Why uLaw makes sense for British Columbia law firms
While America might be a stone's throw away for a few B.C. law firms operating close to their southern neighbour, the truth is that Canada has a very different regulatory regime, and it certainly has a different legal system.
Each province itself is a different jurisdiction, and uLawPractice might be the only software of its kind to truly do the specialized work required to automate a modern law office in Canada.
"Unlike our American competitors, uLaw is actually Canadian. We didn't just retrofit the software for an all-in-one Canada-mode that can be haphazardly used by administrative staff. Instead, our engineering team took the time to specifically look at each province and implement core features which compliment law firms who operate in those areas," says Sam Cooley, the director of marketing for uLaw.
Since 2011, uLawPractice has served as a pioneer in the cloud computing space; offering accounting and practice management automation tools specifically for Canadian lawyers. Over time, this tooling has evolved to incorporate a lot of specific features which leave uLaw as a very impressive tool for law and paralegal firms operating in British Columbia, especially small firms who handle their own administrative work on a budget.
British Columbia Court Forms
While the majority of the engineering Compliance Coding Team (CCT) is based at uLaw's headquarters in Ottawa, its engineers and analysts are always implementing new tools specific to the location in which a firm is operating.
"I'm not sure U.S.-based software designers are aware of these rather obvious provincial distinctions which change the way law office administrators are doing their work. Vancouver and Quebec are far away from each other, and our team is very proud to be developing modules specifically for each of these provinces," says Cooley. "In the case of B.C., we have many firms who use uLaw to generate court forms specific to their area of practice and specific to their province; the way it should be!" says Cooley.
Several years ago, uLaw implemented BC Small Claims and &LaTB forms; making it possible for lawyers in BC to quickly generate these forms based on data previously inputted into the system. More than 60 small claims court forms can be generated within uLawPractice.
Law Society of British Columbia Financial & Trust Compliance
One of the top-cited reasons client law firms use uLaw is because of the stringent compliance with regulatory guidelines laid out by the Canada Revenue Agency but also each respective jurisdictions' Law Society. For British Columbia lawyers this is no exception.
"The software itself forces compliance in a subliminal manner," says CEO of uLawPractice, Terry Curtis. "When proceeding with handling a legal matter on behalf of their clients, users are automatically prompted to produce the documents they require to satisfy audits. Our engineering team set this up on purpose, and they used the guidelines laid out by regulators as a blueprint to architect the user experience."
Each few years, a law firm can expect a random spot-audit to occur. One longtime uLaw user, Andre Agobado, the managing partner of a B.C.-based mid-sized law firm, recently went through a spot audit initiated by The Law Society of British Columbia. He recently shared his experiences with law society auditors:
"I was audited by the Law Society a couple of weeks ago. They were impressed about the functionality of the software and they even went on saying that with the features of uLaw I will not need to hire a bookkeeper, which will help me to save a lot of money. uLaw has helped me to comply with the Law Society Rules in a cheap and efficient way without the need of outsourcing work to third parties," says Agobado
Routinely, clients reach out after going through spot audits, often referring to the compliments they've received by auditors who are aware that a law firm has implemented uLawPractice in their practice. It is for this reason that uLaw is often referred to as the most trusted practice management and legal accounting software on the Canadian market.
"This isn't the first time we've heard from clients that auditors themselves tend to be happy when they find out a firm is using uLawPractice. Not even one law firm using our software has ever failed a practice audit in more than 10 years of business," says Cooley.
Agreeable Canadian Pricing
Lots of software options exist for Canadian lawyers but oftentimes, firms are expected to pay software fees in a completely different currency.
This means the cost of software can be more expensive, especially when factoring in the conversion fees slapped on by banks and financial institutions.
"We charge a flat rate to clients, in real Canadian dollars, because our billing process is aligned with the product that we're selling to fellow Canadians, so it just makes sense to do it this way, especially at an affordable price," says Cooley.
Data Sovereignty & Security
Client data is encrypted and stored in Canadian servers. This goes for clients in British Columbia, the Territories, and all the way to Newfoundland and PEI. uLaw uses AES 256 encryption, the same standard which is used by government agencies to store sensitive and secure information in their databases.
