Hartley & Worstenholme have always been keen to embrace modern technology, dating back to a solitary word processor and an early computerised accounts system in the 1980’s, followed by fully fledged computerised case management systems in two of the departments in the 1990’s.

Since then, we have continued to welcome the added benefits and efficiencies such innovations can offer, culminating in major technology-refreshes during 2005 and 2017/18 when we replaced our, by then, ageing case and practice management software with more modern equivalents from leading international suppliers to the legal profession. We have one comprehensive system, so that anyone in the firm can access details of deeds and documents held, clients represented and fee-earner diaries from their individual computer terminal.

In 2017/18 we replaced our entire hardware infrastructure, which has allowed us to create a system that integrates multiple levels of redundancy and fault tolerance, thus significantly minimising the potential for business interruption.

We have adopted a distributed networking model which allows our Fee Earners and support staff to access real-time system information from either of our two sites, irrespective of where a case was originally opened or where the physical file is currently located. This enables us to offer our clients a highly efficient and cost-effective service, whilst maintaining that essential face-to-face personal contact on which our reputation is built.

We have saved hundreds of trees, yards of shelving and hours of research by giving all our Fee Earners access to a market leading comprehensive online legal library, and by creating and completing fully-updated forms instantly with Oyez. We still retain fax machines at each office to ensure the safe transmission of confidential information and avoid breaches of cyber security.