How to choose law-firm software in Saudi Arabia: 12 questions to ask before you buy

Why do so many systems fail two months after purchase?

Most firms do not buy a bad system. They buy one that does not resemble their work. The demo looked good and the feature list was long, and then the team discovers that the case stages do not match what happens in court, that Hijri dates need converting by hand, and that the assistant can see files they were never meant to see.

The outcome is familiar: the lawyers go back to spreadsheets and WhatsApp groups, and the system stays open on one machine that nobody uses. The questions below protect you from that, and they are ordered by what shows up first in daily work.

Daily work: four questions

1. 01

   Does it know the Saudi litigation stages?

   Ask to watch a case move from notice to settlement, then first instance, appeal and enforcement. If the stage is a free-text field, or the stages belong to another country's court system, your team will invent its own method and deadlines will slip. The seven stages are set out in the litigation stages guide.

2. 02

   Does it write every date in both calendars, automatically?

   The courts and Najiz use Hijri; contracts and corporate clients use Gregorian. Check that every date field in the system shows both, not only the calendar screen. Manual conversion is the single largest source of hearing-date errors.

3. 03

   Is the interface Arabic by design, or translated?

   Open the case screen and the documents screen and look at the buttons, menus and messages. Translation shows in the details: clipped text, a table that reads from the left, a date in a foreign order. Ask about English too if you have lawyers or clients who read in it.

4. 04

   Does it search inside scanned documents?

   Most of a firm's files are pictures: scanned judgments, signed contracts, photos from a phone. Ask the vendor to upload an Arabic scanned judgment and search for a phrase on its last page. If it cannot find it, your archive is just a folder.

Data and access: four questions

1. 05

   Who sees what?

   The partner sees everything, a lawyer sees their own cases, an assistant sees what they are assigned. Ask whether access is set by role only, or per case and per document as well. The difference shows the first time a new employee opens a sensitive file.

2. 06

   Does it check for conflicts before saving a client?

   The professional conduct rules for lawyers prohibit taking on work that conflicts with a current or former client's interests without their written consent. A good system compares the ID number, commercial registration, phone and name against everyone on file before it allows the save, and shows you the matches to decide.

3. 07

   Where is the data stored, who owns it, and how do you leave with it?

   Ask three specific questions: on which machine or data centre do the files live? Can you export everything in a readable format if you decide to leave? What happens to the data if the vendor shuts down? The answers written into the contract matter more than the ones given in the demo.

4. 08

   How are backups taken, and who has tested one?

   A copy every night, kept in a second place, restorable in a known amount of time. Ask to see an actual restore, not to be told one exists. A backup that has never been tested does not count.

Operations and cost: four questions

1. 09

   How are updates applied, and can they be rolled back?

   An update forced on you on the morning of a hearing is a problem. Better that you choose when the firm moves to a new version, and that you can return to the previous one if something breaks.

2. 10

   What happens when the internet goes down?

   If the system is in the cloud, the office stops until the connection returns. If it runs in the office, work continues internally but access from outside needs arranging. There is no right answer for everyone. What matters is knowing the answer before you buy, not after.

3. 11

   Who trains the team, and how long does adoption take?

   Ask for the plan for the first four weeks: who enters the current cases? Is there an import from Excel? Who answers the assistants' questions in week one? A system the team does not use is useless however long its feature list.

4. 12

   What is the full cost after two years?

   Add up the subscription or licence, the hardware if any, training, add-on modules and any charge for new users. Compare the total after 24 months, not the monthly price, and check the commitment period and the exit terms.

Warning signs in the demo

• “The Hijri calendar is in the next release.” Core features are not bought on a promise.
• A demo run on another firm's real client data. What is shown to you today will be your data shown to someone else tomorrow.
• Data cannot be exported, or can be “in coordination with technical support”.
• No demo you can open yourself, and no clear price before a meeting.
• Every question about access is answered with “we can customise that for you”.

Trial the system for a full week before deciding

Do not decide from a one-hour presentation. Take a trial copy and run it for a week on real tasks, with made-up names if you prefer:

1. 1Enter three live cases at their actual stages, and add next week's hearings.
2. 2Upload a scanned judgment and search it for a phrase.
3. 3Create an assistant account and check what it can and cannot see.
4. 4Add a client with an ID number that already exists and watch what happens.
5. 5Open the system from a phone on a hearing day.

If the week passes without anyone going back to Excel, you have found your system.