Legal Mates
Our client had an idea to develop an online platform that can unite lawyers across the USA by creating a smooth case referral system, where attorneys can both refer a case to others and get a referral. Legal Mates turned to OTAKOYI to develop a website and two mobile applications, both on iOS and Android.
The aim of the project was to enhance and facilitate the work of lawyers by creating a large network of referring attorneys and delivering high-quality software with a streamline user experience.
Challenges Faced
The major challenge that our team faced while working on this project is the complexity of foreign law and its functioning. Since we had our target audience in the US, it was essential to understand how foreign law, government, and the healthcare industry work from within to be able to match the standards.
For instance, in order to develop a decent attorney verification process, our team had to make in-depth research on how law licenses work in the USA and how they distinguish across different states. To effectively implement all the planned features, it was vital to understand what are the credentials necessary for practicing law, how the bar approving process works, etc.
OUR APPROACH
OTAKOYI applied an Agile approach during our cooperation with Legal Mates. We always remained flexible with the client’s remarks and requirements. Though we had an agreed Technical Specification, our team constantly communicated with the client and always tried to be attentive to their wishes. Besides, as soon as we reached a certain milestone, be it a prepared layout or a successful piece of coding, we always contacted our client to present the result of the finished work.
This continuous communication and interaction between the teams allowed us to develop a natural mechanism for effective reaction to any change or challenge.
FEATURES IMPLEMENTED
OTAKOYI developed an online platform where registered and verified lawyers from the USA can both refer a case and get a referral. In order to refer a case, a lawyer should post a summary of the case and relevant details and set the desired referral fee. Other users, in turn, make their bids; each bid constitutes a certain percentage of the overall case’s price.
Then, the lawyer who posted it can choose among candidates and contact them individually. Similarly, a verified attorney can get a referral in the manner as described above. All he/she has to do is to select the location of professional practice and bid for available cases.
Besides, our team worked especially well on user authentication, transforming something pretty difficult into an easy task. On the one hand, Legal Mates has a complex verification process to ensure that all cases get only professional attorneys. On the other hand, the authorization process for users is quite simple and fast. All they need is to link their LinkedIn profile and type State Bar number, and that’s pretty much it.
All of the above-mentioned is surely available via mobile apps that a user can download on the App Store or Google Play Store. Users can log in to their profiles and access the same functionality as the website provides.
Speaking about the mobile version of Legal Mates, we provided our Flutter development services since it is one of the best modern cross-platform technologies. It is a much more resource and time-efficient tool compared to native development, while the look and feel of the apps are flawless.
VALUE DELIVERED
The final product is extremely beneficial for lawyers from any part of the USA. Those with an excessive amount of cases can refer them to other attorneys and get a percentage of it. In turn, the ones who make bids have access to many legal cases across the country. Thus, it is beneficial both for the attorney who posted a case and for the one who made a bid for it. It’s a win-win deal.
Using this service, attorneys no longer need to invest in various marketing tools, address police stations or hospitals, or do some mumbo-jumbo only to get new cases and clients. There are numerous available cases on this platform 24/7.
And don’t forget that all functionality is accessible while on-the-go. Fast, user-friendly online service that can easily be used anywhere thanks to the possibility of mobile access and efficient user journey mapping.
EXPERIENCE GAINED
OTAKOYI gained a priceless experience if we consider how much our team deepened our knowledge of foreign jurisprudence and legal engineering. OTAKOYI is actively developing in this direction and is proud of the work result. We are already applying this knowledge to new projects, which saves a lot of time and effort actually. Yet we are always looking for new challenges!