Internet Newsletter for Lawyers |
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PIQuantum (see www.quantumsoftware.co.uk) is new online software that automates the production of schedules of damages that Claimant Personal Injury lawyers are required to serve on their opponents. The schedule shows the level of damages sought by the Claimant and covers items such as loss of earnings, care and assistance and aids and equipment.
This software has been created by forensic accountant Robert Weston who has prepared hundreds of such schedules in the past; after 15 years spent assessing damages, he saw the need for the automation of a process that otherwise can involve some fairly onerous and tedious calculations.
Automation can save substantial amounts of time spent calculating damages, particularly on the larger cases. It also enables people to do the calculations who otherwise would not have the expertise. PIQuantum also introduces an element of standardization into a process that is often otherwise done on an ad hoc basis. It is therefore useful on the smaller cases as well.
The software is charged on a usage basis, starting from £39 for a schedule.
By being on-line it can be constantly updated and will therefore always be up to date. This is difficult to achieve with packaged software run "in-house" and indeed there is often a danger of the software missing an important update and consequently being out of date without the person preparing the schedule realising this.
Recent articles in this newsletter have discussed charging for software products on a “pay-as-you-go” basis as opposed to charging upfront and or regular on-going costs. This is something that I had to address when my company, Quantum Software Ltd, recently launched PIQuantum, the new online tool for automatic production of schedules of damages.
The production of schedules of damages, particularly in larger cases, can be a laborious process. Often it requires some heavy use of your calculator together with reference to Kemp & Kemp and perhaps the PNBA publication ‘Facts & Figures’.
There may be certain aspects of it that you haven’t dealt with before or that you haven’t seen for a long time, such as a loss of pension or a dependency calculation. In addition, some of the computations might be quite complex and time-consuming, for example, calculating tax and national insurance on gross earnings for a number of different tax years.
Even when you have finished producing the schedule that may not be the end of it. If anything significant changes or a significant amount of time passes, the schedule will need to be revised. This often means re-working lengthy calculations. The more times this is done, the greater the possibility of errors appearing or being exacerbated.
In my practice as a forensic accountant I have specialised in assessing damages in Personal Injury actions for over 15 years. During that time I have produced hundreds of calculations for inclusion in schedules and counter schedules. I can, therefore, sympathise with the frustrations many people have with the current methods of producing schedules.
Being keen to avoid errors and the duplication of effort every time I created my part of the schedules, I automated as much of my working process as I could, for example the calculation of tax and national insurance on gross earnings.
But as time went on I thought that what my legal clients might need was a product that automated the production of a full schedule of damages, with all the necessary expertise and reference data built in. It seemed to me the possible savings in time and effort and resulting increases in efficiency would be significant.
As a result, in December 2002 I left my position as Director in a national firm of chartered accountants to start work on the PIQuantum project.
I first had to decide upon the best way to deliver such a software product, given that the existing software in this field is installed on customers’ own computer systems. I didn’t want to go down this route. One of the selling points of PIQuantum was going to be the fact that it would be as up-to-date as possible, something which other products on the market were sometimes lacking. As an example, there is little point in using a product that calculates tax and national insurance at 2003/04 rates when the calculations need to be done for the fiscal year 2004/05. The ‘traditional’ software solutions did offer updates from time-to-time, but these always required the customer to spend time either uploading CDs or downloading updates off the internet.
I decided, therefore, to make the product available only online. There are few lawyers that do not have access to the internet. The product would, therefore, be easily accessible to any potential customers without the need for further installation. It would also mean that customers would automatically be able to obtain not only technical updates but also added functionality as soon as we made them available.
Placing PIQuantum on the internet would also allow virtual meetings about the contents of the schedules. Anyone who has registered for the product can collaborate on producing the schedule, either in house with colleagues or externally with counsel. This speeds up the process and enables input from all advisers for the Claimant or Defendant at an early stage without circulating the schedule by email or post. This model of software delivery can be taken a step further by allowing access to opponents and the judiciary. Whilst this will need to be closely controlled, it can save time and money for all parties.
Once the method of delivery had been decided, a significant question remained. It has already been the subject of some debate in previous issues of this newsletter, albeit relating to other areas of the law. The question was, should we charge for using the software on a user/fixed basis or on a usage basis? In other words, should we charge people for the software depending on how many people might use it or on how many times people actually did use it?
I opted for the latter. It seemed to me to be the fairer method of charging. One criticism about the usage basis of charging for internet-based legal services has been that if people use a service a lot it costs them a lot. We have addressed this issue firstly by offering bundles of cases whereby substantial discounts are offered for the purchase of say 5 or 10 cases in advance. Secondly, if anyone has a significant volume of usage we are happy to be flexible and negotiate a further discounted rate. Charges will still depend on usage but will reflect the customer’s commitment to the product and allow them to budget more easily for the software costs.
If you would like to see for yourself how PIQuantum works, please visit the site and click on PIQuantum. Registration is free as is access to the sample cases – simply click on ‘My Cases’.
We will shortly be bringing out on-line software tools for employment lawyers and family lawyers.
Robert Weston LLB FCA is Director of Quantum Software Ltd. email robert.weston@quantumsoftware.co.uk.
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