Most attorneys are going as paperless as possible. It’s indeed becoming an industry standard. Setting up a paperless office is simple, it requires a scanner, software, and a process. Keeping your office paperless will save you loads of time and money.
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
Scanning the Horizon: Paperless Conversion Saves Law Firms
How to Start and Run a Paperless Office (ABA GP SOLO)
Paperless Lawyering: What it Really Is, and the Nuts and Bolts of How it Works (Webinar)
SCANNERS (non-exclusive listing)
Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 (most popular among attorneys)
SOFTWARE (non-exclusive listing)
PDF Programs
Adobe Acrobat (industry standard) – provides many powerful tools, and with training you can use it to redact information, remove metadata, create forms, and bates stamp discovery for electronic production.
Nuance – has various levels of software which can create PDF documents, OCR (optical character recognition – edit and search PDFs), and document management.
FoxIt – includes editing functions, OCR, collaboration and sharing features, and electronic signing.
PDFPen – for Mac users, with OCR, security, editing, and form creation features.
PDFCreator and CutePDF are low cost or free alternatives. They obviously have some significant limitations.
Document Management Systems (a step beyond an organic file management system, for small-mid size firms)
PROCEDURES
FURTHER READING FROM OUR LENDING LIBRARY
Paperless in One Hour for Lawyers (Donna S. Neff and Sheila M. Blackford (American Bar Association)