Develop a paperless workflow - Part 3

Anticipating this post, a reader asked after reading Part 1, "how do you organize documents once they are scanned? By folders? Using document management software?"  Excellent question.  The question of how to organize digital documents deserves a lot of thought.  Many people intuitively opt for document management software, only to learn later on that the better solution was the 'counter-intuitive' one.

What's wrong with document management systems?
Nothing, per se.  A better question to ask is 'what's right about them?'  But the best question to ask is 'what are the trade-offs with using a DMS as opposed to the native file system built into my computer operating system?'  A DMS is a piece of software that creates an interface (which can in some situations become a barrier) between you and the native files. 

Let's say you scan your documents into PDF format and store them in a folder named for the case they are related to.  Only two things have to be working properly for you to access that file: (1) your computer and its operating system, and (2) the Adobe program (either Reader or Acrobat).  If you have a DMS then that program also has to be working properly.  If it's not, then you can't access your documents.

So is the trade-off of paying for additional software, which requires upgrades and periodic maintenance, worth the marginal benefit of having a 'plug-and-play' organization system?  I think that for solo lawyers and small firms the answer is no.  At some point, of course, a firm has so many attorneys and staff that the trade-off becomes worthwhile.  Personally, I'd resist the temptation to use a firm-wide DMS system and pay for outsourced hosting only in the large cases that require it.  I think there is simply no need to use anything other than the basic file organization system that is inherent in any computer operating system.

Folders?  And how many?
I have tended to use electronic folders that more or less mirror what I would use in a paper-based world.  I have a 'pleadings folder' and a 'discovery folder' and a 'documents folder' and a 'correspondence folder and so on.  I found that this was cumbersome in many cases, but I kept doing it. 

Then one day I was having lunch with a good lawyer friend who is completely paperless, and he told me that he doesn't use folders hardly at all.  He dumps everything into one or two or three sub-folders.  I have experimented with this system and I find that it works great when cases are starting out. After that, it depends on the size of the case and the needs of the case.  But, the good thing is that it's fairly easy to create more folders as you need them and shift your documents around if you have to.

Flexibility is important when dealing with electronic documents.  And that's another reason that I don't like committing to a DMS.  Once those documents are organized into a DMS there is no easy way to reorganize them. 

File-naming convention is important
If you're going to use the native operating system to organize your electronic files, then the naming convention you adopt will make a big difference.  Let's use correspondence as the first example.  With correspondence you want to organize it chronologically, right?  So all you have to do is name the files starting with a 4 digit year, then 2 digit month and then 2 digit date, followed by a brief description.

Example: 2007_01_09 Svenson ltr to Abercrombie

I could substitute a dash for the underscore, but whichever approach I use it should be uniform in all cases.  In other words, how you store the files isn't as important as what you name them.  And once you settle on a convention you'll be stuck with it.  It bears repeating, the key is to make it so you can look in a folder and find all your correspondence neatly sorted by date.

My approach is to make the brief description of correspondence have sender first, then type of correspondence (e.g. ltr, email, fax), and then recipient.  I don't think it matters much if you spell out the complete last name of the sender/recipient.  What matters is that there is enough information for someone to find what they're looking for in most cases.  If you adopt a practice of OCR'ing your electronic documents you'll be able to find them based on what's in them in addition to what they're named.

For pleadings I use the convention of naming by order of filing and then a description.

Example: Doc 001 Complaint, Doc 002 Summons, Doc 003 Return on Summons, Doc 004 Req for Time to respond, etc.

In federal courts, the docket clerks designate a document with a document number so my practice is to match my number to theirs.  And the nice thing about doing this is that, if I look in the folder and see that a document number is missing, then I know that I'm missing a pleading I should have.  I know that not all states stamp pleadings with a document number, but I figure that if the federal courts do it then that will be the predominant practice (and most states will eventually adopt it).

As for naming other types of documents, you can be flexible. I would put discovery documents in a separate folder from the general file correspondence.  As I said, you can adapt to your own purpose and that's the nice thing about using the basic file system of your computer instead of a DMS.

Comments

[mike_drechsel]

I've been reading our blog for some time now. I thought I'd comment on this particular post because it hits very close to home for me. Starting January 01 of 2008 my cases have all been scanned into paperless files. It is working quite well in the first 10 days. I've been constantly rethinking and experimenting with various filing systems for these scanned documents.

What I've settled on so far is the following:

Adobe Acrobat 8 allows for the creation of PDF Packages. So everything is scanned to PDF and then included into that case's PDF Package. All PDF's added to the package retain their individual PDF pagination, comments, bookmarks, etc. But the entire case file is wrapped up in the single PDF package. That makes taking cases to court on my computer ultra-simple because all I have to do is grab the PDF package for each case for that day. While I could use multiple folders for this, it's nice to have everything bundled up together. You can even include an editable PDF "Cover Sheet" for case notes, which can be updated with new case notes as time progresses.

The PDF Packaged are not a special file type. They remain .pdf files. That means I can send the entire file to someone else (if the need arises) and they can have full access to everything in the file even if they don't have Acrobat installed on their computer (they would need to download the free Adobe Reader 8). And because the individual PDF's in the package retain their individual security settings, certain documents could be locked, or non-printable, etc. The configurations seem to be endless.

Finally, the PDF Packages can accommodate other files types as part of the package. So, if I have JPG photos or MP3 audio files associated with a particular case, I can included them in the package. These media files aren't merely "linked" to the file. They actual MP3s or JPGs are embedded into the PDF, so that if I send the file to another computer, that copy of the file will have all of the underlying media. No message that the file can't be found on this computer.

Like I say, I've only been at this for 10 days. But in that time, I've become more and more impressed with the PDF Package concept. Have you experimented with these PDF Packages at all? Any thoughts since you've been at this longer than I have?

[Richard Keyt]

My small law firm went 100% paperless in March of 2004. We now have about 50,000 documents in our document management system. If a client calls and I need to review a document, I can find it in a matter of seconds and have it open on my computer monitor. We have personnel in three different locations, but everybody can access any document saved in our system.

I explain how I did it in my article called "A Simple Inexpensive Way to Create a Paperless Law Office," which is found here on my website:

www.keytlaw.com/tech/paperless.htm

For us, the key components of our paperless office are: Adobe Acrobat 8 standard and Xerox Documate 152 or 162 scanners for all computer users and Time Matters as our document management system.

I bought my first document management system in 1993 - PC Docs for $350 a user with full text indexing. Fabulous DOS DMS. I think a good DMS is mandatory for every law firm and sole practice lawyer. If my DMS dies (which I cannot imagine), I can access any file saved in my DMS multiple ways such as Word, Acrobat and MS Explorer.

Richard Keyt
www.keytlaw.com - 1,100,000+ visitors 2007

[Steve]

How do you archive e-mail without a full-blown DMS program? Print it all to PDF? What about the attachments?

[Ernie]

Steve: If you use Microsoft Outlook you can use Acrobat's 'archive to PDF' feature. You can archive all of your email, or just a folder. So for people who tend to keep all their emails that relate to one case in a folder this works great. As for attachments, it embeds those into the resulting PDF file. It doesn't convert the attachments to PDF so you'd still need the native program to open the attachment. Hope that answers your question.

Ernie

[Teddy]

Going paperless is such a huge benefit. Not only does it help the planet (for those who care), but man is it efficient. Such a huge time saver once you get everything transferred over.