Confidentiality Applies to Technology, Too

A recent blog post discussed how confidential information is stored indefinitely on office copy machines, so law firms must be careful when they recycle or give away their equipment. The article states, "Digital copiers contain hard drives. Hard drives store information. In this case, an image of every document copied, scanned or e-mailed."

The article went on to remind readers of the importance of having confidentiality policies since other common law firm technologies contain confidential information (laptops, smartphones, computers etc).

Your firm's confidentiality policy should also include steps to ensure meta data left over from a previous case isn't used in current cases. It's important to pay attention to every detail, and double check every document and form before submitting them.

The Importance of Systematizing Your Firm

A recent article talked about the “Top 5 Mistakes When Systematizing” your business. For attorneys, having a systematized firm means everything is in order, which increases your efficiency and success.

Systems are important to:

• Create order and structure to produce your intended product or service
• Produce consistent, reliable results each and every time
• Build assets that will generate the greatest ROI if you sell your business one day

It’s important to take time to work on your practice, evaluating your systems and procedures to make sure they are functioning at their optimal level.

Implementing practice management software is a great way to ensure that standardized systems are working for day-to-day tasks. With AbacusLaw you can:

• Ensure documents are saved and named properly according to standard, set conventions
• Auto-fill court forms to eliminate the inclusion of meta-data
• Used rules-based calendaring to accurately and easily schedule (and re-schedule) important events and deadlines
• Use document templates to eliminate the inclusion of meta-data
• Standardize contact management (addresses, telephone numbers etc.)
• And much more

AbacusLaw Supports Your Online Tools for Success

AbacusLaw integrates with many of your online activities. For example:

• Grab & Add: Just highlight and copy any name and address from any website (or another program, document, or signature block in an email) and ‘Add from Clipboard’ to have Abacus automatically create a new contact record without you having to type the information.
• Google Search: Highlight any information in Abacus (such as a word, a name, a case) and right click to select ‘Google Search’. Google opens in your browser with the search results.
• Google Maps: If you want to get directions to someone’s office, court etc., simply hit ctrl+m on any name and your browser will open with the address on Google maps.

For a demo of AbacusLaw visit www.abacuslaw.com or call us at 800-726-3339.