by Hank Epton
In just about every television market in the country, it is abundantly clear that the field of personal injury law is intensely competitive. The airwaves are filled with advertisements for personal injury law firms, and these firms often have multiple offices to serve clients across a particular region. Other firms may have one office, but they position themselves to serve clients across a wide swath of territory by taking advantage of the new technology that has changed the way legal professionals work.
Personal injury law firms have been forced to adapt to a changing environment. Years ago, many of them primarily dealt with car accidents and premises liability cases in their local area, but the rise of an awareness of other issues has created more of a need for networks of attorneys and law firms working together on mass tort cases and multi-district litigation. A Fort Lauderdale personal injury lawyer who might have begun decades ago primarily working with clients on cases tried in local civil court might now be working on large lawsuits that are being tried in federal court.
Mass tort and multi-district litigation cases are far larger in scope than the more common personal injury cases that were once the staple of this area of the law. They can often involve plaintiffs across the country filing suit against a common defendant or defendants, or it can involve several individual lawsuits that have been rolled into large lawsuits where test cases are often the harbinger of how future legal action will be resolved.
Large Cases Present New Challenges
In these types of cases, logistics can be crucial. The technology required to help legal teams work collaboratively on these cases is often essential to success. If the case involves large pharmaceutical companies or medical device manufacturers, legal teams often must work together to serve the common interests of their clients.
These cases often involve multiple law firms, with each bringing their specific resources to cases. By working together, law firms involved in these types of cases are able to pool their individual experience, manpower, and expertise to better serve a much larger group of clients. Cases involving pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers can be especially complicated, and in lawsuits with multiple plaintiffs represented by multiple law firms, it is important for firms to work collaboratively. A well-qualified Tucson personal injury lawyer may have specific expertise with certain aspects of the case, and that can be crucial to the outcome of the much larger lawsuit involving many clients. Therefore it is important to keep law firms connected through the latest technology.
Court reporters transcribe hearings, but they also provide many new tools that have changed how lawyers work and redefined the role of the court reporting firm.
The Role of Court Reporters
The need for technology that facilitates this type of collaborative work has enhanced the role of court reporters in today’s legal system. They often provide the technology and the infrastructure that allows lawyers to pool resources. They can view and even work on case material collaboratively using cloud computing technology and they can interview witnesses and other experts over videoconferencing connections.
The new competitive environment in the personal injury field has caused many law firms to take steps that allow them to position themselves as leaders in their market in providing the very best representation for their clients. In many cases, that comes with pooling resources with other law firms handling similar cases. This allows law firms to work together on sweeping litigation that can positively impact the lives of thousands and in some cases millions of plaintiffs and their families.