
Martha Cook Professional Corporation is a litigation-focused law firm located in Stratford, Ontario. Before founding her own firm, Cook practiced with a successful Toronto firm where she developed her skill as a courtroom and tribunal advocate in high-stakes complex legal work. Her current practice includes business and personal injury litigation, and criminal appellate work.
THE CHALLENGES
The COVID-19 pandemic made serving documents more complicated. Process servers and couriers were only available during business hours, and sending by either of these methods or email often required a long wait for confirmation of receipt before an affidavit could be issued.
WHY xchangedocs
When they were introduced to xchangedocs, Martha Cook PC already had eight years of experience with Korbitec’s document automation solution, Automated Civil Litigation (ACL). The firm appreciated the convenience of using the contact information that was already set up in their ACL system, and the ability to send documents to opposing counsel and third parties with a single click from within ACL.
THE SOLUTION
After deciding to adopt xchangedocs, a short training class was all the firm required to get up and running. Initially, one law clerk was trained, and the firm will train additional staff as they come on board.
“The training was nice,” said Jody Swann, Senior Litigation Law Clerk at Martha Cook, “but I could have done most of the learning on my own. I navigate through xchangedocs with no issues.”
Martha Cook PC uses xchangedocs primarily for serving documents. They particularly like the ability to drag and drop a document of any size into the xchangedocs interface. The firm also uses the portal to send documents to opposing counsel and medical experts and will add client communications in the near future.
“The Record of Service is key as we no longer need to produce an Affidavit of Service and can eliminate the process and time required to commission one,” said Swann. “This has been especially helpful during the pandemic.”
THE RESULTS
Martha Cook PC has seen significant time savings since beginning to use xchangedocs. Since xchangedocs is integrated into the ACL document automation system, all contacts for a matter are already set up and organized. When it is time for Swann to send a document, there is no need to search or re-key information.
The firm has also realized a significant cost saving in serving documents. They determined that they broke even on the cost of just one in-town process server. Now, with each new document sent, the savings in courier and process server fees is pure profit for the firm.
For more information about xchangedocs, visit xchangedocs.ca