The Paperless office

My office is “paperless.” This doesn’t mean that I have no paper in my office, since court filings and some correspondence still needs to be printed and mailed, but it does mean that I minimize my use of paper, especially in client files.

This has been a small, but growing trend in law office management for some time, with dedicated evangelists, such as Louisiana solo Ernest Svenson, who offers excellent tips and suggestions on his informative website.

My conversation came as a result of seeing the disorder and disarray paper and paper-filing systems bring to the small law office. Files are misplaced, pleadings are lost and documents are misfiled routinely – most lawyers are able to put on a good front to the public, so you, the client, may never know how disorganized things are, but the time wasted looking for misplaced and misfiled documents is terrible, both for morale and for efficiency.

Every legal document that comes into my office is scanned, indexed, and archived. When you call with a question, I don’t have to fumble around looking for your file, looking for the last document, and hoping that everything’s made it into the file. A few clicks and I can see your whole file. It also allows me the freedom to avoid being tethered to an office. Whether I’m in my office or away, I have your file with me. There’s no worry that something’s been forgotten or routed incorrectly.

When it comes down to it, the paperless office makes my life easier, which allows me to serve you and your case better, faster, and cheaper. And that’s a good thing.