The Legal Industry Going Digital

Getting Paperless and Going Digital...

The industry standard is Adobe Acrobat's Portable Document Format (pdf), and Adobe has met the challenge with great new features just for the Legal Industry.

Intimidated about going paperless?
No need to be, starting the process isn't that difficult. Use these tips and articles to help you along the way:

• Becoming the Paperless Office
• Get Ready for Paperless, by DigitalWorkflow (a short paper)
• The Paperless Office, from Law.com
• Comparing Electronic Fax Services
• Paperless Office Technology--Scanners, OCR, PDFs, and Document Management Software
• Checklist for Purchasing Software for the Law Office
• Electronic Discovery Primer

ABA Resources for Legal Technology

2009 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report

• Vol. I: Technology Basics
• Vol. II: Law Office Technology
• Vol. III: Litigation and Courtroom Technology
• Vol. IV: Web and Communication Technology
• Vol. V: Online Research (July 2009)
• Vol. VI: Mobile Lawyers (July 2009)

$$ How Going Digital in your Law Office Saves Money

Well, yes and no.

Yes, it's true that it takes people and time to scan in documents - not to mention the multi-step process of pulling files, scanning, organizing, double checking for correctness and uploading.

However, after the documents are digital is where you see your savings.

No more asking staff to find a hard copy of a document, pull a file or other administrative tasks. The time it takes to scan your documents is far less than the amount of time spent in retrieving and organizing physical files.

In addition, imagine the money saved on copying, paper and mailing costs - we've had reports of up to 80% in reduced costs.

The software requirements for "going paperless" are very reasonable. Properly implemented, any law firm will realize a significant return on their investment in less than a year. Attorneys and staff will also be empowered to make more intelligent decisions based on immediate, real information access.

There are also tremendous efficiencies obtained when a law office goes paperless. Attorneys have immediate access to complete files simply by accessing it digitally. This means they aren't having conversations with people about general concepts - they are looking at the exact issue in the exact document and making decisions about what happens next. No more guessing about what might be included in an opposing side's letter, or trying to recall how they responded. 

With BookMarkData, you have even more efficiency - you can then  take your digital files and pull them on the fly, organize data and bookmark specific  files, pages or search results in seconds - and share them in an instant. When a client calls, attorneys aren't discussing what might be moving forward, they're looking at the documentation required to make that decision.

Technology Tips and Trends for the Legal Industry

Adobe Acrobat for Legal Professionals