Leaving a provider
Switching case management system? What the firm can take with it
Updated
The data is the firm's under most contracts, but the window for getting it out is short and set by each provider.
Short answer before you give notice
The firm can take its own data, but only within the window its contract sets. 5 of the 6 contracts we read say the data belongs to the firm; the windows for getting it out after the contract ends run from a few weeks to three months, and one contract promises no export at all.
Source: Law firm software data terms
Ownership is the easy part
Actionstep, Filevine, Hoowla, Karbon and Smokeball each say in their terms that the customer owns or keeps its data. Ownership does not deliver the data, though: the exit clause decides what arrives and when.
Source: Law firm software data terms
The windows we read
- Actionstep: a backup if the firm asks within 20 days after the agreement ends.
- Smokeball: access to the subscription for 30 days after it ends, to retrieve data.
- Hoowla: a backup within 30 days of the firm's written request, on reasonable commercial endeavours.
- PracticePanther: a file of user and client data if the firm asks in writing within 90 days.
- Karbon: warns that ending the service may involve deleting the firm's content from its live databases.
What the provider must do with what is left
Once the service ends, Article 28 of the UK GDPR has the processor delete or return all the personal data, at the firm's choice, and delete the copies it holds unless the law requires it to keep them. Asking for the return before choosing deletion keeps the firm's history in one piece.
Before the notice goes in
- Run a full export while the subscription is live and check it opens outside the system.
- List what the export leaves out: notes, time entries, emails, document versions.
- Put the return-or-delete choice to the provider in writing.
- Keep the exported copy under the firm's own retention policy; it is also what any later licence would be built from.
A firm that wants to know whether that copy could be licensed can describe it on the enquiry form.