Systems and methods for facilitating secure access to law-related services

Abstract

A system and method of providing secure access to a plurality of law related services is provided. The litigation management component can provide secure access to a plurality of law related services. Services securely accessed by the litigation management component can be based, at least in part, upon a subscription level, a client identifier, a user identifier and/or a group identifier.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A litigation management component comprising:
 a litigation room component that serves as a portal for secure access to a plurality of law related services; and,   a communications component that facilitates secure communication between the litigation room component and a local system.   
     
     
         2 . The component of  claim 1 , the communications component and the local system communicating via at least one of the Internet, a parallel electrical connection, a serial electrical connection, an intranet, a cable television connection, a Digital Subscriber Line, a telephone line, a cable modem, a wireless data communications link and an integrated services digital network. 
     
     
         3 . The component of  claim 1 , the communications component employing at least one of Internet Protocol Security (IPSEC), Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Secure HyperText Transfer Protocol (S-HTTP). 
     
     
         4 . The component of  claim 1 , the law related services comprising at least one of an expert witness data store, a word processing system, a legacy computer system, a time entry system, a billing system, an accounts receivable accounting system, an accounts payable accounting system, a collaboration tool, a document management system, a file management system, a document storage system, a docketing system, a case management system, an electronic research system, an e-mail system, an instant messenger system, a court reporter data store, a translation service system and a foreign service system. 
     
     
         5 . The component of  claim 1 , the plurality of law related services being based, at least in part, upon a client identifier. 
     
     
         6 . The component of  claim 1 , the plurality of law related services being based, at least in part, upon a user identifier. 
     
     
         7 . The component of  claim 1 , the plurality of law related services being based, at least in part, upon a subscription level. 
     
     
         8 . The component of  claim 1 , the plurality of law related services being based, at least in part, upon group identifier. 
     
     
         9 . The component of  claim 1 , at least one of the plurality of law related services storing information in a data store. 
     
     
         10 . A litigation management system comprising:
 a plurality of law related services; and,   a litigation management component comprising a litigation room component that serves as a portal for secure access to the plurality of law related services, and, a communications component that facilitates secure communication between the litigation room component and a local system.   
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , further comprising the local system. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 10 , the communications component and the local system communicating via at least one of the Internet, a parallel electrical connection, a serial electrical connection, an intranet, a cable television connection, a Digital Subscriber Line, a telephone line, a cable modem, a wireless data communications link and an integrated services digital network. 
     
     
         13 . A method of providing litigation management comprising:
 securely receiving secure information associated with a plurality of law related services; and,   securely providing information associated with user input associated with at least one of the plurality of law related services.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , the plurality of law related services comprising at least one of f an expert witness data store, a word processing system, a legacy computer system, a time entry system, a billing system, a collaboration tool, an accounts receivable accounting system, an accounts payable accounting system, a document management system, a file management system, a document storage system, a docketing system, a case management system, an electronic research system, an e-mail system, an instant messenger system, a court reporter data store, a translation service system and a foreign service system. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 13 , the plurality of law related services being based, at least in part, upon at least one of a client identifier, a user identifier, a subscription level and a group identifier. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising storing information associated with at least one of the plurality of law related services in a data store.