The Attorney's Office Tools Legal Tech
The Paperless Office: Isn’t It About Time?
John J. Cord F •
or years you ignored it. It’s just a fad, like pockets, you said. Soon, everyone will realize that paper is king, and the old ways are superior. But one by one, your
law buddies started converting. It’s not even possible, you maintain—it is a myth, like the Yeti, or his North American cousin, the Sasquatch. But finally, that pesky young associate you brought on convinced you to give it a try, with promises of “better for the environment,” “more efficient,” and “can access from anywhere.” Now, you find yourself seeking that holiest of grails—the paperless office. Tere are many reasons to go paperless. Some of the
most obvious are: • Good for the environment (less paper needed, less trees killed, less ink manufactured)
• Decreases physical storage space • Documents are instantly accessible from anywhere there is a computer and an internet connection
Easier to back up electronic documents than physical documents
• Many courts (particularly the federal system) already require components of the paperless office It is really hard to lose an electronic document
•
• Attorneys can find documents themselves, instead of relying on assistants to “bring them the file”
Contrariwise, there are only a few reasons not to go
paperless. Tese include: • You fear change • You cannot afford it • Stone tablets cannot fit in a sheet-fed scanner
Obviously, the only real concern is cost. We’ll address
that. Let’s assume you’ve decided to take the plunge. Here is what you’ll need to go paperless.
Elements of a Paperless Office Hardware Te two pieces of hardware necessary for a paperless
office are scanners and computers. Odds are you already have the computers. Tat leaves only the scanners. Tere is no one right scanner for every office—you must consider the size of your office, number of employees, and amount of material you have to scan every day. A solo office may function on one or two high-speed desktop scanners, whereas a medium or large office should have at least one multi-function scanner, and several ancillary desktop scanners. Here are the options: • Flatbed scanners: Desktop scanners that are useful for copying pages from books, and non-standard sized paper. Tis should not be your primary hardware, because they are capable of scanning only one item at a time.
• Desktop Sheetfed scanners: A high-speed sheetfed scanner (at least 90 pages per minute) with an automatic document feeder that can scan multiple pages in rapid succession.
• Multifunction scanners: Tese can combine copiers, fax machines, printers, flatbed and sheetfed scanners, all-in-one. Some high-end multifunction scanners have the capability to automatically link scanned documents to the computer network, and can e-mail documents directly from the machine.
Software Now that you have the documents scanned in, you will
need a method of sorting, naming, manipulating and finding them.
Case management programs: Tis software allows you to
link all of your case information together, including e-mails, notes, contact information, billing, to do lists and calendars. Relevant to the paperless office, these programs also allow you to link documents to the case. Each case management
Trial Reporter / Spring 2010 63
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