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A Simple Inexpensive Way to Create a Paperless Law Office

by Richard Keyt, Arizona business attorney & law office technology guru

The year 2005 was my busiest year since I started practicing law in Arizona in 1980.  I added over 350 new paying clients in 2005.  I also created 342 new Arizona limited liability companies in 2005.  My solo law practice produces a lot of paper.  Because of the large amount of paper I produce in my practice, I was forced to use technology to create a true paperless office.

I practice law alone with no support staff other than my wife who is also my paralegal, secretary, bookkeeper and file clerk. We went 100% paperless (except signed EP docs) in March of 2004. We do not keep hard copies of any documents except Wills and Trusts and related estate planning documents when the client insists.

I have a very high volume, document intensive practice. When I wrote this article on October 29, 2005, my wife and I had saved 970 documents (46 documents a day excluding weekend days) so far this month. Most documents we save are documents we create, but we also scan and save a lot of incoming correspondence and other documents. I can easily determine how many documents we save a month by looking at the document number (in my document management system) of the first document we created on October 1, 2005, and comparing that number to the number of the latest document we created today.

For a solo or small firm, it is very easy and relatively inexpensive to create a paperless law office. Both my wife and I are extremely happy we made the switch. I can find any letter, document, notes of a meeting, Excel spreadsheet, .pdf document, Power Point Presentation or piece of paper that relates to a client, matter or contact in a few seconds and have it displayed on my computer monitor. It's a wonderful thing. My wife/file clerk loves our paperless system because she says it is much easier and less time consuming than filing hard copies in a file in a file cabinet. She probably scans and profiles 80% of the documents. I do the balance.

Hardware & Software Needed to Go Paperless

Here's how we went paperless:

1. I bought two Xerox Documate 262 scanners (one for each of us) for about $900 each. It's about the size of a shoe box and sits next to our flat panel computer monitors. It has a very small footprint.

2. Each of us has Adobe Acrobat. I have the Pro version (approximately $400) and my wife has the standard version (approximately $250). If I did not have the full version of Adobe Acrobat, my productivity and ability to deliver documents to my clients would suffer greatly.

3. We networked our two computers using a peer to peer network. It didn't cost me anything except the cost of a cable to network my two computers with Windows XP Pro. All data files are saved on my computer. I make regular backups onto DVDs and hard drives and store the back up media in a safe deposit box at my bank.

4. We use Time Matters for many things, including document management. It is $350 for the first Pro user and $200 for each additional user. I've used Time Matters since 1998. It is an incredible program without which our productivity would be drastically reduced along with a corresponding reduction in income. I bought my first document management program (PC Docs - later Docs Open) in 1992 for $350 a user. I believe that EVERY (w/o exception) practicing lawyer who has a lot of documents should use a document management system. Having a document management system is one reason I can find any document I seek in a few seconds.

Scanner shopping advice: The scanners you see in computer stores like Best Buy, CompUSA and Circuit City are slow home use type scanners. When you shop for an office scanner, you want speed (at least 20 pages per minute) and a sheet feeder that takes at least 25 pages. If the scanner on sale doesn't prominently display its pages per minute scanning speed, it means the scanner is much too slow (a few pages per minute) to use for anything other than infrequent home scanning. I bought three HP 3380 4 in 1 printer, scanner, fax and copiers for $700. They print, fax and copy great, but the fastest I could ever get the HP 3380 to scan was 2 pages per minute in black and white at 300 dpi. Very fast high volume scanners are several thousand dollars and up, but most small offices don't need that kind of speed (50+ pages per minute). Manufacturers of medium and high speed scanners display the scanner speed because that is one of the main features buyer's seek.

That's all the hardware and software involved in our paperless office.

Paperless Office Procedures

Here's how we actually do the paperless thing:

1. When we receive a hard copy of a document or if we create a document such as a letter or contract, we either scan it with the Xerox 262 (if it's in hard copy format) or "print" to Adobe .pdf (if it's in Word format) to create a pdf version of the document in a few seconds. Having a personal scanner at our desks is critical for a successful paperless system. You want the user/office personnel to be able to scan the document contemporaneously with creating or handling it. The user is best able to determine the appropriate information for the document to input in the document profile. You must indoctrinate your staff to do contemporaneous scanning and saving to get maximum efficiency, staff productivity and attorney ability to access scanned documents in the system.

2. To scan a hard copy of a document, we insert the document (up to 50 pages for the sheet feeder, but I usually limit it to around 25 pages to reduce the chance of a paper jam) into the sheet feeder of the Xerox 262. If the document is letter size, we press the simplex or the duplex button on the scanner and the scanner then scans the document at about 25 pages per minute. If the document is legal size, I press another button to change to scan format #2, which is legal size paper. I then press simplex or duplex button to start the scan. We scan at a resolution of 300 dpi (preconfigured in the Xerox 262), which produces a good quality printed version of the document. The Xerox 262 scanner is rated at 33 pages a minute legal size paper in black and white at 200 dpi.

3. In a few seconds or maybe a minute if the document is 25 pages, the document automatically appears on the screen in Adobe .pdf format, even if Adobe was not previously loaded.

4. We click on the TM save icon in Adobe Acrobat, which causes the TM document profile screen to appear on the screen. To add a document to the TM document management system, the document must be saved using TM's document profile.

5. In 10 - 15 seconds we enter the following information into the TM profile: document code (PN for promissory note, OA for Operating Agreement, etc.), the name of the document and the client, matter or contact. By pressing F2 in the appropriate field or by typing the client, matter or contact info, TM will find the desired client, matter or contact. TM automatically inserts the initials of the person creating the document, the date and time of creation, the next document number, and most importantly, the document file name and file location on the network. We've configured TM to use its automatic naming feature and to automatically create a file name equal to the document name and save it in a folder under the client, matter or contact name. TM's file naming and file saving location configuration feature is very robust and gives the user many options and a lot of flexibility. If needed, TM will automatically create the folder where it saves the file.

Step 5 is the last of the steps needed to free your office from paper. I just did two test scans, one with a 35 page document and the other with a five page document. One minute and 45 seconds from pushing the scan button, I had scanned the 35 page document, converted it to Adobe .pdf format, created a document profile in TM and saved the profile and pdf file. The same process from start to finish for the five page document was 40 seconds.

Ask yourself how long would it take your secretary or file clerk to file a hard copy of a document. The filer must find and obtain the hard file, punch holes in the document, physically tack down and file the document in the file, then return the file to the appropriate location. Not only does hard copy filing take a lot longer than paperless filing, but it might take days or weeks before the document actually is filed in the client or matter file.

The old fashioned method of filing hard copies is inefficient, costly in terms of staff time to file, a waste of expensive office space for row after row of file cabinets, a waste of time for lawyers and staff to find and deliver files to personnel, and expensive to store long term.

As for setting up the hardware and software and training staff to scan and save into TM, any good TM consultant should be able to configure a scanner and TM's document management system and teach users how to do operate the paperless system in a very short period of time. I taught my wife how to scan and save in TM in a 20 or 30 minute session. It really is just as easy as I made steps 1 - 5 above seem.

Practical Note: If you convert to a paperless or semi paperless office, don't waste the time, money or energy to scan and index existing documents and files except those that are actually being serviced at the time and inactive files that you think you will need in digital format in the near future. Start fresh and scan going forward. Most of your old files will rarely if ever be accessed so it does not make sense to convert the inactive files to digital files unless it is for the purpose of eliminating file and storage space.

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This page was last modified on November 17, 2007.

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