Case Master III - Dec/Jan '98

Case Master III

Case Master III wins the prize for the most functional opening screen. Similar in concept to the flowchart utilized by Timeslips, Case Master III opens with six tabs labeled "file," "calendar," "documents," "reports," "utilities" and "Tabs III." Selecting one of these tabs displays all of the functions related to that category.

The calendar view in CaseMaster is by far the most basic of any program reviewed here. It consists of a single list of appointments and to-do items. On the plus side, the list can be expanded to display more information, thereby avoiding the truncated descriptions some of the other programs force you to endure. The program does not offer drag-and-drop rescheduling.

Case Master III is another program that shines when confronted with the Docketing Demon, permitting calendaring of court dates from rules. I was able to set up a hypothetical calendaring plan for general litigation very quickly. Running the plan causes Case Master III to calendar all of the dates you have created. As a part of the program's reporting feature, you can print calendars by attorney, client or due date.

The contacts view is basic. In fact, I spent time trying to drill down to the additional information that I knew must be there, only to discover that I had already seen it all. When you enter information regarding a "related party," there are fields for only one address and two telephone numbers. The client screen does not even have a field for phone numbers, although you can list a phone and fax number when you open the case.

Case Master III comes bundled with several pre-defined "Areas of Practice" templates. These are pre-set data fields and reports specific to a given type of case, including personal injury, probate, foreclosure, criminal law and worker's compensation, just to name a few. In all, you can create and maintain up to 64 separate areas of practice.

Unlike some programs that require you to define and then live with one set of fields for all the cases you may be handling, Case Master III maintains each of these areas of practice as a separate database. This way, your probate practice can happily coexist with your personal injury cases in the same case management program.

Case Master III does not have any billing features, but it will export to and import from TABS III, a billing program also published by STI.

The program also links with HotDocs, and a runtime version of HotDocs Version 3 is provided with Case Master III. This permits assembly of documents, but does not provide the ability to edit existing templates or create new templates. To perform those tasks you must have a fully installed version of HotDocs.

Software Technology, Inc.
(402-423-1440

By Aaron P. Morris

From the Shopper's Guide to Case Management Software - Dec/Jan '98