Get acquainted with appearance counsel and Docketly, an ABC Legal company.
Appearance counsel “appears” in court on behalf of their client’s primary attorney. Think of them as substitute legal representation. They often manage administrative duties with the court.
Providers like Docketly allow legal professionals to reclaim time lost on procedural hearings and use internal resources more effectively.
Say goodbye to wasting a day at a courthouse for a 5-minute hearing or running between courts miles apart.
Increase billable hours and complete more projects without diluting the capacity of the full-time staff of your firm.
Docketly checks an attorney's standing, background, and discipline history and audits this information periodically.
Our smart pricing allows us to offer the best attorneys for the best price in the industry. The pricing structure combines bundle, cross-client, and market discount to help you save up to 30% on appearance counsel.
The freelance attorneys who are listed on Docketly’s site must be in good standing with their state bar. Docketly keeps all of the paperwork involving an attorney’s good standing and license to practice on file. In addition, this is not simply a box that is checked once and then forgotten about. The team of professionals at Docketly actually updates their freelance attorneys’ standing every four weeks, along with any updates to an attorney’s disciplinary history and potential administrative sanctions, when applicable. Your firm can proceed with confidence knowing that the court appearance attorneys you are working with do not have a disciplinary cloud hanging over their heads.
Yes, Docketly provides an umbrella policy for all appearance attorneys on its network. In addition, attorneys can upload their own malpractice insurance policy. You’re able to easily view an insurance “badge” on the attorney’s profile page indicating they carry their own policy. You can also use this added layer of insurance as a criterion during filtering.
Docketly can help remove any concerns you may have about trusting your firm’s important legal matters to a lawyer who is still green. When you are looking at an attorney’s profile on Docketly, you can see how many cases they have handled and how many appearances they have covered. When it comes to measuring experience, Docketly employs a tier ranking system. An attorney ranked at tier one in a certain practice has the least amount of experience, while an attorney who falls into tier three has the most experience. You can even filter search results if you wish to exclude lawyers who fall into tier one for your firm’s needs.
Docketly also employs a similar tier ranking system when it comes to the type of hearing an attorney is qualified to handle. For example, a basic docket call would fall into tier one, whereas a contested bench trial would fall into tier three. This approach helps ensure that an attorney who is ranked in tier one will not get assigned to a matter that is classified as tier three.
Docketly actively checks the attorney network for debtor representation. You can exclude attorneys who represent debtors from working for certain clients, or you can use this as a custom compliance setting for all of your hearings.
We covered 92% of all hearings automatically in 2019.
The remaining 8% was handled by our coverage team. They work tirelessly to find attorneys in difficult areas,
calling, negotiating, juggling schedules.
You get regular updates about the state of coverage. You will see how many attorneys were notified, how many rejected the hearing, etc. Our coverage representatives will promptly inform you about any unusual circumstances that hinder the appearance counsel in the area, such as conflict of interest for local attorneys.
Docketly helps to avoid accidental no-shows or late arrivals to the hearing through: