CICERO as indespensible as codes of law

Ann Vandermotten started at the Bar in 1995 and three years later went to work for Advocate Hans Verbaanderd in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw. “That’s where I learned to work with Cicero Lawpack, and that hasn’t changed since,” she says convincingly.Advocate Verbaanderd retired in 2007. Ann Vandermotten took over his practice and moved it to Ternat. Together with two colleagues, they mainly deal with civil, commercial and economic law, debt collection, insurance and traffic law.

Asked what the advantages are of working with CICERO LawPack, she doesn’t know where to start: “It’s not just the follow-up of debt collection cases, but the overall ease of use: the system comes with loads of templates for documents, but it’s just as easy to create your own.” She’s also very satisfied with the service she receives: “Whenever you give a call or send a mail, you are assisted immediately.” Another item she likes is when a client calls: “You can instantly retrieve all relevant information on your screen.”She hasn’t taken the step yet to scan all documents, so they, too, could be consulted anywhere and at any time: “It’s something we will do, but at present it’s not a high priority. Besides, we noticed that we don’t always have access to a decent Internet connection once we’re out of the office. That’s the case in thee old Court House, e.g. ”

Going mobile isn’t a priority, either: “Last year, I attended the Training Days in Ghent and was very impressed with the mobile functionality of CICERO LawPack, but we haven’t ‘gone mobile’ yet, as we still spend a lot of time working at the office. ”

Mr. Vandermotten would also recommend CICERO LawPack to smaller law firms, even single lawyer firms. “It wasn’t too long ago that we noticed that all letters sent in a certain case by one of our opponents carried the same date,” she states with a sense of irony, “That wouldn’t have happened with Cicero as it instantly fills out the correct information in your letter or invoice: date, address data, greetings and titles, references, etc. Billable hours and all the jobs that have been done in a case come straight from the system. Our customers appreciate this tremendously, and we never have any arguments about it.”She concludes: “If I would have to chose between CICERO LawPack and a code of law, I know what choice I’d make. You can immediately tell if a colleague works with inferior software.”