Paperless office starts by planning workflow. It’s a very good idea to plan your law office paperless workflow before buying software and hardware. There are 3 objectives in setting up your paperless office: every document, note, piece of information in a digital format; minimize and ultimately eliminate all printing and scanning in your office; and document/file collaboration should be set up to bring people (including you) to the documents rather than the documents to the people. 1 and 2 seem contradictory. They're not. The goal is that incoming documents are electronic. … [Read more...]
Get Rid of Pen and Paper; Try Digital Note-Taking
November 7, 2009
Use digital pens, keyboarding, or audio recording for greater efficiency. When you talk on the phone or attend a meeting, you must have a digital note-taking process in place. Otherwise you'll quickly default to ink pen and paper. Traditionally, lawyers take notes with pen and paper. This is still an option in an electronic office, but it’s not optimal. If you make handwritten notes, then you need to scan them into your system Scanning is inefficient and avoided when possible. Best pens for handwriting and scanning If you hand-write your notes, use solid-marking pens such as a gel … [Read more...]
Digital Dictation and Digital Document Drafting
November 8, 2009
How can you best and most efficient draft documents? Think digitally. If you can, eliminate steps to get your drafting and instructions digital. This means don't hand-write. Don't worry, you have lots of options. Remember, minimize printing and scanning. This means get your drafts digital as soon as possible. Digital dictation If you dictate, get digital dictation equipment so you can create MP3s. MP3's are great because they can be stored electronically. Also, if you use speech recognition software it can transcribe your MP3s. Think about it, you can dictate into a digital recorder … [Read more...]
Set up a Paperless Office by Stopping Piles of Inbound Paper Mail
November 8, 2009
Stopping inbound paper is an easy and big step toward a paperless office. Every law office has tons of incoming documents every day. The best form to receive them is electronically (e-mail, FTP, or even CD). My method for reducing paper coming into my law office is asking. I place blurbs in my correspondence and my assistants are pretty vigilant on pushing the issue. I've also found that if my firm corresponds digitally, the other party will do the same. The result, I have far less paper mail crossing my desk than I did before moving toward a paperless office. Here's a sample … [Read more...]
Tips for Effective E-File Organization, Naming and Retrieving
November 8, 2009
E-file systems can get just as messy and impossible to use as paper file systems. The number one rule in e-file organization is being consistent throughout the firm. Once an e-file organization system is in place, everyone must use it. If the system is tweaked, then the big decision is whether to change the files before the e-file changes. That's a judgment call because it can be expensive in time; costs that aren't warranted. E- filing documents, organization, and naming requires attention to detail. At the core (other than the database driving the document management system) is … [Read more...]
Worst and Best Ways to Deliver Documents: Think Digital
November 8, 2009
Speed up document delivery by eliminating printing and scanning your own documents. I receive hand-signed PDF letters attached to an email all the time. I appreciate receiving the letter electronically, but I sure don’t want my outgoing document distribution to function like that - involving both printing, signing, and then scanning again. The best system is one that doesn’t require printing and scanning outgoing documents. That’s what this article is about. There are three types of three types of documents you produce: correspondence, court filings, and everything else. Your … [Read more...]
Best and Worst In-Office Communication Methods
November 8, 2009
How to streamline your in-office communication and collaboration system. Chances are you communicate and collaborate all the time with your staff, partners, and firm colleagues. This means you need to develop efficient modes of in-office communication and collaboration. Efficient and inefficient in-office communication and collaboration: 1. oral: okay if have tablet pc, type them, or record it and file it as MP3; 2. handwritten instructions: bad because requires scanning; 3. printed memos/instructions: bad because requires scanning; 4. dictated: okay if using digital dictation and … [Read more...]
Practice Management Software Products incl. SaaS
November 8, 2009
Start your legal practice management software shopping here with a product list. Broadly speaking, there are 5 types of legal software: Practice management software (read about below): organizes the files and depending on the software, is a communications platform and organizes the practice. Financial software (read about below): organizes the billing and accounting of a file and the practice. Case management software and forensic e-discovery software: organizes and builds the case (for smaller cases, practice management software can do this function). Deposition software: … [Read more...]
Paperless Practice
October 20, 2009
Practice Management Technology For A Paperless Practice? To clarify, by "paperless practice" I don't mean 100 percent paperless. Some lawyers managed to use practice management techniques and equipment to get their law office 100% paperless (which is great), but that's not necessary. In fact, my law office isn't quite 100% paperless. Serving some of our clients requires paper. I advocate moving toward a paperless office. Specifically, I advocate embracing legal technology and getting all your documents in electronic form and working with electronic documents as much as possible. From … [Read more...]
Buying Practice Management Software? Answer these Questions First
November 8, 2009
Buying legal practice management software? Where to start and what to ask? Below is a list of questions to answer to find out the features you need in your legal practice management software. Answering these questions will help you create a shortlist of legal practice management products available for sale. Do you want it installed as desktop application or use it via access to Web browser (SaaS) similar to the Google Docs concept? Is the product an all-in-one package with accounting and billing software? If not, will it integrate with your present accounting/billing software? Be … [Read more...]