. Hence, it is very unlikely to miss. If you set an event to recur, your calendar is automatically designed to remind you at the time you decide it should. Most options include reminders on the day before the event, thirty minutes to the event or even a week to the event. You have the option of setting a custom time to reflect your lifestyle and personality.

The most impressive feature is the fact that on most devices, your Calendar reminders will be emphatic even if your phone is on Silent mode. All you have to do is to set the priority level of the event as High, your Calendar will handle the rest.

Access your notes and calendars from multiple devices

As earlier mentioned, most phones require you to log in to an email account. A number of these email service providers such as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have Calendar services that you can use on your device. Since these are all internet solutions, the data you input on your personal device is still accessible if you log in to a different device. What this means is that you can view your Calendar information such as upcoming events, important notes, anniversaries, court appointments etc. from any device. It is a great relief for when you forget your good old diary in the office as you try to beat unforgiving traffic in Opeibea, just saying.

As a word of caution though, refrain from saving your passwords on devices that are not yours. While you may log in to a colleague’s device to access your calendar information, always be sure to log out when you are done.

Keep track of the most important court updates

With Justice Locator, you have a simplified way of navigating through court processes, whether you are a legal practitioner or a regular Ghanaian who needs to access Ghana’s justice delivery system. It is an app-based platform that aggregates all the useful court information and makes it available in a simple click. Justice Locator works like a diary in your pocket that helps you keep track of cases in Ghana’s courts and the status of the case, including applicable cause lists. The app is also designed to help you get to any court in Ghana and enriches your experience of the entire justice delivery system. You never have to worry about missing an update on a case you are interested in because the app brings those details to you. It is a remarkable tool for maintaining productivity, keeping track of your court activities and helping you plan along your case.

You can download Justice Locator on Google Play Store here or on the AppStore here.

To book a training with us on how to efficiently use e-calendars, kindly send us an email at trainings@dennislawgh.com