The New Year is the perfect time to reassess how you’ve been doing and make adjustments. Have you thought about cleaning house and moving to paperless? Running a paperless office has never been easier. With the advances in legal technology, the days of large scale cabinets filled with files in disarray are gone. Now, with legal practice management software like CARET Legal, you can digitalize your entire office’s case files and communications. Going paperless will save you time, money, and add appeal for potential clients.
How to run a paperless office
If you have considered going paperless, make sure you are fully informed about how to do so the right way. A paperless office has the ability to be much more efficient and organized, but only if the right tools are employed. Before transitioning to paperless, consider the following:
- What digital filing system are you going to use to replace your current paper filing system?
- What kind of system are you going to employ for scanning documents?
- Are all correspondence and other documents received going to be scanned?
- Are you going to digitalize evidence for case files?
- Where are you going to keep things like hard copies with an original signature?
Once you have clearly laid out, standard office protocol for dealing with these questions, making the move to paperless will be much easier. For a digital filing system that will optimize the benefits of going paperless, consider adopting a legal practice management application such as CARET Legal.
With legal practice management software you can organize your digitalized documents by client matter. You can also keep digital correspondence stored within the matter. This means that you will not only have all of your important case related documents, correspondence, and other notes all on your computer, they will be easily accessible in one place.
CARET Legal also ensures that you are not jeopardizing the security of your files by going paperless. In fact, the security measures available to protect digital information far surpass those you can put in place for paper files. With things like bank-level encryption and the most up-to-date digital security precautions in place, you will feel more secure than ever about the protection of your client and law firm information.
Paperless benefits
The move to paperless may feel daunting, but just keep in mind the benefits that you will immediately see. Going paperless allows for organization and efficiency that is not possible in an office drowning in paper. Easily access all client file information in one place. The time and headaches you will save with this feature alone will make going paperless worth it.
Going paperless will also vastly improve interoffice and out of office communication. Instead of drafting an interoffice memo that will be misplaced on the desks of various office staff, use legal practice management software to set task lists, assign tasks to different firm members, attach notes, and set reminders for their completion. Delegate efficiently and without worrying that a staff member’s sticky note reminder will get thrown out, lost, or disappear into the office void.
A paperless office saves time, money, and the environment. People are more serious than ever about environmental issues. Seeing that your law firm is proactive in reducing your carbon footprint brings a lot of public appeal. Being paperless and environmentally conscious makes your firm look forward thinking. It is also a good talking point at marketing events. People like to make partnerships with business that are looking to the future.
Making the move to a paperless office will take your firm to new heights. Make the transition the right way with CARET Legal. Our software allows you unparalleled organization for your digital files and all in an easily navigable, secure, cloud-based platform.
