Industries across the board are embracing technology to streamline processes and boost efficiency, and the legal field is no different.
In fact, the American Bar Association has been recommending that law firms go paperless since 2019.
Law firms handle an overwhelming amount of paperwork daily, including contracts, briefs, pleadings, and other legal materials. Managing these documents manually is not only time-consuming but also drains valuable resources.
To address this, many law firms are digitizing their paper files, transforming stacks of paperwork into a streamlined, well-organized, and text-searchable database of digital records.
Going paperless is one of the most effective and cost-efficient ways to modernize your practice. It offers numerous benefits, including improved organization, quicker access to information, and better collaboration among your team.
In this article, we will explore why law firms should consider digitizing their legal documents and the advantages gained by doing so.
What is a Legal Document Scanning Service?
A legal document scanning service is a specialized service that provides document scanning and digitization specifically for legal documents.
These services are designed to cater to law firms, legal departments, and other organizations that deal with sensitive legal documents.
What sets legal document scanning services apart from other scanning services is their understanding of the unique requirements and challenges of legal document management.
Legal documents often contain confidential information, and they may need to be scanned and stored in a specific format to comply with legal and regulatory requirements.
Additionally, legal documents may come in a variety of sizes and formats, including bound volumes, oversized documents, and fragile historical documents, which require specialized equipment and handling in order to be digitized.
But that’s not all. Legal document scanning services offer a range of services beyond simple document scanning, including document preparation, indexing, and quality control. They may also offer additional services such as OCR (optical character recognition) to make the text searchable, redaction to protect sensitive information, and electronic discovery support for litigation.
What benefits can law firms gain by digitizing their paper documents?
By leveraging the benefits of technology, law firms can streamline their operations and focus more on delivering value to their clients. Some benefits of going paperless include:
Better Organization: Digitizing legal documents allows law firms to organize their files electronically, making it faster and easier to find and retrieve information when needed.
With digitized documents, law firms can search for information using keywords, tags, and other criteria, reducing the time and effort required to locate specific documents.
Enhanced Collaboration: Digitizing legal documents allows multiple people to access and work on the same documents simultaneously, making it easier for lawyers and staff members to collaborate.
Lower Costs: Storing physical documents requires space and resources, such as dedicated office space, filing cabinets. and paper piles.
By digitizing these documents, law firms can reduce their paper-based storage and printing costs, and even eliminate the need for physical storage space altogether. This can also help minimize the risk of lost or damaged documents.
Increased Security: Digital files can be protected with various security measures, such as password protection, encryption, and access controls, which can help prevent unauthorized access to sensitive legal information.
Better Client Service: With the ability to search for and instantly retrieve any document, law firms can provide faster and more accurate responses to client inquiries. Plus, digitizing legal documents allows law firms to offer clients access to their own files through secure online portals.
What kinds of documents should law firms digitize?
Law firms deal with a variety of legal documents that can be digitized to improve their operations, including:
Contracts
Law firms often deal with a large number of contracts, including client agreements, vendor contracts, and employment contracts. Digitizing these documents can help law firms track key terms and deadlines, and ensure that all parties have access to the latest version of the contract.
Court Filings
Court filings, including pleadings, motions, and briefs, can be digitized to improve accessibility and collaboration. Digitized court filings can also help law firms manage multiple cases simultaneously and track deadlines more effectively.
Discovery Documents
Law firms often deal with large volumes of discovery documents, including emails, memos, and other correspondence. Digitizing these documents can help law firms review and analyze them more efficiently, reducing the time and resources required for e-discovery.
Corporate Governance Documents
Law firms may be responsible for managing corporate governance documents, including board minutes, shareholder agreements, and other corporate records. Digitizing these documents can ensure that they are stored securely and accessible to authorized parties.
Legal Research Materials
Law firms can also digitize legal research materials, including case law, statutes, and regulations, to facilitate easier access and collaboration among lawyers and other staff members.
Employee Related Records
On top of a never ending influx of legal documents, law firms are also responsible for managing employee related documents like payroll records, recruitment and hiring documents, and benefits documents. These records can also be digitized, greatly increasing the efficiency and organization of your HR department.
How can my law firm become a paperless firm?
For many law firms, the idea of scanning, indexing, and sorting mountains of paper files sounds like a lot of work, and it is!
Law firms have much more important things to worry about, which is why most firms choose to outsource their document scanning to a professional scanning company like SecureScan.
We take care of the entire process from start to finish, bearing the full burden of your scanning project so that your team can focus on more important legal matter.
Our experts will come to your office to retrieve your legal documents, safely transporting them in company owned vehicles directly to our ultra-secure scanning facility, where our HIPAA trained and certified document preparation team will go to work.
To learn more, reach out to our team for more information and to get a quote. You can also experiment with our document scanning price calculator to get an idea of how many documents you need to scan and a preview of the costs.
