Alternative Legal Service Providers: How Exactly Do They Work?

There are over 32 million small businesses in the United States. With so many competitors in every industry, it’s crucial to take the right steps to ensure the longevity of your company. One of the most important is leveraging the right legal services.

Interestingly, not everybody understands the benefits of working with an alternative legal service provider (ALSP). This could be a great opportunity to take advantage of, and we’ve put together a guide that has the information you should keep in mind. Let’s explore what to know about alternative legal service providers.

What Are They?

So, what is an alternative legal service provider? As the name implies, these are businesses that perform legal support work at a lower cost than a regular law firm.

They could be law firms, but they could also operate as traditional companies that function as service providers. Businesses can often save a large amount of money by outsourcing to these entities instead of specialized law firms.

It’s best to consider this option if you have short-term projects or don’t require top-tier talent. For instance, someone might outsource to an ALSP to handle high-volume work like document review. You can learn more here about law firms versus ALSPs.

What Are the Benefits?

Outsourcing to an ALSP provides plenty of benefits to businesses that need legal support. Understanding these will help you determine when it’s time to seek help. Listed below are some of the most notable.

Cost Savings

As previously mentioned, working with an ALSP is a great way to save money on legal services. You won’t have to worry about attorneys padding their hours to charge extra money. Instead, you’ll have a base rate for the entire project.

This gives you more cost certainty and eliminates the possibility of exceeding your budget. This is particularly useful for small businesses.

They often don’t have the capital to outsource high-quality legal work under conventional circumstances. Keep this in mind when moving forward.

Specialization

ALSPs specializing in auxiliary legal work. So, they can remain focused on the tasks at hand instead of managing a large number of responsibilities.

This level of specialization will help you get better-quality results. You’ll also get more for your money.

It’s worth noting that employees at these businesses often have an interest in the work they complete. At regular law firms, attorneys often delegate many of their responsibilities to other employees.

This can easily create a situation where someone has a lot of work they don’t enjoy doing. With enough volume of uninteresting work, someone’s bound to make mistakes.

Fast Turnaround Time

Another benefit of specialized work is faster turnaround time. Employees at these firms can dedicate all of their time to completing tasks related to your project.

It’s not uncommon to get results in a fraction of the time compared to working with a traditional law firm. The lack of billable hours also incentivizes the ALSP to work as quickly as possible without sacrificing quality.

These firms also tend to take advantage of technology in every way that they can. For instance, they might make heavy use of automation to increase their overall efficiency. They could also use server-based technology to ease collaboration and keep files updated across multiple devices.

Quality Control

To maintain high levels of quality and efficiency, ALSPs have rigid quality control standards. You won’t have to worry about getting poor results simply because you get them fast.

ALSPs also standardize workflows that allow them to optimize the entire process. With standardization in place, errors are easier to recognize if they occur.

This creates a situation where mistakes are exceedingly rare. Just make sure to ask about their quality control standards before hiring them.

Greater Focus on Your Business

By outsourcing these obligations, you can focus more on your business. In some cases, this could even allow you to grow your company sooner than anticipated. You should also consider that you forego the need to hire an in-house employee, as well.

In most cases, this can save tens of thousands of dollars. At the very least, you’ll ease the strain of repetitive, time-consuming tasks that would otherwise require your attention.

How Do I Find One?

Finding an ALSP is easier than it seems. It’s crucial to check out their past reputation so you can get an idea of what to expect. The last thing you want to do is hire a firm and then discover they aren’t capable of meeting your needs.

To avoid this, choose firms that have overwhelmingly positive feedback. You can also ask business contacts if they’ve ever used a service like this before. This can make your search much easier.

Get in touch with them and inquire about their billing structure. This will help prevent financial surprises in the future. It can also help you budget for future projects.

Finally, consider how communicative they are. If they aren’t easy to contact, you should search elsewhere. It can be stressful to deal with an ALSP who doesn’t communicate with you while your project is ongoing.

Leverage Alternative Legal Service Providers

Under the right circumstances, working with alternative legal service providers can be an amazing way to get the results you need. Just be sure to research your potential candidates so you can make this decision.

Our blog has many other articles on how to run a more efficient business. Check them out today to see what you can learn!