« Cheap software that produces PDFs | Main | Scanning Workflow Tip »

June 03, 2006

Managing an electronic case file

I've talked to a lot of lawyers recently about disaster recovery (aka 'business continuity') issues.  As a survivor of the Katrina debacle I've spent a lot of time thinking about how to 'disaster proof' my practice.  The answer is pretty easy: (1) moblize your practice, and (2) scan all of your paperwork as it comes in or goes out.

By 'mobilize your practice' I mean, wherever possible, act like a mobile lawyer.  If you travel a lot, or work in two places often, then this will be something you're inclined to do.  If you tend to work only from you office then you'll have less motivation to 'become mobile.'  If a hurricane, earthquake, fire or terrorist attack destroys your office and all of its contents then you'll wish you'd been more motivated.  Katrina displaced 9,000 lawyers from the New Orleans area, so if you need to find some lawyers who were previously unmotivated (to their detriment) feel free to talk to any of them.

If you have a laptop computer as your primary workstation and are able to access the internet from any Wi-Fi hotspot you're well on your way to the promised land.  But, you aren't going to be able to access your client files from the Internet, not unless you scanned them and uploaded them.  Uploading them to the internet is unrealistic, but scanning them is not.  The problem for many lawyers is, not so much the scanning, but visualizing how the 'paperless file organization' system will work.  I recently gave a talk on this and created this paper that discusses how to organize your electronic case file  (from the perspective of a litigator, but transactional lawyers can easily modify the tips to suit their approach).  Hope it helps.

---Ernest

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c683553ef00d834622edf69e2

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Managing an electronic case file:

» Managing an electronic case file from Home Office Lawyer
Ernest Svenson has a great post today at PDF for Lawyers about his paperless approach to his case files. He also includes a link to a PDF of a talk he did from the perspective of a litigator. Ernie's approach [Read More]

» Electronic from Electronic
Has an online catalog and shopping cart. Located in Cincinnati, OhioFeatures elements of citation, docume... [Read More]

Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Ernie, great post and a great handout. Thankyou!

Have you automated the process of setting up and labeling all those subfolders? If so, how do you do it?

Yes, I created a blank folder with all of those folders and subfolders. When I open a new file I just create a folder with the new file name and then go to the blank folder and copy all the 1st level folders (which, of course, will copy the sub-folders) and then I paste that into the new case folder.

I find the post very interesting and would like to implement it. However, I'm having some trouble accessing the PDF.

I am a completely electronically challenged. Would you be kind enough to compile a list of the hard and softare needed to go completely paperless.

Thank you,
Stewart

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been saved. Comments are moderated and will not appear until approved by the author. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Post a comment

Comments are moderated, and will not appear until the author has approved them.

Your email address:


Powered by FeedBlitz