Webinar: Best Practices for Law Firms Using E-Signature Tools
In an increasingly paperless world, it’s important for law firms to consider all options when it comes to document signing. While some believe that electronic signatures don’t hold the same weight as paper and pen signatures, our May 12 webinar aimed to address this misconception.
How and When to Use E-Signature
During the webinar, the president of business development and one of the founders of Captorra, Denny Newberry, touched on the many reasons why law firms should be utilizing e-signatures.
When you retain a client, a significant amount of paperwork is required before you can get started. Between fee arrangements, intake questionnaires and other documents that require the client’s signature, it’s not uncommon for the paperwork to include 50 pages of information all being sent in one fell swoop, which can be overwhelming for a new client. Newberry addresses this, stating that most e-sign tools contain the ability to set up a two-step process that involves documents being sent out automatically after the initial ones have already been signed. This ultimately reduces the amount of packets your clients will receive at one time while also making it easier for you to deliver crucial paperwork to them.
In general, it is always good practice to keep the first packet you send your clients short, perhaps only including the retainer in the first batch so that you can walk them through it with relative ease.
Along the same vein, lead intake time can potentially be drastically reduced by e-sign. Instead of having the initial consultation and waiting days for the packets awaiting signature to be filled out and sent back, e-signature gives firms the ability to sign a new client in much less time.
E-signature and Text Messaging
While email is still a popular mode of communication, the time between an individual getting an email and opening it could be days, which can significantly slow down the process of retaining a new client. Texts, on the other hand, are opened up much more quickly, and can potentially allow for a more seamless intake process if documents with e-signatures are sent and opened immediately. During the Q&A portion of the webinar, Newberry states that “the ability to text in today’s world is a must for e-sign software.”
To hear a more in-depth discussion about best practices watch the full webinar.
