Making case chronologies effortless, collaborative and AI-enhanced
Challenge
The chronologies of significant events that lawyers prepare for litigation matters are typically drafted in Microsoft Word or Excel, making the process inflexible, and also inefficient – in terms of both cost and time. There are many drawbacks, but the main ones include:
- only one team member can update the chronology at any time;
- there's no way to get a 'birds-eye view' of the evidence timeline; and
- on large matters with multiple chronologies, it's time-consuming to track events and key persons of interest across different documents.
Solution
Through collaborative development with our lawyers, Allens' Legal Product Lab has designed a unique solution unrivalled by anything else in the market - Chronology Plus. This is a digital, user-friendly tool that empowers lawyers to spend less time managing chronologies and more time managing cases.
Outcome
Chronology Plus allows multiple team members to work on a single chronology simultaneously – even linking multiple chronologies to see the big picture – effortlessly creating event timelines. It lets them dive deeper into data, with customisable 'slices' and views. Built-in document automation makes it easy to generate reports and create witness-interview plans. Ultimately, Chronology Plus's streamlining of the entire process not only reduces costs and complexities but enables the crafting of a more effective legal strategy.
'Clients depend on us to manage the largest and most complicated matters - this tool gives us an advantage over competitors by enabling us to digest vast amounts of information quickly and clearly, supporting our ability to present the client's case in the strongest possible way.'
- Andrew Bisset, Disputes & Investigations, Allens
In practice
Our innovation efforts have seen us recognised as one of Australia's Most Innovative Companies by the Australian Financial Review for the past six years, with this year's recognised innovation being Chronology Plus. Chronology Plus has already improved the way in which we deliver to clients, most notably in the defence of CIMIC's two shareholder class actions.
'The Chronology Tool has been very helpful streamlining the factual investigations for the CIMIC class action. When dealing with a large number of complex factual allegations, there is great peace of mind knowing an update to an event or document will be automatically rolled out across the chronology "universe" and incorporated in other work products referring to that event.'
- Sarah Bradbury, Disputes & Investigations, Allens