Lloyd, co-founder of Virtech, told the Dallas Morning News, that his customers could either pay every hour or purchase “30-or 60-hour packages.” The co-founder continued to say that the regular fee of Virtech service could total “$1,250 to $2,000 a month,” which is half the price of employing a paralegal.
So what do other attorneys in Dallas think of Virtech? Criminal attorney Melvyn Carson Bruder weighed in on his opinion. The attorney stated that Virtech saved “him time and money.” He believes the company saved him around “$15,000 a year.” The attorney attributes the lesser fees because of Virtech assistants “with client cases and research.” Bruder added, “They're supplying a service I need at a cost I can't duplicate.” The attorney tried other programs, but found out they were expensive and restricted in range.
There When You Need Them
A few years ago, a client got in touch with Dallas attorney Stephen Raynor while he was in his house. According to the Dallas Morning News article, “Pair of former paralegals want to give lawyers an edge,” Raynor quickly looked up his client's file on his computer and appointed a legal staff member to the case. The attorney said, “It prevented me from having to drive an hour.” He also added, “And the client felt better because the emergency was dealt with quickly.”
The Dallas attorney was assisted by Virtech Paralegal. The premier virtual paralegal firm serves the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Virtechparalegal.com states that their paralegals are veterans in a wide-ranging fields of practice. Each paralegal, the website claims, has at least a decade of experience. Virtech provides “bilingual paralegal service and 24 hour virtual bilingual receptionists. We are not a temp service. With Virtech Paralegal, you choose your paralegal and he or she answers to you. We are a virtual paralegal service which means that we operate from our office through our state of the art web based practice management software, VIP Suite™.” The company is also available to handle their clients' needs in person. The premier virtual paralegal firm asserts they save their customers time and money while they increase the efficiency of attorneys' practice.
Raynor was attracted to Virtech services and admitted he uses them for one-third of his cases. The company assists lawyers and provides smaller law firms with the same resources as big law firms. In 2010, co-founder and chief operating officer of Virtech, Brandon Lloyd told the Dallas Morning News, “Virtech landed its first private financing - $500,000 from a local angel investor group - for marketing and to hire up to 40 people.” The co-founder didn't see a slowdown in demand from Virtech services as the courts want to adopt a paperless method. The 52-year-old believes his company will rake in $100,000 in capital in 2010. He also believes the company will make a decent profit by 2011.
The Dallas Morning News said co-founder Jovaunda Brown, 49, and Lloyd started the company in the fall of 2009 with financial help from their friends and family and had banks assist them with credit lines. After testing the software they produced, and bringing new employees to the company, Virtech started to promote their service. Both founders use to be paralegals and have experience starting other companies. They decided to create “their own software programs to simplify the legal system.”
Lloyd told the Dallas Morning News, “One of the things I found was that sole practitioners were really struggling ... because of the economy. I realized there were ways to streamline their work to save them time.”
Virtech's Future
Officials who work for Virtech believe the company has a very promising future. The Dallas Morning News said, Virtech is expected “to raise $2.5 million in a private stock offering to expand to new markets.” The company will also hire additional employees and focus on enhancing their software. Don Magyari, Virtech's chief technology officer, thinks the company is capable of creating “a Web portal” so larger firms can utilize the software. The chief technology officer proclaimed, “This type of cloud computing would be based on servers at a central data center.”
The premier virtual paralegal firm hopes to expand their markets to Huston, Austin, and San Antonio. They also expect to grow in other states, such as California.
