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North Yorkshire Council

Unifying legal services through shared service transformation

North Yorkshire’s move from seven councils to one unitary authority required a unified legal case management system—streamlining data, boosting collaboration, and enabling more productive, secure legal service delivery.

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Local Government

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Case Study

The transition from seven legal systems to one: ensuring compliance, collaboration, and productivity.

North Yorkshire is a key example, transitioning from seven locality councils into one unitary authority. This shift demanded a unified case management system to replace multiple disparate systems, ensuring productive service delivery, data security, and collaboration across legal teams. By leveraging best practices in legal technology and case consolidation, North Yorkshire Council has created a more integrated and effective environment for legal professionals.

Discover how North Yorkshire unified legal case management, ensured compliance, and supported productive collaboration across its newly consolidated authority.

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Key outcomes

Seamless Transition to a Unified Case Management System

North Yorkshire’s move to a unitary authority meant merging seven different legal case management systems into a single, secure system. By consolidating case data, council legal teams could access all historical and active cases in one place, eliminating issues caused by fragmented information.

Seamless Transition to a Unified Case Management System

Strengthened Compliance and Risk Management

A key concern during the transition was ensuring compliance with regulatory frameworks. The move to a structured, centralised case management system provided enhanced audit trails, access controls, and data integrity, reducing the risk of information loss and legal non-compliance.

Strengthened Compliance and Risk Management

Improved Collaboration Across Departments

Previously, legal teams across multiple councils worked in silos, creating challenges in case coordination and communication. A unified system allowed for real-time document sharing, workflow automation, and cross-team collaboration, ensuring consistency and accuracy in case handling.

Improved Collaboration Across Departments

Enhanced Service Delivery Through Digital Transformation

By adopting modern digital tools, North Yorkshire Council improved its legal service productivity. The new system provided dashboard reporting, automated workflows, and seamless integration with council-wide administrative functions, enabling legal teams to focus on strategic casework rather than administrative burdens.

Enhanced Service Delivery Through Digital Transformation

The Challenge of Legal Data Fragmentation

Before the transition, each of the seven councils had its own case management system, leading to data silos and inefficiencies. Legal professionals often struggled to retrieve historical case records, which impacted decision-making and case continuity. Some councils relied on paper-based processes, while others had outdated digital systems, creating inconsistencies in record-keeping and making it difficult to ensure data integrity across all locations.

The migration process required significant data cleansing and restructuring, ensuring that historical case files were properly formatted and categorised before being moved into the new system. This meticulous approach minimised data loss and duplication, allowing for a smoother transition to the unitary model.

The Council aimed to streamline its legal operations to improve productivity and engagement among its legal staff. By adopting Iken Cloud, the Council has significantly reduced the time spent on administrative tasks, allowing fee earners more time to focus on their core responsibilities. The system’s comprehensive reporting suite has enabled the Business Support team to speed up the production of billing data and provide a richer set of management information on demand.

With Iken Cloud, fee earners have greater autonomy and can manage their own cases more effectively. Iken’s user-friendly interface allows users to open cases, track progress and generate reports independently. This has fostered greater engagement, with fee earners feeling more in control and accountable for their workloads. As one fee earner remarked:

"Merging case data from multiple authorities was a significant challenge, but by moving to a centralised system, we ensured all legal professionals had access to the same, up-to-date information."

Phillip Buckley

North Yorkshire Legal Lead

Navigating Compliance and Security Risks

During the transition, data security and compliance were top priorities. Legal teams needed a secure system that adhered to GDPR and public sector regulatory requirements. The council had to ensure that all sensitive case files, court documentation, and client records were properly transferred and stored in line with compliance standards.

Another challenge was maintaining strict access controls across different departments. With a single legal case management system, different teams required role-based access levels to prevent unauthorised modifications or data breaches. Implementing audit trails and version control within the system ensured that any changes to documents were tracked and recoverable, providing greater accountability and transparency.

"Ensuring compliance across a newly formed unitary authority was paramount. The structured approach to data migration allowed us to maintain high standards of security and governance."

Phillip Buckley

North Yorkshire Legal Lead

Collaboration as the Key to Success

The shift to a unitary authority required extensive collaboration between legal, IT, and administrative teams. The success of the transition was rooted in early stakeholder engagement, ensuring adoption and buy-in from legal professionals. Regular training workshops and cross-team planning sessions played a crucial role in ensuring a smooth adoption process.

Additionally, having a dedicated project team overseeing the transition helped mitigate resistance to change. Legal professionals needed to feel confident in using the new system, and structured onboarding programmes helped them understand how to navigate the software effectively. The transition also involved external stakeholders, such as barristers, law firms, and court representatives, ensuring that interoperability between systems was maintained and external case-sharing remained seamless.

"Bringing multiple teams together under one system was not just about technology; it was about people. Training, engagement, and clear communication played a huge role in making this work."

Phillip Buckley

North Yorkshire Legal Lead

In conclusion

North Yorkshire’s transition to a unitary authority exemplifies how shared service projects can drive productivity and innovation in local government.

By consolidating legal data into a single, structured case management system, the council has improved service delivery, compliance, and collaboration. This case study offers key insights for other local authorities considering a shared service model, demonstrating the importance of technology, strategic planning, and stakeholder engagement in achieving a successful transformation.

Cardiff City Council’s successful migration to Iken Cloud demonstrates how adopting the right legal software application can lead to significant improvements in service delivery, team collaboration and productivity.

By maintaining stakeholder engagement throughout the project, coupled with a robust support service available to end users from day one, Iken has enabled the Council to modernise its legal processes, integrate with other technologies and prepare the team for future challenges. The Council’s journey also illustrates the value of choosing a supplier that prioritises the needs of its clients and is always seeking opportunities to collaborate and share ideas.

"The transition to a unified legal case management system has been transformational for North Yorkshire. We now operate with greater productivity, compliance, and confidence."

Phillip Buckley

North Yorkshire Legal Lead

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© 2025 Iken Buisness Ltd. First Floor, PS21, 21 Prince Street, Bristol, BS1 4PH, UK
Registered in England & Wales | Company Registration Number:- 2776536 | VAT Registration Number: GB 609526041

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Get started

© 2025 Iken Buisness Ltd. First Floor, PS21, 21 Prince Street, Bristol, BS1 4PH, UK
Registered in England & Wales | Company Registration Number:- 2776536 | VAT Registration Number: GB 609526041