Digital file organization - Part 1

The biggest challenge in making the transition to a paperless office (and, yes it's possible to be completely paperless, although at first you may have to wear an oxygen mask) is creating a new filing system.  The nicest thing about a paper-based filing system is that you don't have to think about it much, or spend much time teaching people how to do it.

You won't have to spend much time thinking about how to do a paperless file system, either. But you will have to think a little bit more than you are now.  Most concepts you are just going to copy-and-paste from the paper world.

Let's say you have a litigation practice and so when you open a file you have the following sub-files (or folders): 1) Pleadings, 2) Correspondence 3) Transcripts 4) Documents etc.  All you have to do is create a model folder called "Client File Form" and then put in all the typical sub-folders you generally use.  In fact, put in every sub-folder you might conceivably want to use.

Then when you open a new file you just make a copy of the model folder (which will make a copy of all the sub-folders too) and then rename it.  From now on whenever you get a piece of correspondence, documents or pleadings just put them in the appropriate client folder.

And this principle applies to pretty much everything, including paper that comes into your home.  If you scan your monthly bills you can create a folder called "Monthly Bills."  Then make another one for "Insurance documents" or whatever you have a filing system for now.  I wouldn't get too caught up in making lots of separate folders, but that's up to you.  If you have Adobe Acrobat you can always merge separate files together at the end of the year.  In other words, you can combine all twelve of your monthly statements from your power company and label the new file, say, "Con-Edison 2007."

The key is to process your digital information in a way that's fast and easy, and yet which dovetails into processing that you might want to do later on.

Next time we'll cover file-naming conventions, which is important for many reasons.

Comments

[Rob Bruce]

Hi, Just wanted to make a few commnts. The post is quite good but here are a few things to watch for. First let me say I/we are all for creating PDF's. We recommend it to most clients. What you are explaining can work on a limited basis. Howeve in an instance where large number of docs are being stored this becomes cumbersome and risky. Risky? yes, it is way to easy to lose a file this way, accidently stick it in the wrong folder or different people are adding docs and using different naming methods. Lets say you set this system up and decide to change it later....now theres some work. Running a search for docs this way is extemely time consuming. There are a number of systems out there (many low cost) that relieve the above issues. Trust me, in my business I have came in and cleaned up many of these messes at quite the cost to the client, didn't like to charge what I did but had to be done. In the legal world how much does it cost to lose one critical document? Biting the bullet and purchasing something that has been developed over years is much better than reinventing the wheel. Stick to legal work and let the developers do what they do best. Its a small investment compared to the potential liability.

[Carissa]

So I work in a small law office (1 attorney) and 2 support ppl.

Any recommendations on a good filing system for email? We currently have NetworkSolutions and we're reaching max file capacity daily. We've been told that we'll need to download the email to individual files. OK, fine. But what about attachments? I was thinking about your multiple file names converted to one pdf principle. I think it might work, but it sounds like a lot of effort. Suggestions on keeping track of sent/received emails and their respective attachments?

Thanks!!!