Legal Case Management Software

The Vendor is required to provide a comprehensive, cloud‑based legal case management system (“CMS” or “system”) capable of meeting the operational, security, reporting, and workflow needs of the City Office.
- The City seeks a Software‑as‑a‑Service (SaaS) solution that includes implementation, configuration, data migration, training, ongoing maintenance, hosting, and licensing.
- The System must also support modern legal operations, including digital case files, integrated document and email management, configurable workflows, advanced search and conflict checking, and rule‑based calendaring.
- CMS will support the City’s transition to a fully digital, paperless office, streamline legal operations, and provide secure access to case information from any authorized location or device.
- The system must support the full range of legal work performed by the office, including, but not limited to:
• Civil litigation (tort, property, employment, administrative)
• Contract drafting, negotiation, and review
• Requests for legal advice and general counsel work
• Regulatory, compliance, and municipal legal matters
- The CMS shall support the City’s transition to a fully digital, paperless office by serving as a unified repository for all case-related materials, including documents, emails, notes, contacts, multimedia files (e.g., video evidence), and related metadata.
- The System shall support a complete digital case file that consolidates documents, emails, notes, contacts, deadlines, tasks, and history in a single workspace.
- The CMS shall integrate seamlessly with Microsoft Office 365 (Word, Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive), including the ability to file emails and attachments directly to case files from Outlook.
- The System shall support configurable workflows and automated task generation triggered by case type, deadlines, milestones, or other events; rule-based litigation calendaring with synchronization to Microsoft Outlook calendars; and advanced search across all case content, including support for conflict checking.
- The System shall further support matter-linked time tracking, document redaction, and integration with DocuSign for document and contract execution.
- Core system expectations include the ability to:
• Create and manage cases from intake through final disposition
• Store, organize, search, and produce documents in digital format
• Generate templates, pleadings, contracts, and correspondence using case data
• Track litigation deadlines, tasks, and milestones using rule-based calendaring with Outlook synchronization
• Manage user permissions and workflows using a secure role-based model
• Access the system remotely through a browser and mobile application
• File emails and attachments directly from Outlook to case files and support Microsoft Word template automation
• Perform conflict checking through advanced search across contacts, parties, and matters
• Record time spent per matter for operational and federal reporting requirements
• Generate encrypted, read-only offline case packets with a navigable index
• Support document redaction and integrate with e-signature platforms
• Import and migrate legacy case data and documents
• Provide robust operational and compliance reporting capabilities
- Shall fully configure and deploy the System, which shall be fully operational at the go-live date.
- Data from reporting provided by the System will be accessible in standard data formats such as .xlsx, .csv, or other acceptable machine-readable format.
- Shall provide qualified staff that shall assist, consult, configure, and, if applicable, perform any City approved customizations, train, and oversee the system implementation. All customizations must remain compatible with vendor-supported upgrades and may not prevent seamless SaaS version updates.
- Shall provide on-site or virtual go-live support, at the City’s discretion to provide training assistance and address any issues that may arise.
- Must maintain complete and accurate copies of all data provided to the Contractor by the City.
- Provide a data-validation checklist and reconciliation report to document pre- and post-migration record counts, field mapping accuracy, and exception handling.
- The System shall support concurrent use by at least 40 users with no performance degradation across web and mobile clients.
- The application software shall be written in standard, industry-accepted programming languages and fully support modern web standards (e.g., HTML5 or later) and shall not rely on deprecated browser plugins or unsupported client-side technologies.
- All software shall be deployed in a hosted environment and be web-based for all authorized users to access for operation, reporting, statistical analysis, and other required functions, and shall be supported by the Contractor through documented service level standards and remote administration capabilities.
- Shall assign a Training Manager to support City users through the go-live process and to coordinate delivery of all end-user and system-administrator training materials and sessions
- Global Cloud Architecture
• SaaS Delivery Model: The System shall be delivered as a vendor-hosted, cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution with no local server components required
• Browser-Based Application: The System shall operate entirely through modern web browsers without requiring local desktop installations, except for optional Microsoft Office add-ins
• Supported Browsers & Standards: The system must operate without compatibility-mode changes in the current, vendor-supported versions of Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome, and utilize modern web standards such as HTML5.
• Vendor-Managed Updates: All application updates, patches, and upgrades shall be delivered by the vendor without requiring City-managed installation or downtime beyond approved windows
• No Local Infrastructure Dependencies: The System shall not require City-managed databases, application servers, VPN appliances, or desktop client installations (other than optional add‑ins)
• Cloud Security & Encryption Expectations: The System shall support encryption in transit and at rest, MFA/SSO, and role‑based authorization, consistent with the City's security standards as defined in the Technology Standards & Requirements Matrix.
• High Availability & Redundancy: The System shall provide cloud-native redundancy, availability, and failover consistent with vendor’s commercial SLA.
• API‑First Architecture: The System shall provide REST APIs for integration that follow modern authentication and support pagination, rate limits, and structured responses (JSON)
• Mobile + Browser Parity (Scope Definition): The System’s mobile application shall provide secure access and essential case capabilities; full functionality may vary between browser and mobile environments.
• Cloud Offline Architecture Boundary: Offline functionality shall be limited to approved features (notes/tasks, offline packets), with all changes syncing upon reconnection and fully audited
- Case Management & Digital Case File
• Matter Creation & Matter Types: Supports creation, lifecycle status tracking, and management of all matter types handled by the City Attorney’s Office (litigation, contracts, real estate, claims, regulatory matters, and requests for legal advice), with configurable fields per matter type and stage.
• Fully Digital Case File & Unified Case Workspace: Provides a fully digital case file consolidating documents, emails, notes, contacts, tasks, deadlines, research, and metadata in a single unified workspace, with no multi‑tab navigation required to access core case information. All primary case information must be viewable within a single page or pane without switching between modules.
• Version Control & Audit Trail for All Case Content: Provides full version control for documents and records and an audit trail for all user actions (including edits, uploads, email filing, permission changes, and workflow actions) with user ID, timestamp, and before/after values
• Contact Management & Matter Linking: Provides robust contact management with detailed profiles (including roles such as client, witness, opposing counsel, court personnel), supports linking contacts to matters, and is compatible with conflict‑checking search.
• Conflict Checking: Provides conflict checking via advanced, configurable search across parties, contacts, organizations, and matters; supports exact and partial matches, filters by role and matter type, flags potential conflicts, and logs all conflict-check reviews in the audit trail.
• Document Management: Supports uploading documents in common formats (PDF, Word, Excel, images, email files), viewing them within the unified case workspace, and exporting individual documents or combined sets (e.g., bundles or packets) to PDF; all document actions are versioned and fully audited.
• Notes Management: Supports creation, editing, organizing, and searching of case notes; notes appear within the unified case workspace and are fully audited (user ID, timestamp, before/after changes).
• Case Chronology / Activity Timeline: Displays a chronological activity timeline for each matter (including documents filed, emails filed, notes added, tasks created/updated, deadlines, stage transitions, and workflow‑triggered actions), with filters, sorting, and links back to each originating record. Timeline entries are permission‑aware, respect redactions, and include audited metadata (user, timestamp, action type); timeline content may be included in offline case packets.
• Related Matters: Supports linking related matters (e.g., companion cases, contract amendments, appeals, claims tied to incidents) and displays these relationships within each matter’s workspace, ensuring that links are visible from all related matters.
• Email Visibility in the Case File: Filed emails (and their attachments) appear directly within the unified case workspace with key metadata (sender, recipients, subject, date/time, attachments), are linked to the associated matter, and are fully searchable and audited.
• Metadata & Tagging: Supports administrator‑defined metadata fields and tags for matters, documents, emails, and notes; users can apply tags and update metadata as permitted, and all metadata is fully searchable, reportable, and usable in workflow automation.
• Add Weblinks / URL References: Supports saving and opening URL links (e.g., online court docket pages, legal research, reference documents) directly from the matter workspace and from notes/tasks; links include descriptive text (title/summary) and optional tags, respect matter‑level permissions and redactions, and are audited (creation, edit, access).
• Incident Capture & Optional Promotion to Claim: Supports capturing incident information (date/time, location, involved parties, narrative, attachments, tags) in the matter workspace and, if enabled by the City, allows authorized users or integrations to promote an incident to a claim when the City Attorney’s Office receives notification. Promotion preserves incident data/parties/attachments and is audited (user, timestamp, before/after).
• Case KPIs / Case‑Level At‑a‑Glance Metrics: Displays case‑level summary metrics (e.g., open tasks, upcoming deadlines, recent filings, associated contacts, financial fields when applicable) within the unified case workspace.
• Near Real-Time Case Workspace Updates: Displays updates to case file content (documents, emails, notes, tasks, deadlines, metadata) in near real‑time, without requiring users to refresh or re‑load the case workspace.