 |
Computer Corner:
Baby Stepping Your Way Toward the Paperless Office:
By Marjory Harris, Esq.
In this series, we explore organizational
techniques, software and hardware that will help you clear the mess from
your desk, be more productive, and cut office overhead.
This article presents a primer for setting up a paperless office.
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
If you are just out of law school,
you grew up in the digital world and are not terrified by the words "paperless
office." But if you have been in practice for some time and
have lived in the world of files, books, and taking notes longhand
on legal pads, "paperless office" may be scary indeed.
You may also be scared about rising costs, lower fees, longer hours.
In this article, we look at lowering overhead by taking some baby
steps towards the "paperless office."
|
|
|
| What is scarier? Rising costs,
longer hours, lower fees, or having a paperless office? |
|
| |
|
|
|
Start with
a motivating mantra
Sometimes it's the first step that's the hardest. I got through
law school by endlessly repeating the Chinese proverb, "A journey
of a thousand miles begins with a single step." I imagined myself
taking step after step as I climbed the mountain of books I had to
read and digest. I still find any big project is easier if I break
it into little pieces, and just take that first step. Often, success
with each small step spurs me on to do the entire thing.
|
|
|
| The step-by-step philosophy is
a powerful motivator |
|
|
|
|
|
Shock yourself into it
Take an inventory of how much space in the paper-full
office you presently have that you devote to managing papers. Include the file
cabinets, equipment used to transmit data (printers, copiers, fax machines, scanners),
the cost of supplies (paper, toner, electricity), the cost for rent, insurance,
storage space, and the time spent by staff dealing with the paper. Include the
hours you spend in the paper-full office managing documents.
Don’t forget
the phone bills. In the digital age, reducing the phone bills coincides with
reducing paper use and its attendant costs.
|
|
|
Prepare by calculating the cost
of the paper-full office
|
|
| |
One of the reasons often cited for
going paperless is concerns about the environment, or the "green" argument.
This may not impress you so much as the "green" argument
about saving money.
|
|
|
Saving money is a powerful incentive
|
|
|
|
|
|
Prevent Disaster
One of the reasons to keep digital files rather than papers is to
protect your data. Remember Katrina? It was reported that a third
of the lawyers in Louisiana lost their files. Not afraid of flooding?
Fires have wiped out entire law offices. You could be prevented from
getting to your files by other catastrophes, such as earthquakes,
crime scene investigation, pollution (look at Japan post 2011 earthquake/tsunami).
If you store your files online, they are protected by encryption
and passwords, and are readily available from many locations. Even
if you are traveling to a remote spot where there is no Internet
connection, you could take the records with you on your laptop or
smart phone.
I recommend Carbonite
for backups. You can easily access your files
from other locations using another computer or a free app on your
smart phone. The service works seamlessly and is inexpensive. Try
it for free.
|
|
|
Digital record keeping is insurance
against loss
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Get some
necessary equipment
I assume you have a computer, the most important fixture in the paperless
office. It should be fast and have large hard drives. It is beyond
the scope of this article to give advice on what type, make, or model
of computer to buy.
A fast scanner that can go through large stacks
of paper without jamming is a wise investment. I have been buying
scanners for over 20 years. Originally, I got a scanner to avoid
having to do repetitive typing and to eliminate the need for a secretary.
Back then, hard drives were very small and the paperless office was
not really attainable.
The problems with the original scanners were
bad software and jamming. Scanning could be slow and annoying. The
same can happen now with cheap, multifunction machines. If scanning
documents is tedious and time-consuming, your steps toward a paperless
office may falter.
I prefer Fujitsu, because the scanners take up very little room on
the desktop and are easy to use. The latest ones have special technology
so that jamming is almost never a problem, and large numbers of pages
can be scanned quickly.
Fujitsu scanners also come with valuable
software, which helps make the process of scanning fairly painless.
You can also scan directly into a file management program such as
FileCenter
by Lucion.
Currently I have a ScanSnap and a Fujitsu fi-6130 Sheet-Fed Scanner
on shelves to the right of my keyboard and connected to a laptop
to the left of the keyboard. I find scanning to the laptop leaves
my main computer free to do other tasks at the same time. I scan
into FileCenter, loaded on the laptop but showing the folders on
the desktop computer. I connect my various computers on a software
network and use Desktop Rover, so that one keyboard and mouse controls 3 computers (the third is
for Dragon Naturally Speaking and travel).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Organize your folders and backup
automatically
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Let
others do your scanning
There are services that can do your scanning (see. E.g., Scanfiles,
either to bring you up to date so that you can continue on your own,
or on a regular basis. Another approach is to have as many items
as possible come to your office already in digital format.
Digital fax: Fax is analog,
a dated technology. Machines are bulky, use up a prodigious amount
of toner and paper, require an expensive phone line, and staff time
or your time to input numbers, supplies, check for faxes received,
and weed out junk faxes. Later, the papers have to be filed, and
perhaps copied and forwarded, then shredded.
Digital fax obviates
this expenditure of time, money and office space. One of the most
popular services is myfax.com, a low cost way to receive your faxes no matter
where you are, either by email or visiting the website, and to send
faxes via email or the website. The faxes come as pdf files and can
be quickly stored, forwarded, inserted in to-do lists, all without
paper, toner, an extra phone line, or staff time.
Receive
letters, forms, reports, records and phone messages by email or online as pdf
files
I encourage defendants to serve electronically by sending an email labeled “Request
for Service by Fax or Email” and including copies of 8 CCR 10218, 8 CCR
10505, and 8 CCR 10507. The body of the email contains the following: “Please
send all documents via fax or email and not by US Mail. I waive service by mail." See
8 CCR § 10218 (attached). Note that this does not affect your rights
to 5 extra days for mailing, when applicable. See 8 CCR § 10507 (attached).
§10505 (attached).”
This does not work with all defendants but still saves me a good deal of scanning.
Medical-legal evaluators have taken to faxing or emailing their reports, even
without asking.
The EAMS system allows us to elect service by email. I get Notices
of Application and hearing notices as soon as they are generated. If you are
worried you may miss the message, just create a rule and/or alert. I can quickly
send these notices to others by forwarding the email, which results in the attachment
converting to the body of the message, where it is clearly visible and does not
does not require opening attachments.
Subpoenaed records: I estimate at least half of my file cabinets
were devoted to storing subpoenaed records. Now I order copies as CDs. When I
order the records, I download them directly from the copy service’s website.
If I need to send them to a client or a vocational expert, or to a doctor who
is not electronically challenged, I upload to a HIPAA-compliant service, YouSendIt,
and send an email advising that an email will be sent out from the service. I
enclose the client password, marked in yellow, which I store on the client’s
address form in my case management database.
My email contains the following:
Electronic Service of Documents: Your
case documents will be sent to you electronically by secure service. Please
download and save the documents to your hard drive. You are responsible for keeping
copies.
You will receive an email from YouSendIt [delivery@yousendit.com] (Please
add this to your safe sender list) with a link to the file or files. I will
separately send you your password (see below). YouSendIt is a HIPAA-compliant
secure method of sending files to you that you can then download and save.
For more information, see http://www.yousendit.com/solutions/secure-file-transfer
For how to use the features:
http://www.yousendit.com/support
Scanning and uploading
of documents:
Please do not scan documents to tiff or jpeg format. You can upload
them to my secure dropbox at https://dropbox.yousendit.com/MarjoryHarrisDropbox.
Please upload in the standard format of .pdf. You can print to
.pdf using a free pdf printer such as Primo (http://www.primopdf.com/index.aspx).
You can also send me documents by email or toll-free fax
(888-317-6581).
Your Password: "X”
Phone Messages in text, via email:
Consider using Ooma,
a substitute for phone lines and monthly phone bills, and save a ton of money.
One of the services available is transcription of phone messages that arrive
by email along with the mp3 file. The small monthly fee saves me a lot of time
and provides a permanent record of messages, which I save to the appropriate
case folder. I read a lot faster than I can listen to the voice. The transcription
is amazingly accurate, even for foreign accents. The label also contains the
phone number, so if it is garbled in the message, I still have an accurate
number to call.
Ooma also provides a log of all calls made or received, which is
handy for those times people insist they called, left a message,
and never got called back.
|
|
|
Take advantage of free scanning
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Stop Lugging
Files to the Board or Depos
You do not need to haul a heavy litigation bag or rolling case crammed
with files to the Board, then scrounge through the documents, balancing
files on your lap or the small amount of table space you may have.
All you need is one small file, as I described in MSC
Mess? Tame
it with a low-tech paper organizer and a netbook or other small computer
or smart phone, and a program that lets you see your files such as
Carbonite, Dropbox or Logmein.
A small portable printer is a good idea too, so you can immediately
draft or revise documents needed while at the Board (C&R, stips,
order, 5-pager, informed consent). I
like the Canon
PIXMA iP100 Mobile Printer.
In the alternative, a call to the office and a doc faxed to you or
uploaded to a dropbox, or a program like Logmein
pro can
accomplish this task.
|
|
|
Go almost paperless to appearances
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Get Files
to Clients Quickly and Inexpensively
We are required to keep and store files for many years. We cannot
get rid of them without concern for client confidentiality, so we
need to shred or burn the documents in a protected setting. Even
if we quickly deliver a file to a client when the case settles, it
is not unusual to hear from the client years later, requesting copies.
Storing, copying, shipping, and file destruction not only costs a
bundle, it wastes time.
You can easily move files onto a CD and mail it inexpensively
to the client, or upload to the secure dropbox you have set up.
|
|
|
Copy client files to a CD and
give to client at end of case
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Walking
and Talking
Now you are almost there, but not quite. Are you still generating
paper by taking notes on yellow pads, Post-its, scratchpads, or scraps
of paper? Get in the habit of dictating into voice recognition software,
either directly into your computer or your smart phone. Your notes
will then be available when and where you need them. Visit
http://www.dragonmobileapps.com/applications.html and
http://www.nuance.com/dragon/index.htm.
Coming in Computer Corner: Using Your Smart Phone in the Paperless
Office
|
|
|
Talk into text without paper
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
