Law Office Technology Overview

1. Law Office Technology Overview By Joe Kashi

2. Effective automation is a cornerstone of any successful law practice but requires good planning and user group input. • Don’t just throw a lot of bleeding edge technology, expensive hardware and staff time at what is really a law practice management and planning issue.

3. Purchase only the hardware and software that you will be able to install and begin using within the next two months or so. Purchasing binges are inefficient. Buy mainstream technology and avoid dead-end and “bleeding edge” technology

4. Store all imaged documents and electronic file on a network file server • Be sure that you have the hardware to completely back up your network file server every evening, and be sure that you actually do it. • Decide what document imaging file format you’ll use. Avoid highly proprietary formats.

5. Adobe Acrobat’s PDF format includes an archival version, the de facto standard. • Buy fast but still cost-effective computers, particularly for image preparation. Intel Core 2 Duo, AMD Phenom, Athlon 64 x2 • Hard disk performance is crucial - Hitachi SATA and Western Digital Raptor drives fastest. Use Diskeeper to defragment.

6. You’ll need fast color laser printers if you plan to use a digital filing system. I now prefer Konica Minolta 5440, 5570. • Ideally, you’ll be using many more color photos for all purposes, including attachments to complaints and pleadings • Combining a scanner, Adobe Acrobat, and laser printer also works well as a copier in your office.

7. Digital Dictation – Dragon Legal • Office Suites – Microsoft Office is basically the only game in town • Litigation Support: CaseMap, TimeMap, NoteMap, TextMap • Case Management: Pro Law, Time Matters, Amicus

8. By working with the full purchased version of Acrobat 8 Professional (about $300 to $450 per copy street price), you’ll be able to index and bookmark your PDF litigation files • The full version of Acrobat includes PDF writing softwarewhich acts as a selectable general printer available to all application programs.

9. The most efficient scanners for handling document imaging are USB 2.0 high speed sheet-fed scanners • Preferred workgroup scanners: Canon DR-2580, Xerox 252/262/272 • Fujitsu ScanSnap on each desk. Good software, low cost, includes Acrobat Standard, which is inexpensive to upgrade

10. Newly introduced scanners are much better and more efficient than scanners introduced two or three years ago. • Faster high-production SCSI scanners by Canon, Fujitsu and others scan up to forty to fifty sheets per minute but cost several thousand dollars and are not a good value for the small or medium law office.

11. Many digital photocopiers can be upgraded to include direct-to-network scanning, but at a high incremental cost and are not a good value. • A good multi-function device such as HP’s Laserjet 3380mfp combines basic scanning, faxing, laser printing and copying capabilities but is quite unsuitable for regular scanning use.

12. A compact portable scanner is handy for occasional use but tends to badly skew documents. Carrying a light regular scanner such as the Fujitsu ScanSnap S500 is much more effective. • You’ll need also need a high quality flat-bed scanner. I like the Epson 4490