Is it Worth Outsourcing Legal Processes to India?
India has definitely come a long way in the eyes of the world and especially America. A few decades back India was considered as just one among the many underdeveloped countries of the world. Being a huge country with great challenges a considerable part of India is still economically backward but the select intellectual and professional communities in India can compete with the world's best. Thus today, more and more law firms based in the US are actually outsourcing legal research and other legal / paralegal services on a regular basis to India and the Indian LPO business is one of the new areas that is sure to flourish as the years go by. India has emerged as an outsourcing destination for the world and is a leader in the service industry and is slowing but surely moving up the value chain. A large pool of educated professionals ready to work for lower wages (by International standards) enables outsourcing of legal work process to India so that the developed countries like the US and Canada can substantially save (often up to 60%) on the ever growing cost of litigation.
Outsourcing to India had started with medical transcription and was closely followed by call centers and IT outsourcing and other types of BPO (business process outsourcing). These have now paved the way for KPO (Knowledge Process Outsourcing) and LPO (Legal Process Outsourcing). In the US there have been moves on choosing Israel also as an alternative destination for legal process outsourcing so let us hope it triggers a healthy competition. What are the types of LPO services offered by the legal process outsourcing companies? The commonly seen services usually include,
Preparation of Case summaries
Legal analysis Memorandum
Document retrieval
Client position document
Legal research/analysis
Intellectual property analysis
Law surveys
Rules in different jurisdiction in the US
Legal documentation/ transcription
Legislative History Research
Top notch law firms focusing on LPO in India are capable of researching almost any legal issue and can providie services as is required by clients in the US or Canada. LPO is a great new way to reduce the cost of litigation in the US. It helps the client and also the law firms.
There was a huge cry in the US against outsourcing to India during the 2004 presidential elections. In fact it was one of the major topics of discussion during the presidential campaign. However now in 2008 it is not the case and this is a sure indicator that offshore outsourcing to countries like India is being accepted as a long term reality.
About the Author: The author of this article is John Kessel of Managed Outsource Solutions , a US based company that offers services in Legal Outsourcing and Legal Transcription for clients across the US.
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