Corrs Chambers Westgarth has launched a new smartphone app to manage legal risks in the event of a workplace incident.
The app, Crisis Covered, is the brain child of workplace relations partner Jane Hall, who said it’s important that clients in crisis have the ability to communicate quickly and effectively.
“I’m not a desk bound operator, I’m often travelling on planes or I’m at a work site and the way in which I give and receive instructions and provide legal advice needs to be flexible,” said Hall.
While legal advice apps have been around for a while, they mostly function to provide general information and indicate who to contact. Crisis Covered is an online platform, allowing clients to receive secure, confidential and immediate advice from a lawyer at the other end.
“Once they have activated the application, it locks down the key lawyers here at Corrs and means that we put that request for legal advice in the event of a crisis, to the top of our priorities and respond appropriately,” she said.
“The difference between Crisis Covered and other legal advice platforms is the interactive component of the application. It’s not just the ability to identify who an expert may be at a particular firm, this goes that step further and enables our clients to engage with us and give us the ability to provide real time legal advice that they can access on their smartphone.”
According to Hall, the biggest challenge for site managers, general counsel and other OHS advisors during a crisis is finding access to legal advice quickly. Available free of charge to Corrs clients, Hall said the app will avoid clients having to wait for a lawyer to get back to the office and type an email.
“Australia has one of the highest rates of workplace incidents. Crisis Covered will revolutionise the way in which legal teams and managers respond and handle a crisis. It is not a hotline. It is an intuitive tool that can be accessed via your smartphone, PC or tablet, that gives our clients fast access to us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in the event of a crisis. It allows us to provide legal advice in remote areas and on site to a range of people.”
