Paperless Office Revisited

By Gerry Morris

On April 4, I participated in a Texas Bar webcast on the topic of the paperless office. Also participating were attorney Ed Goldner of San Antonio and Nancy Griffing, owner of Griffing Networks, a Houston based IT services firm. Ed’s social security and personal injury firm has been paperless for several years as has my office. Nancy has assisted firms, from solos to international, in setting up the computer systems and providing the training to go paperless. Each of us spent about 40 minutes discussing our experience with setting up and operating paperless offices and answering questions forwarded to us via email from the webcast’s attendees.

The number of attendees for the webcast and the volume of questions tell me that interest in the paperless office concept is growing. It was interesting to me that all three of us on the program were in agreement about what we considered to be among the most important considerations for setting up a paperless system. Although I’ve touched on most of the points in prior columns I think it would be helpful to repeat them for those of you about to make the transition to paperless.

“Paperless” in most law offices means that all documents generated by or received by the firm are stored in digital format, either as a graphic image, pdf file or in the native file type of the application used to generate it. Usually, but not always, a hard copy of the document is kept in a traditional file as a backup for use where the electronic documents are not accessible or where the original document must be preserved (i.e. deeds, wills and instruments of title). If the document is not generated by the law firm or received in digital format, it must be scanned and converted to digital format. This requires that a system be instituted within the law office to make sure that all incoming documents are promptly scanned, placed in the correct folder on the network file system, and correctly linked to the appropriate file in the case management software.

Critical Consideration Number One. Dedication to the System.

All the high-priced software and hardware money can buy won’t make a paperless office work unless everyone who uses the system is dedicated to following the procedures necessary for it to function. That means that the person assigned the task of scanning the incoming documents must do so promptly and properly file and link the resulting electronic files. It’s a task that cannot be delayed or done haphazardly. One of the main benefits of the paperless system is quick access to file information and documents. If the documents aren’t scanned and linked you’ll have to find them the old fashion way – walk around the office looking on desktops and in wire baskets until the one you need turns up. Documents generated in the firm likewise must be properly linked to the appropriate client matter in the case management system so that they can be quickly located.

Critical Consideration Number Two. Chose a Good Scanner.

For the input of documents into the system to work well it is important to choose a fast, reliable sheet feed scanner. Otherwise, it will simply take too much time to scan incoming documents. Both speed and reliability are important. A scanner rated at 50 pages per minute isn’t worth much if it jams every 5 copies and requires the attention of the operator to clear. Ed Godner and I both use Fujitsu scanners. I use the 620C model and Ed uses a newer model. We have both had the same experience with our respective machines. They are virtually jam proof. My scanners produce black and white images at about 20 pages per minute which is plenty fast for the work load in my office. Nancy recommended the Xerox Documate line. They also are very reliable and fast. Some Fujitsu and Xerox models are capable of two sided scanning, a feature that may be worth the money if you frequently received documents with information on both sides.

Critical Consideration Number Three. Place the Scanner in a Convenient Place.

If the person scanning the documents has to walk across the office use the scanner, her of she will be less likely to keep caught up. There are a lot of things to do in a law office. Especially in small offices, support staff likely performs several functions. If the person tasked with scanning has to stop and walk across the room to answer the telephone, it’s less likely that the document input will be done on a timely basis. It’s simple ergonomics.

Critical Consideration Number Four. Choose Case Management Software that Meets Your Needs.

There are several case management applications out there. The two most prominent are Lexis Nexis’ Time Matters and Gavel and Gown Software’s Amicus Attorney. Ed and I both use Amicus. We chose it because of the simple graphical user interface that makes it intuitive to use. Time Matters is more feature rich and has the resources of Lexis Nexis behind it. Amicus has sputtered recently with a couple of new versions that didn’t measure up. They have just released version 7.1, an update of their major revision, 7.0. Initial reviews of 7.1 are positive and Amicus appears to be back on track. Nancy installed Time Matters for the clinical program I co-teach at the University of Texas Law School. We chose Time Matters for that application because it is available in a version that can be accessed over the Internet via a browser. We’ve found it to be a great product but a little less user friendly than Amicus. Feature for feature though, it is a more versatile program.

Before setting up your paperless system, spend some time researching the different programs. Talk to lawyers who use the ones you’re considering and get their input. Also, you might consider hiring someone like Nancy to help you make the choice.

Critical Consideration Number Four. Choose The Right Hardware.

Once you’ve chosen a case management application, make sure that you purchase computer hardware that is powerful enough to run correctly. Look at the hardware requirements provided by the software manufacturer. The published minimum hardware requirements should be strictly observed. There is usually a higher level of performance listed under “recommended” in the hardware requirements. I suggest following those recommendations. It makes sense to buy a system that will handle future upgrades at least for a few years. If you have an existing system that you would rather keep, the hardware requirements may be a significant factor in deciding which software to buy. For instance Amicus requires a more substantial system than Time Matters. Neither requires supercomputers, however.

Critical Consideration Number Five. Have an Effective Backup Routine.

Hard drives and other computer components fail. If all your critical data is on a computer hard drive you must have a backup that can be restored efficiently to a new computer. An effective backup routine involves a locally stored backup and a backup stored offsite. In my office I use a three tiered strategy. Firstly, I have a RAID array that creates the same data on two drives simultaneously. If one drives fails, the other one continues to function. If the failed drive is the one that the computer boots from, I can simply switch the drive cables and the computer boots up from the good drive. I can then replace the bad drive and resync the drives to again make them mirror images of each other.

Secondly, I have an external hard drive connected to my computer via USB. My Maxtor One Touch drive is recognized by my server as an additional physical drive. I use the simple backup program native to my server software to daily back up my server to the external drive. In the event of failure I can restore my system from the external drive.

Thirdly, I now back up my system offsite via the Internet. There are numerous data backup services available in the market place. I use IBackup Professional from www.Ibackup.com. Nancy suggests Abacus Backup. Iron Mountain has an Internet Backup product. All these service provide you with a client application that is installed on your server. The client application is user configured to back up selected files by sending them in encrypted form to an offsite storage facility. If my building burns, I will be able to restore my data by downloading the backup set over the Internet. The first backup takes a while since it will be a full backup all the selected files. It took my system about 24 hours to initially complete the task over a DSL connection. Subsequent backups are incremental which means that only the files not previously back up are added to storage. These backups take a couple of hours and are scheduled for the middle of the night. The monthly cost of this service depends on the amount of storage space required. I pay about 40 dollars a month for 15 GB.

There are other ways of storing backup sets off site such as rotating two external hard drives and alternately take one and then the other home each night. I tried making backups on DVDs about twice a week and taking them home. I found that I couldn’t keep up the routine. Consequently, I recently switched to the Internet service.

Critical Consideration Number Six. Have Good Anti Virus Software Installed.

A virus can ruin your data in a hurry. Unfortunately, there are a lot of them out there. Each computer in your office should be protected. Norton and McAfee are the two most popular products. Each can be purchased over the web. One strategy that Ed suggested during our webcast was to purchase enterprise versions of anti virus software that allows an administrator to configure the software for all the computers. Conversely, the individual computer users are not able to disable any of the features on their machines. This allows the system administrator to ensure that the entire system remains protected.

I hope these suggestions help you as you set up your system. I’ll continue to write about the topic in the future. I’m also happy to answer you email questions.

E. G. “Gerry” Morris is a solo practitioner and has practiced law for over 28 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.