Legal Research Offshoring

Legal research and writing is an essential part of the legal process. It is one of the processes that are common for law firms to outsource to offshore locations.

Legal research is a time-consuming task that requires searching through primary and secondary sources to accumulate information related to client’s cases. It involves reviewing case law, statutes, and legal precedents to help the attorneys prepare for their cases and court trials. It is extensive work that requires knowledge about law and research skills. Additionally, a legal researcher is expected to review the research, accumulate useful information, summarize it, and organize the data collected in terms of relevance or importance. The legal researcher should be adept at data management. Some legal researchers also prepare documents such as trial memos, judgment, and appellate briefs. It requires training and skills to be effective at legal research.

While legal research is integral to a case, it is not the primary job of a lawyer. Research requires the knowledge of the law, but it doesn’t require a lawyer’s expertise. If your law firm is having the lawyers conduct the legal research themselves, you are wasting valuable resources. Instead of wasting their potential on a process-driven task, you can hire legal researchers for your firm. Let us take a look at how legal researchers can help a law firm.

IMPORTANCE OF LEGAL RESEARCHERS:

Concentrate on the cases and clients

Like we iterated earlier, an attorney’s expertise lies in formulating legal strategies and representing clients in courts. By having them conduct research, you are taking away their focus from the valuable tasks. They are spending time on a job that can be handled by legal associates or a law degree graduate. It is a waste of their time and effort. Not to mention you are paying your attorney their high wages for work that will cost you much less when delegated to legal researchers. By hiring legal researchers, you allow your lawyers to focus on the cases. They can pour their minds over tasks that require their attention. It improves their efficiency and streamlines the process.

Reduced workload

Today, the demand for legal firms is rising. The incarceration rate has seen a rise in the past years, which leads to more demand for attorneys. Law firms are under a lot of pressure with their increased workload. Attorneys cannot perform every job involved in a legal process without overworking themselves or rushing through the jobs. Both of these choices are not ideal. The solution lies in delegating as much work as can be delegated. Legal research is one such job. Hiring legal researchers relieves added work pressure from the attorneys and the firm.

More work in less time

When you have separate employees working on different tasks of a case, it significantly improves the case efficiency. If your firm’s lawyers are focused on their job while the researchers provide all the valuable information, deadlines will not be missed. Additionally, legal researchers are trained in their job, so they are able to achieve faster results. They can hand over their research and writing to the lawyers in a lot less time than it would have taken someone unfamiliar with research tools and methods. It allows the firms to get more work done in less time.

HIRING OFFSHORE LEGAL RESEARCHERS:

A lot of legal processes get outsourced to countries like India by western law firms because of the benefits it provides them. If you need legal researchers, let us tell you why you should consider legal research offshoring and hire offshore employees.

Cost-effective

The services provided by a legal researcher in countries like the US and the UK would cost a lot more than the same services provided by a legal researcher in a country like India. The cost of living in these countries makes all the difference. You can hire a legal researcher in an offshore country at a significantly reduced price. It allows your law firm to cut down on costs. Furthermore, there will be no overhead charges. The offshore staffing partner provides office facilities and equipment and handles hiring, payroll, and taxes. Your firm only pays for the services of the legal researcher.

Talented professionals

You don’t have to be worried about the quality of the services provided in offshore locations. Maybe once the prime reason for offshoring was cost savings, but now companies and firms outsource to countries like India to access the large talent pool. You will be able to find talented and experienced legal researchers offshore who understand their job. They are familiar with legal search tools and international law to provide accurate research. The services provided by them are high-quality, and hiring offshore legal researchers adds value to your team. The easy availability of skilled professionals in offshore locations makes hiring in these countries much easier than hiring locally where there is a dearth of talent.

Data security

IT security nowadays is of paramount concern for businesses. Legal firms deal with sensitive information and confidential documents. Offshore staffing vendors invest heavily in securing their workplaces where your hired legal researcher will work. They will have safety protocols and high-technology to safeguard your data and prevent any online breaches. You can be assured that the risks to your information are minimum when offshoring legal research. It is arguably more secure with your offshoring partner than it is in your office.

Time-zone advantage

An added advantage of offshoring legal research is benefitting from the time-zone difference. Legal research takes time. Depending on the topic and case, it can take a while to accumulate the needed information even when you have legal research professionals working on it. Depending on the situation, the lawyer may have to wait before proceeding. But hiring a legal researcher in India means having a researcher with different working hours. You can leave them the things that you need them to research at the end of the day, and they can have it ready for you by the next morning when you begin your day, all the while both the lawyer and the researcher worked their regular shifts. You get to keep ahead with offshoring legal research.

Your law firm needs a legal researcher and writer; their role is too important to overlook. But no need to spend big or look extra hard for a competent researcher. By hiring an offshore legal researcher, you get cost-effective and high-quality services.