During the past few weeks, we have been looking at case management systems that were designed primarily to benefit solicitors in private practice.

But what about those lawyers working in local government legal departments?

Although they may not be competing for business against high street firms on the open market, they face the same sort of pressures and constraints as their private practice counterparts.

They still need to manage and monitor their case loads efficiently and proactively; an increasing number are now committed to compliance with the Law Society's Lexcel quality standard - where once again case management software has a valuable role to play; and, even if they are not recharging the cost of their services to other departments within their authority, they still need some form of time-recording system for the purposes of cost monitoring and budget preparation, as well as to demonstrate 'best value'.

The most recent example of a local authority purchasing a system from a software supplier, more usually associated with the private practice sector, is South Lanarkshire Council, where the corporate legal services department has just bought a case management and time recording system from AIM Professional Systems.

However AIM Professional (01482 326971) is just one supplier that is now catering for this market.

Others include Axxia Systems (0118 960 262), Civica Systems (020 7760 2824), Norwel Computer Services (0161 945 3511) and Solicitec Legal Solutions (0113 226 2000).

A number of these suppliers have also set up specialist panels or committees within their user groups to address the needs of local authority users - and provide them with a forum in which to exchange ideas, experiences and, in some instances, libraries of report and workflow templates.

Two other suppliers should also be mentioned.

First is Iken Business (0117 373 0790).

Its eponymous Iken case management, time recording, document and client care system is finding its way into an increasing number of local authority legal departments and IT tenders.

For example, Worthing Borough Council's legal services department said Iken was 'instrumental' in helping it achieve Lexcel compliance.

Second is the LASA (London Area Services Alliance), whose AIMS (Advice & Information Management System) has been designed as a low-cost claims and case management system for the not-for-profit sector, including local authorities as well as voluntary advice bureaux and law centres.

LASA can be contacted on 020 7377 2806 or visit www.lasa.org.uk/aims/

Charles Christian is an independent adviser to the Law Society's Software Solutions guide