Lander & Rogers boost defamation case leads with automated enquiry tool

Your reputation can mean everything.

It can determine your social or professional position, your future, or simply your peace of mind. If you think you’re being defamed, you can pursue legal proceedings, but will your case stand up in a court of law?

Historically, you’d find out by speaking 1:1 with a lawyer. Be it via various phone calls, several emails, or even a good old sit down at their desk.

Times are changing and not everyone has the time or desire to reach out personally. A quick chat with an automated legal advice tool can be all you need to know your next best steps.

The Defamation Chat tool developed by law firm Lander & Rogers serves as a classic example. Partner Scott Traeger shares what it took to bring the legal advice and intake tool to life.

Problem

When managing operations, assessing the urgency of a defamation enquiry can be tricky, especially when you don’t have all the relevant information to hand.

For Scott, “When we’d get an initial defamation enquiry, I’d previously receive messages from reception saying ‘Please call this client, this client and this client about a potential defamation claim.’”

“I’d be left thinking, ‘Which one do I call first?!’“

The team looked to no-code automation as a way to tackle such intake and triage issues.

If a platform like Josef could help with account management too, it would be a welcome added bonus—given the value of legal tech in enhancing the relationship between lawyer and client.

Solution

Scott and his team knew what they needed and they knew it had to be quick, efficient and accessible.

“Defamation can get quite technical fairly quickly, so we thought we would build a bot that answers simple questions while also providing greater access to justice to those who might not have the funds or willingness to engage with a big law firm like ours,” he says.

“We ultimately built a client-facing Defamation Chat that gets into the legal specifics that arise when determining ‘Do I have a defamation case?’”

After mapping how users would reach and engage with the bot, the team built an accompanying online resource designed to introduce and house the bot itself.

“We updated our online defamation resources so it’s SEO (search engine optimisation) friendly.”

“The content is designed so it prepares users with relevant information and once they’ve had a read-through, they can contact us directly if they think they have a case.”

Results

Efficient & helpful triage

Since its launch, the bot’s intake and triage functionality is helping the team reduce wasted time while increasing efficiency.

“The bot generates and triages enquiries all at the same time, essentially guiding users to answer questions so that we retrieve the most relevant pieces of information possible”, Scott notes.

“Now, when we do get on the phone, we can quickly get to the nub of the dispute.”

Accessible & profitable

Pre-existing workflows are now faster than ever and the firm is seeing a boost in client satisfaction and potential revenue.

“As well as bringing in traffic to the website, the tools is generating 3-4 leads per week!“

Beforehand, when faced with an initial enquiry, Scott would have to quickly think, “Is this an urgent matter that requires a call in a couple of hours? Will it go anywhere? Can a junior colleague respond to it? Or is it something more nuanced that requires partner involvement?”

“I had little idea prior to returning their call whether they were great cases or if there were issues such as statutory limitation periods that made them unactionable.”

“By using the Defamation Chat, these issues are identified both for us and the prospective client before the first phone call even takes place.”

“We’ve made a pre-existing process more efficient, meaning we can direct our investment (and client legal fees) to the exact right spots”, Scott notes.

More clients, more value

The Defamation Chat is publicly available and open to anyone seeking legal advice on a potential case.

“Not everybody wants a sit-down meeting, so having a tech option is a useful, additional means of client engagement that enables us to cater to a broader range of clients,” Scott says.

“Rather than the initial engagement covering information easily found on Google searches, we can provide our defamation expertise straight upfront.”