PDF for Lawyers

Adobe Reader on your smartphone?

If you yearn to read PDFs on your smartphone there have been various options (not all of them great); but today Adobe announced that its Reader program is available for use on Android phones. It supports portrait and landscape mode, and pinch to zoom. Even better is the 'reflow' mode that makes it easy to read the text on the phone. Best of all the app is free.

When will Adobe Reader be available for the iPhone? Who knows. Adobe says it plans to develop the Reader for 'other platforms,' but given the animosity between Adobe and Apple right now I wouldn't hold my breath.

Barrier to scanning #001

One of the biggest barriers to scanning is the notion that you need 'the orignal' paper later on, when in reality you won't.  If you think you need to keep the 'original' you'll be less inclined to scan that paper, thinking 'why bother? I need to keep the original anyway.'

Fact is, if you scan you don't need to keep as much paper as you think.

When I buy anything I scan in the receipt.  I've never had a problem presenting a printout of the receipt when I wanted to return an item to the store where I bought it. I'm not saying you should do this, but I'm just telling you that I have NEVER had a problem and I've been in this situation many times

Of course, in practicing law we've all been used to using copies of documents at depositions, hearings or at trial.  The rule is that you need to use 'the best evidence.' If the other side doesn't object to a copy, and they usually don't since they plan to use copies as well, then there is no issue.  The only time an issue comes up is if there is a question about the authenticity of the document; if this happens then you have to use the 'best evidence' you have (which can be a copy if you don't have the original).

Given the technology we have today, a scanned document is more likely to be available when needed than an original. I've been involved in two cases where a critical document that would make a lawsuit go away immediately was missing.  The other side in that situation will never stipulate that the document exists; so the case drags on and ungodly amounts of money are spent attempting prove something that would easily be proven with a scanned copy.

Originals can disappear in all kinds of ways.  Scanned copies can be backed up to the cloud.  Even if they're "lost" on a hard drive, they can be found by using a text search. The fact is if you really want to keep something you're better off scanning it.

In the past couple of years I've had clients call me on at least five occasions and say "hey, do you remember that old case where blah blah happened and there was document that said blah blah? Do you think you can find a copy of that document?" Each time I've said, "yep, I'll send it to you in a few minutes."

It takes me about 1 minute to find the document and attach it to an email and then send it. Then in a few minutes I get an email back from the client saying "oh my god, you rock!" 

When was the last time you did something that was purely ministerial and had a client say "you rock!"

The best move you can make toward being paperless

 Being paperless mostly means not keeping things in paper.  You might print things out to read them or work with them, but the 'original' is not a paper original.  That's the key.

The trick is to move away from relying on paper.  There is one thing that you can do that will probably accelerate your retreat from paper more than anything else.  It's a silly little thing, but it encompasses so many aspects of going paperless that if you pull off this one thing it will propel you forward in a quantum leap.

Use digital signatures! That's the key. 

Being adept at using digital signatures will carry you farther than anything else and here's why: First, it seems like a monumental problem (it's not but you have to work through it to realize that) so when you tackle it you'll feel a great sense of accomplishment. Second, it will push you into realizing how much of 'being paperless' is overcoming a paper-based mindset.  And nothing is more sacrosanct to a 'paper-based mind' than the idea of scrawling ink on a document as a form of 'authentication.'  

The truth is signing a paper document is mostly an empty ritual. The digital world offers far better security, but you'll never know that as long as you cling to the paper signing ritual. So, if you really want to make a bold move away from paper this is the thing you should set as your goal.

Acrobat shortcut - closing comment bubbles quickly

I create lots of comments, usually with comment bubbles. You can create a comment bubble from pretty much any other comment.  For example, you can highlight text and then if you double click in the yellow highlighted area it will open a comment bubble where you can type a brief explanation of why you highlighted that passage.

The problem when you create lots of comment bubbles comes when you want to close the bubble right after creating it, which is my preference.  I'd rather not have to click on the little 'close box' in the upper right hand of the comment bubble I just created.  Fortunately, my friend Rick Borstein (of the most excellent Acrobat for Legal Professionals blog) told me the shortcut: just hit the ESCAPE key.

The screen capture below has the quick visual expression of this tip.

 

How to delete comments (several at once) from a PDF

Inserting comments into a PDF is helpful to you as a lawyer, or paralegal, and so now you are a comment inserting machine. But what about deleting comments?.  Let's say you have a multi-page PDF with lots of comments strewn throughout. What if you want to delete all the comments, so you can send the PDF to an opposing counsel or someone that you don't want to see the comments.  Do you have to delete them one by one? 

No you don't, thank God.  Watch this one minute video to find out how you can delete a bunch of comments at once.

OCR in Acrobat - a few quick thoughts

The process of making a scanned PDF searchable is often referred to as 'OCR', which simply means 'optical character recognition.'  I don't typically OCR my office files, but I do OCR documents that are used in my cases. Why not OCR all of the documents that one scans?  Quite simply it isn't worth the extra time it takes to run the OCR. 

When I am scanning day-to-day stuff I want to get the documents digitized quickly and then toss the paper.  If I had to OCR the stuff I scan every day it would make the process take at least 4 times longer.  But with case documents I'm willing to OCR because (1) I tend to scan in large batches, as opposed to individual documents, and (2) the benefit of OCR is much more likely to be something I'll take advantage of, so the extra time it takes to get the documents digitized is worth it.

Of course, it's possible to batch OCR a bunch of PDFs at once.  And if you want to do this I recommend Rick Borstein's excellent blog post on this subject.  One thing that Rick's article doesn't cover is: what do you do if you want to have the batch process run automatically every night?  

I'm not really sure, because I've never used any software to do this, but I can point to a couple of possible solutions (all of them Windows-only, and none of them inexpensive): (1) Autobahn DX, which costs between between $1,600 and $2,695 depending on which level you buy, and (2) File Convert, which has a $600 entry level version.

If any of you have addressed this issue and have suggestions I'd love to hear them.  And if anyone knows a Mac way of having OCR run in batch at regular intervals that would be appreciated as well.

Update: and if you are interested in how to OCR PDFs inside of a Portfolio, Rick Borstein has a great article on that as well.

The disadvantages of locked PDFs

One thing that makes PDFs superior to TIFFs as a format for storing digital documents is PDFs ability to incorporate security features.  Many lawyers aren't aware of the full features of Adobe Acrobat.  Of course, you password protect a document so that it can't be opened, but that's not something you're likely to do if you produce PDFs as part of the discovery process.  However, did you know that you can also lock down particular features and prevent the user of a PDF from printing?  And you can also prevent the user from 'copying and pasting.'   

If you are thinking that this would be a great thing to do when producing documents in litigation, think again.  The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (and many state rules) specify that documents must be produced in native form, or 'in a reasonably usable form' (which means a searchable form).  So producing 'locked down' PDFs is probably not a good idea.

The defendants in Mack v. HH Gregg, Inc. found this out the hard way as the excellent discussion in this blog post reveals. Now, there are legitimate reasons you'd want to lock down a PDF that wouldn't impair the other sides legitimate use of the PDFs.  For example, what if you want to lock down the Bates-numbers that you imposed on the PDFs that you're producing and nothing else?  If you want to do that check out this article from the wonderful blog Acrobat for Legal Professionals.

Should you buy the Neat Receipts scanner?

I have to admit being intrigued by the Neat Receipts folks, which I first began noticing whenever I was connecting through major hub airports.  Their scanners typically sell for about $200, and they pitch their product in a way that has to resonate with the average business traveller.  If you're on the road constantly then you probably have lots of paperwork to fill out, mostly receipts.  The idea of having a scanner that would easily capture those little pieces of paper, and then populate your expense reports seems too good to be true.

I would have been tempted to buy one, but they didn't have a Mac version when I first encountered them.  By the time they did come out with a Mac version, I had enough time to come to my senses.  Even if the scanner worked flawlessly, I already have a Fujitsu ScanSnap M1500 (and I've used the Windows version).  The ScanSnap has a very small footprint and can be used to scan large batches of documents, as well as small scraps of paper like business cards and receipts.  It's only $200 more and it comes with a full version of Acrobat (normally a $299 purchase).  True, the ScanSnap has to be powered on its own, and its not something you'd toss in a travel bag.  But, seriously, can't you just wait til you get home and scan all your receipts?  Do you really need to carry around a slick little tech toy just to have immediate scanning gratification?

A few months ago I learned that the Neat Company was making its 'receipt organizing' software available for Mac users as a standalone product.  Even though they sell the scanners, they were willing to let Mac users try their software if they had a ScanSnap (there is no software-only deal for Windows users).  I plunked down the $79 and downloaded the software and set it up with my ScanSnap.  It worked okay, but it often made mistakes in reading the numeric values on the receipts.  If I was ever in a position to need automatic calculation of receipts maybe I'd be more inclined to put up with the hiccups.  But, for me, the only thing I need to do with receipts is scan them so if I need to prove I bought something later on I can.  I've had no problem using my scans to do this.

I had dismissed the idea of the Neat Receipts scanner completely until I read this review yesterday by David Pogue, the technology columnist for the New York Times.  I have a great deal of respect for Pogue, and almost always agree with him.  This time I'm not sure.  Maybe he's right and the Neat Receipt scanner really is a wonderful piece of magic for folks who have lots of receipts.  I gather he's using the Windows version, which the Amazon reviews suggest (to me, at least) is better than the Mac version (not surprising since the Windows version has been out longer).

But, then again, I wonder if Pogue knows about the ScanSnap.  I bet if he did then his enthusiasm for the Neat Receipts scanner might be diluted a bit.  I have been using ScanSnaps since they came out.  I had been looking for a basic scanner that was reliable and would allow me to scan batches of documents easily.  Every ScanSnap I've had has been a workhorse.  I consider the ScanSnap to be ridiculously cheap considering how powerful, reliable and flexible it is.  The fact that it comes with a full version of Adobe Acrobat makes it a steal.

I understand that some people are always looking for some 'holy grail' technology and certainly the Neat Receipts scanner will seem like that to most people.  And maybe it is a great tool.  If you are only going to scan receipts and you have a Windows computer then you might love it as much as David Pogue does.  Not everyone loves their Neat Receipts scanner, but you'd be hard pressed to find people that don't absolutely adore their ScanSnap (just check the Amazon comments if you need confirmation).  Windows version, or Mac version.  They both rock!!!

Article Links: Fujitsu Scanap 1500 (Mac version)

          Fujitsu ScanSnap 1500 (Windows version)

          Neat Receipts (Mac version)

          Neat Receipts (Windows version)

Update: After I posted this I got a message from someone alerting me to a service called Expensify, which is a new company that came in 2nd in the TechCrunch Demo contest.  It's free to try, and seems pretty cool as a really convenient and simple way to keep track of lots of expense reports.  If I travelled a lot and needed to do expense reports I'd try this before I bought a specialty scanner.  In fact, I might try this anyway.  If anyone else has tried it I'd love to hear their comments.  You gotta love their slogan: "Expensify - Expense reports that don't suck!"

Important security updates now available for Acrobat and Adobe Reader

Adobe is recommending that users of Adobe Reader 9 and Acrobat 9 update their software to address certain security flaws.  Click here for more information, and to access the necessary downloads.

iPhone 3Gs as a portable scanner that creates PDFs

For years I've toyed with the idea of getting a portable document scanner like the Fujitsu S300 for those few times when I'm in court and need to copy a few pages of a case record.  The local state court here in New Orleans charges $1.00 per page, which is of course ridiculous.  But the real hassle is that it takes an incredibly long time to get the copies made, and then pay for them.  Hence my motivation to find a way to scan a few pages here and there.

The problems with using the Fujitsu are: (1) it costs $240, which means I'd have to do a lot of scanning to justify it, and (2) it has to be hooked to a computer, which means I'd be lugging a lot of hardware just to do a few scans.  And that is why I've never been able to justify buying that scanner.

Now, thanks to the improved camera on the latest iPhone, there is another option that is perfectly acceptable, and costs only $10.  I've been testing an application called DocScanner, and I now report that it does a perfectly acceptable job of creating PDF images using the iPhone 3Gs. And let me emphasize that I am not suggesting that it would do as well with the iPhone 3G, because I think you need the focusing ability of the new phone to get acceptable images.  Here is an example of a receipt that I was able to 'scan' using the application. As you can see it's very good quality:

DocScanner lets you create multi-page PDFs simply by continuing to take pictures.  Once you're done you can choose to save the resulting PDF to your iPhone, or you can email it to yourself or anyone in your address book.

The process of creating the PDF can be slightly tricky the first few times you do it, but once you get the hang of it you can do it without much hassle.  The images as displayed on the iPhone seem low quality, but when you email them to yourself and examine them on a full computer screen the quality is usually quite impressive.  

Obviously, the trick is to get a good photo, which means having plenty of light and also holding the camera steady while you take the picture.  In that vein I might suggest that you also try these two applications: iFlashReady (which adds light to a dark image), and NightCamera (which is a sort of self-timer for the iPhone that delays taking the picture until your hands are most steady). So, if you use these applications to take pictures, how do you get them into DocScanner?  Easy. DocScanner lets you use images from your Cameral Roll.  So you'd just take the pictures of the pages you want to have, then apply the light adjustment (if needed) and then use DocScanner to convert them to PDFs which you can then join together into a multipage PDF that can be emailed or saved.

So, if you've been looking for a good way to create PDF scans of a few pages here and there you may have the solution you're looking for.  If you own an iPhone 3Gs, that is.  As I said, I don't think it will work very well with the older iPhones.  And I wouldn't try to do more than a few pages with it because I think it would get kind of frustrating.  For small jobs like receipts and expense reports, though, it's perfect!