Every time I hear about how computers running the best legal software will give us the paperless office I have visions of an engineer in the 1940s looking at ENIAC, the world’s first electronic computer, and proudly declaring this 30-ton monstrosity would someday replace the file cabinet.
In the early days, law practice management software probably increased rather than decreased the amount of paper in a law firm. It was easy to print ten copies of that report that nobody would ever read. However as legal software programs became more sophisticated, law firms implemented policies on document control, and courts declare that electronic documents were as admissible as paper ones the paperless office became a real possibility.
Now I’ll admit that saving trees is a noble goal, but let’s be honest. We all have businesses to run and we need to know we are saving more than trees by abandoning paper in favor of law practice management software. As it turns out, computerizing your practice is one of the best business decisions you can make.
The legal system loves its documentation. The outcome of a case may hinge on a single sentence in thousand pages of depositions, or on a single figure in a complicated divorce financial settlements. And once a case is over you can’t just shred the evidence because there might be appeals or other legal action years down the road.
With law practice management software you don’t need to pay for a warehouse to store years of paper files and other documentation. Today you could probably fit all of the documentation an attorney would see over an entire career on an electronic storage device small enough to fit in your pocket.
Electronic documents have another big advantage over paper ones: backups. If you have a thousand pages of testimony, how long will it take to photocopy another copy for storage in case the original is destroyed? Law practice management software can take an electronic copy of that same document, make a copy and send it to a secure storage facility a thousand miles away in a matter of seconds. Even a Katrina-sized disaster can’t destroy both the original and the multiple copies stored all over the country.
Contact us to find out more how law practice management software helps you store and retrieve HUD forms, divorce financial settlements and other legal documents quickly, safely and inexpensively.
And save a few trees along the way.
