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| Employee Handbook | Practice Specific |
Lawgic Publishing's Employee Handbook makes the production of these guides to employer-employee relations a simple task. By integrating the drafting and research into a single program, this title lets you provide your clients with a handbook that complies with both federal and state law in a cost-effective manner. Lawgic's software is significantly more than a drafting program. Indeed, it touts itself as "intelligent legal technology," and I must admit, it does live up to its claim. Addressing the essential elements of the employer-employee relationship section by section, the manual (when created) will eventually cover all of these areas: an introduction to the company, a definition of the employment relationship, commencing employment, payroll, personnel, company facilities, benefits, termination, conclusion, plus an acknowledgment of receipt of the handbook to be signed by the employee. The creation of each section is achieved via interactive legal analysis coupled with queries into three types of information: background on the company, document formatting options and substantive questions regarding the provisions of the handbook. The interactive nature of the substantive legal treatise is like having access to a specialist. Issues are addressed with precision by a team of attorneys with significant experience in labor and employment law. I found the most significant feature of this program was the Law & Strategy section, featuring analysis of the consequences of a particular response to a query. With virtually every question this program includes discussion of how your choices will affect the language of the handbook as well as relevant advice to pass onto your client. For example, the employee-at-will section discusses not only employee practices that the client should engage in, but those that should be avoided as well. Further, state and federal case law is discussed. I found this analysis of recent case law to be particularly helpful when a client wanted specific language for a handbook section, so I could be sure that the handbook would be compliant with the currently appropriate standards. There are also pointers that can assist you in guiding a client through a change in employment policies. Another contextual help feature is Qhelp, which lets you consider the purpose of the question and the consequences of various alternative answers. Qhelp provides in-depth information about the question before you, while the analysis discusses the broader employer-employee issues as they impact your client's manual. Qhelp will also tell you where your answer will end up in the actual manual. For example, when answering a question regarding protected classes of employees, Qhelp told me that there are those which are protected by federal and state law. You can add others. For example, an employer can add in a provision in order to comply with an insurer's requirements for coverage against employee discrimination suits. A third view is the Outline feature. This lets you see at-a-glance where you are in the process, and allows for the prompt review of previous answers. This is particularly helpful when drafting a handbook over a number of sessions, or when you have received client input and want to make specific changes to sections of the manual. In addition to the drafting features, the program can generate a worksheet that you can review with your client to prepare for drafting. The worksheet is long, however -- about 40 pages or so. Probably the best feature of this program is its update feature. If you subscribe to Lawgic's update service, once you've drafted a manual in Lawgic, you can create a standalone amendment adding a section or sections to comply with changes in the law. Or you can completely redraft the entire manual in a matter of minutes. Lawgic will look at your client's existing manual, tell you the relevant changes, and what will be new in the handbook. The value of this tool for marketing is incredible, as you can provide this service to clients in such an efficient manner. As the Employee Handbook is a subscription service; Lawgic releases updates as often as changes in the law necessitate. You can also keep yourself current on the law with ease, as the updates -- just like the program itself -- are useful as a research tool. I highly recommend Employee Handbook for those working in this rapidly changing area of the law. Lawgic sets a document drafting standard to which other legal software publishers should aspire. This program integrates well-founded, relevant legal research with refined document production -- a highly efficient combination for creating a cohesive document where both you and the client understand the purpose of each clause. |
Lawgic Publishing (800) 952-9442 www.lawgic.com Windows $995 Reviewed by Denise Ward, attorney, Grean & Ward, Port Chester, N.Y. PROS CONS VERDICT |
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