Article 7:

Paperless Pitfalls - What You Need to Know

• Lawyers typically lose 15 minutes or more per day looking for things they can't find. That's over 50 hours of lost billable time each year! [Office efficiency consultant.]

• In a papeR-based office, 10% of cases have at least one piece of information that can't be found when needed. [Legal conference survey.]

• The average firm prints from 25,000 to 100,000 pages per staff person annually. { ABA - EPA]

Benefits to Going Paperless

1) Improve efficiency

• Find electronic documents faster with electronic search, retrieval and viewing
• Send electronic documents instantly from your desktop by email or fax
• Simultaneously share documents
• Shift your labor resources towards revenue generating activities

Cut Costs

• Reduce space and equipment required to store documents
• Reduce time costs of filing and retrieving paper documents
• Reduce hard costs in paper, toner, file folders, etc.
• Reduce mailing costs of sending documents that can be emailed

Improve Client Service

• Respond faster to client inquiries
• Eliminate missing, checked-out, and lost documents
• Give clients electronic copies of their documents

Reduce Risk

• Reduce lost or misplaced documents
• Reduce error-prone manual processes
• mprove document security and control

Going Green

• Save paper, toner, folders and storage cabinets and help the environment
• Save energy used for printer and copiers and help the environment
• Reduce pollution caused by sending documents by mail

"Paperless Office" Check List

• Use practice management software for calendaring and case management: Eliminate paper case files, paper calendars, paper to-do lists and paper reminders by managing all your important data in one integrated, single entry program.
• Scan and save your paper documents: Scan all your incoming and outgoing paper documents and link them as PDF attachments to your case management software. Scanning your documents means no more searching for paper files or documents hidden on the network or on someone else's computer.
• Link your emails: Save emails and attachments directly to your case management software. Linked emails means no more searching for paper printouts
• Link your electronic documents: Link electronic documents to your case management software. Linked documents means no more searching through paper files for the documents you need.
• Create PDF court forms: Generate PDF court forms directly from your case management software. Linked PDF court forms means no more searching for paper printouts of your court forms.
• Enter your billable time electronically: Automatically capture your billable time as you work. Tracking and entering billable hours electronically means no more paper time sheets.
• Save your bills in PDF format: Save all your invoices in PDF format to your case management software. Linking invoices means no more searching for paper printouts of your bills.
• Use instant messaging: Instantaneously send and receive text messages with people in the office and take messages for those that are out of the office. Sending instant messages means no more writing notes or reminders on paper. Link the messages to your case records, for total record keeping.
• Use call manager With a call manager feature you keep notes on your phone calls while reviewing other data, and when you're done, just click to bill. Call manager software means no writing and recording paper phone notes or forgetting to bill for your time.

"Paperless Office" Pitfalls

• Not committing fully to going paperless: The only thing less efficient than a "paper" office is an office that is caught in the middle: half "paperless" and half "paper". This forces people to search in both paper files and on the network for the documents they need. Once you decide to go paperless, make sure everyone is committed to a full adoption of the new paradigm and have an implementation plan in place with your desired completion date.
• Not investing in a complete solution: if you are serious about the financial benefits of going paperless, then don't buy less than what you need. A half-baked solution will get you half-baked results and lots of second guessing.
• Not creating and following procedures: When working with scanned files, emails, documents and forms, adhering to office wide procedures is critical. A single employee not linking saved documents to the name and matter can sabotage your paperless system. Your safeguard is that with search software, you can still find any document on your network and correct the error.
• Falling back on bad habits: Change is hard and it's easy to give up on a new project before the fruits of your labor are realized. Make sure new activities and procedures are monitored and reinforced.
• Not getting buy-in from everyone involved: It will only take a couple hold-outs to derail your plans. Sell everyone on the benefits and build consensus before you start making changes.

Here are two firms' experiences going paperless with AbacusLaw

Ballantyne, Beswick &Company

"Before using Abacus we had paper files stored in cabinets that were hard to locate and often got lost. The firm spent an enormous amount of time searching for information and documents. The constant search for information was a huge waste of time. Moreover, documents were manually photocopied, a waste of time and paper.

Finding dates using our old manual diary was difficult and time consuming. It was also a huge chore searching through paper calendars to get an overview of the month or a synopsis of case deadlines.

After putting Abacus to work in our office, all documents are now scanned and linked into Abacus no later than the following morning. Now anyone can access any document from any workstation. With Abacus' linked documents, anyone can find documents quickly regardless of their location on the network. Even better, referring to documents immediately over phone is very professional. Clients often remark that this immediate service is like magic.

Our ability to prepare court documents is a lot faster than other firms in area. Often only a quarter of the lead time is required compared to opposing firms. Overall, office efficiency has increased roughly 50% to 75% thanks to superior organization and a reduction in labor-intensive activities. " - Paul Beswick

Dalnekoff &Mason, P.A.

"Our firm, which has grown from two attorneys in 1986 to eight attorneys and four legal assistants now, has used AbacusLaw since the initial version was released. Throughout our expansion, AbacusLaw has grown along with us.

An example of an "unexpected" hard dollar cost saving was realized in May, 1997 when we were able to eliminate all paper case file notes. Previously, attorneys or legal assistants made notes in Timeslips which were printed each month and filed in the case folder. This was in addition to the notes taken on legal pads or whatever other convenient paper was available.

Now, the file note data from AbacusLaw is transferred to billing and the need to print file notes and place them in client files has been totally eliminated. Placed in perspective, this eliminated the need to print and file in excess of 1000 pages of notes each month. The supply costs for the paper and laser printing supplies, as well as the clerical time needed to physically file that much paper, has been eliminated with the resulting cost savings and reduction.

All notes are available instantly. There is no more waiting for printing and filing to be completed before being able to view a complete record of the case. This in itself has saved many hours of wondering if the file is complete and many late nights prior to trial searching for notes which should have been filed or which may have found their way into some other file." - Barry J. Dalnekoff