Going “Paperless” Part II

By Gerry Morris

Last month I wrote the first part of a two-part column about going “paperless.” The number of responses I received via email and phone tells me that a lot of you are interested in this topic. Several lawyers wrote me describing the paperless setup in their offices and telling me about the various hardware and software applications that they use. I appreciate the input. As I’ve said before, I’m going to As I’ve said before, I’m going to write about the products I know about either from personal experience or from the experience of others with whom I’ve spoken. Telling me about your office setups gives me more material to check out and write about.

This month I’m going to talk in more detail about two of the main software components of my paperless office system, Scansoft Paperport and Amicus Attorney law office management system. I’m going to describe how I use these two products and some of their features. Again, I’m not trying to sell either product. It may be that another program will fit better into your system. However, I think both applications perform certain functions that are essential to any paperless setup, so you’ll want to use these or similar software products in your office.

Paperport is a document management application. It interfaces with your scanner so that a newly scanned document appears on the Paperport “desktop.” From there, you can do some pretty amazing things with the document. There are two current versions of Paperport: Paperport 10 and Paperport Professional 10. For a feature comparison see www.paperport.com. The main difference is that the Professional edition has advanced pdf file creation capabilities. All the features that I discuss below are common to both versions.

First of all, it is important to make sure that you choose a scanner that is fully compatible with Paperport. You can check the scanner compatibility list at http://support.scansoft.com/compatibility/default.asp to make sure. If the scanner is not fully compatible you may have to scan a multi page document one page at a time. If it is compatible you can scan a sheet feeder full of pages, reload, scan additional pages and then combine all the pages in a single document with a click of the mouse.

The program gives you the option of several formats in which to save scanned documents. As a practical matter either pdf or the native Paperport format is the most useful for document management in a paperless office. We’ve chosen to save our documents in the Paperport format because we’ve found it easier to manipulate the documents in that format. It is easy to make a copy of a document in pdf format if we want to, for instance email it to someone.

Once a document is scanned and placed on the Paperport desktop, it takes only a couple of mouse actions to move it to the proper client file on the server. Because Amicus Attorney integrates with Paperport, there is an Amicus icon at the bottom of the Paperport desktop. We drag the document to the icon and an explorer window opens with the main directory of our client files. Amicus requires designation of this directory in its setup, so the correct window always comes up. Once the correct directory is chosen for the new document an Amicus dialogue box appears allowing designation of the proper client file in Amicus to which we will link the document. Finally, another Amicus dialogue box appears allowing us to place a link to the document in a specific category under “Documents” in the client file. We can also type in a description of the document.

If a law office management program is used that doesn’t integrate with Paperport, (or if you don’t use law office management software) your client files can be added to the directory list in Paperport and documents can be placed in the appropriate client directory by dragging and dropping the documents over the proper folder in the Paperport directory.

From the Paperport desktop, either when initially scanned or after placed in a client file, documents can be combined by simply dragging one on top of the other. Multi page documents can be “unstacked” with a mouseclick and individual pages removed. If I’m going to, for instance, remove the middle twenty pages from a fifty page document, I’ll use the ”print to Paperport” feature. I begin the printing process in the standard way from the dropdown menu or by dragging the file over the printer icon at the bottom of the Paperport desktop. When the print dialogue box appears I choose “Paperport Black & White Image” (or “Color Image” if appropriate) as the printer and type the range of page numbers I want to include in the separate document. When I press the print button the new document containing the pages I’ve selected appears on the desktop.

Documents can be emailed or faxed from Paperport by simply dragging the icon for the document over the fax or email icon. Faxing, of course, requires a modem and setup of the Windows fax program.

Scanned text documents can be converted to editable text by dragging the document icon over the word processor icon. The OCR function works fairly well with a good scanned image.

I’m asked frequently if a scanned document can be searched for words or terms. This can be done by first adding the document to the “Simple Search Index.” The process converts the scanned document to text and stores the result in a database file on the individual workstation. The document can then be searched for words or terms. I add only a select few documents to the search index. Although the program can be configured to automatically add documents to the index as they are scanned the document is only searchable from the computer upon which you scanned it unless you further add it to the search index of another computer. Since most of the documents we scan are relatively short, we really don’t need to search them anyway.
Occasionally, I do add a document to the Simple Search Index. I’ll do this with scanned trial transcripts, for instance, when I’m working on an appeal. I find another feature of Paperport more useful, however, in locating specific topics in long document. The program allows you to annotate documents either by typing text directly on the document or by adding “sticky notes.” The sticky notes are text boxes that look like yellow sticky notes into which text may be typed. A document’s annotations can be searched for the typed text. When reading a long document such as a trial transcript, I’ll use the sticky notes to type in a description at the appropriate place in the transcript marking the location of particular testimony, objections, etc. For instance, I might type, “Officer Smith describes defendant’s vehicle,” or “objection, Rule 404(b).” Later I can search for my annotations by the text I’ve typed in.

Paperport works well in a network environment. Documents can be saved and retrieved to and from network folders with ease. I simply haven’t seen or heard of a more versatile program for basic manipulation of electronic documents.

Before I chose Amicus Attorney for my Law Office management software I shopped around and compared the features of the various available applications. I wanted central calendaring, automated document creation, document links to individual files, timekeeping and the ability to easily make notations of tasks performed on a file. I chose Amicus from among the programs including all those features because the interface is intuitive, and it is somewhat user configurable to allow customization for different types of practices. Before buying law office management software, you would do well to look at several applications and select the one that best fits your practice and office environment.

Amicus now comes in a web-based format called Amicus X and the original server workstation configuration. I chose the server workstation configuration because the web based program required a more powerful server. Also, I wanted to utilize the “ briefcase” feature that allows me to use a portable version of the program on my laptop. That feature is currently not available on the web-based version.

Amicus is a comprehensive program with a lot of features and functions. I’m going to talk about a few that mainly relate to office automation. For a full discussion of the application’s features, go to www.amicusattorney.com.

Basically, a file is created in Amicus for each matter that you would ordinarily create a “hard copy” file. The interface of the files module looks like a manila folder on the computer screen. There is a central database of contacts that can be updated from any workstation. Contacts are “attached” to the file so that when opened, all contacts pertaining to that file are readily available.

Each file has a series of “tabs” or pages that contain different types of information. One very useful feature is the “Chronology” tab. On this page there is an entry for every action taken in Amicus for that file. For instance, If I want to make a call to a contact, I click on that contact entry and a dialog box appears with the contacts phone number, a timer, and a space to type notes. As I make the call I type notes about the conversation. Those notes, as well as time, date, duration and contact info, then appear on the chronology page. The same is true for the text of notes entered in the “notes” module, notes typed on calendar entries, tasks, etc. In short there is a central place to look to see what has been done on a case by the lawyer or anyone else working on the file from any workstation.

There is also integrated timekeeping. Amicus will record the time expended on phone calls and other tasks. However, Amicus is not set up to do accounting. It will integrate with programs such as Quickbooks and Timeslips, a necessary step for practices that primarily bill by the hour.

The central calendaring and task creation features work well. My paralegal adds settings and tasks at her workstation that appear almost instantly on my calendar and vice versa. The task, appointment or deadline, if associated with a particular file, also appears under the “events” tab of the case file. Tasks can be associated with certain functions such as phone calls so that clicking a button brings up the phone call dialogue box for the appropriate contact.

I have the “Advanced Edition” of Amicus. That version allows the calendar, tasks and contacts information to sync with a Palm based PDA. The “Client Server” edition automatically syncs with Microsoft Outlook which, then can be synced with any type of PDA with Outlook conduits.

Documents can be automatically generated with Amicus utilizing your word processing software. Several document templates come with the program that can be modified with a word processing program to create the master documents into which information from the files is merged into the fields you ’ve set up. There are several standard fields corresponding to information fields under the file tabs. The program allows user configuration of more tab pages and fields. For instance, we’ve set up a tab called “Pleading Info” where we enter information in fields such as the case number, the county and court where the case is pending and the names of the parties as they are to appear in pleadings. The master documents for pleadings are set up to utilize this information in the pleading caption. We have over fifty master documents set up for different types of pleadings. Once the merged document is created it can be further edited like any other document. We also have our letterhead set up as a template so that the finished letter is printed out on letterhead stationary.

Once a document is created by Amicus or added through Paperport as described above, a link to the document appears under the “documents” tab. Subcategories can be created under this tab to further organize the documents. Clicking on a document link under this tab opens the document with the program that created it. Thus, if it was created by Amicus using Microsoft Word, it will open in Microsoft Word, a document scanned and added by Paperport will open with Paperport, and so on.

Amicus provides a means of archiving closed files on media such as CD’s or DVD’s. This removes the information from the server freeing up the disk space. One lawyer I spoke with told me that she routinely transfers a file to a CD when the matter is concluded and gives a copy of the disk to the client.

Amicus provides a means of having all the information about a file -- notes, calendar entries, documents, etc., available at any workstation on the system in an easily navigable interface. Using the “briefcase” feature I can carry all my information with me on my laptop. As I described in my last article, having all the information at my fingertips has increased my efficiency remarkably. All the lawyers I’ve talked with that have made a serious effort to go “paperless” have told me that it has favorably transformed their practices as well.

E. G. “Gerry” Morris is a solo practitioner and has practiced law for over 27 years in Austin, Texas. He is certified as a Criminal Law Specialist by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His firm web site is at www.egmlaw.com. Email your comments and questions to Gerry at tech@egmlaw.com.