WHY?
This is the digital information age and documents are exchanged electronically by email or through web sites. Electronic filing is mandatory in the federal court system and in some sate courts. Tablet computers and smart phones will increase the switch from paper to digital information.
HARDWARE
A scanner is the first requirement and Fujitsu has the best one for the small law office: S1500 (PC version or S1500M (MAC version). ONline prices vary from $380 to $495. The “ScanSnap” function scans 20 pages per minute in gray or color and the sheet feeder holds up to 50 pages. Adobe 9 Standard comes free with the scanner, a $149.99 value.
SOFTWARE
Adobe is the ‘gold standard’ for creating PDF’s and Adobe X is the latest version. It is the easiest way to scan and handle documents using Optical Character Recognition, bates numbering, document redaction,a nd combining documents. All federal courts require documents to be filed in a PDF. Adobe’s blog for lawyers: blogs.adobe.com/acrolaw. ‘Ernie the Attorney’ has an excellent PDF website at: www.pdfforlawyers.com
FILE SET-UP
All documents received should be scanned and saved in a client’s folder. All documents that you produce should be saved as a PDF and saved in a client’s file. The folder structure can mirror a physical file. For example, my digital files mirror my old physical Bindertek files: correspondence, pleadings, discovery, medical records, etc.
DOCUMENT NAMING
Each document needs to be specifically named for easy retrieval.
‘CLOUD’ MEMORY
Dropbox, www.dropbox.com, is the most popular ‘cloud’ website and the easiest to use. It provides automatic back up and syncing between different computers, PC’s and MACs, iPads, even smart phones.
PORTABLE DEVICES
With a digital office and Dropbox, I can access any document any time from anywhere.
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